Robert Hay KC – Robert Hay KC Blog

November 8, 2025

What are the consequences of renewing a “retail premises lease” where the lease (as renewed) is not a “retail premises lease”?

This post is a revised version of a post published on 7 November 2025. Please ignore the earlier post. If a lease is a “retail premises lease” governed by the Retail Leases Act 2003 (Vic) but upon renewal the lease is not a “retail premises lease”, is the renewed lease affected by the lease having been a

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October 17, 2025

Device to avoid Retail Leases Act not effective

Parties to long term leases sometimes attempt to avoid the application of the Retail Leases Act 2003 by purporting to invoke the Ministerial Determination of 24 August 2004 made under s.5(1) of the Act. The Act applies to a “retail premises lease” (s.11(1)) which is not a defined expression. However, the expression “retail premises” are defined in

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October 3, 2025

When will a deposit be a penalty?

Deposits hold a special place in contracts for the sale of land and do not fall within the general rules about penalties. Where a purchaser defaults the deposit (customarily 10 per cent) can be forfeited even though the amount of the deposit bears no reference to the anticipated loss to the vendor flowing from the

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September 17, 2025

Court’s power to vacate an order for specific performance and substitute alternative relief

What is the extent to which a contract is under the “control of the court” after an order for specific performance is made in favour of a vendor of land, the purchaser fails to comply with that order and the vendor then seeks vacation of the order and leave of the court to obtain damages

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May 20, 2024

Default notice not needed where there is a repudiation of the contract

In Gayed & Anor v Yuan [2024] VSCA 85 the Victorian Court of Appeal confirmed that: The purchasers bought land for $3,190,000 and paid a deposit of 10% of the purchase price, being $319,000. Three weeks before settlement the purchasers’ solicitor advised the vendor that the purchasers would be approximately $160,000 “short” of the balance needed to

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