Property & Conveyancing

Saved the Business Tenant over $300,000

A new client asked us to renew their business premises lease for a further 5 years.

We noted that the Lease required our client to pay Land Tax which was about $30,000 each year. However this is not permitted under a retail lease and in our view our client was operating a retail business from its site and so this was a retail lease. When we asked, the client said that its former lawyers had never raised the issue before. We were able to renew the Lease and convince the Landlord that this was a retail lease meaning our client got a refund of the last 5 years’ land tax of over $150,000 and also didn’t have to pay land tax for the next 5 years as well. Sometimes fresh eyes can see something new that helps our clients.