The
Australian Department of Immigration & Border Protection (DIBP) is making
changes to the visa system as part of the National Innovation and Science
Agenda.
It is
intended that these changes will help Australia attract and retain the best and
brightest entrepreneurial talent and the skilled, talented people Australia
needs to drive ideas from research to commercial reality.
On 10
September 2016, DIBP launched a new Entrepreneur visa’ stream and amended the
‘points test’ for the skilled migration programme.
The
Entrepreneur...
Thursday, 13 October 2016
Victorian retail landlords – remember your notice obligations
Landlords of premises regulated by the Retail Leases Act
2003 (Vic) (RLA) should diarise the
various dates needed for them to comply with their notice obligations under Sections
28 and 64 of the RLA, especially if they wish to avoid unintentionally
extending the term of the lease. In this
regard, even though the relevant lease document may clearly record the last day
of the lease, that date may be extended by Sections 28 and 64, which may have
consequences for a landlord who requires the premises to be vacated by a
particular date.
Section...
Retail leasing Ministerial determination
It is not uncommon for a commercial
landlord to desire to have a lease fall outside the operation of the Retail Leases Act 2003 (Vic) (RLA), thereby enabling the landlord to
claim land tax and lease preparation legal costs as an outgoing from the
tenant.
What constitutes a “retail lease” (being a lease which is regulated by
the RLA) is set out in Section 4 of the RLA.
One of the exceptions to a lease being a “retail lease” is where the
tenant is a body corporate or a subsidiary of body corporate whose securities
are...
Why do we need terms and conditions of trade?
Many
of our clients who are suppliers of goods and services operate under formal
written terms and conditions of trade.
Prudent
clients usually have their terms and conditions periodically reviewed to ensure
they provide the best available protection.
For
example, in recent years many suppliers of goods have amended their terms and
conditions to include new provisions under which the customer grants a security
interest over the goods supplied in favour of the supplier, to support the
customer’s payment obligations. The grant of the security...
Thursday, 8 September 2016
Buying a business? Do your due diligence first!
Whether you intend on purchasing a small retail business or
the business operations of a listed public company, the same fundamental
approach should be applied: do your due diligence first!
As advisors to purchasers of businesses of various types and
sizes, we are regularly involved in conducting legal due diligence.
However, a purchaser’s pre-contractual due diligence should
not be limited to a lawyer’s review of legal matters, but should extend to:
Inspection of plant and equipment: being a
physical investigation by the purchaser...
Thursday, 25 August 2016
Be prepared for small business unfair contract laws
Further to our
blogs of July 2015 http://nfcommerciallawyers.blogspot.com/2015/07/proposed-protection-to-small-businesses.html
and April 2016 http://nfcommerciallawyers.blogspot.com/2016/04/protection-to-small-businesses-from.html,
from 12 November 2016 amendments to the Australian Consumer Law will come into
operation which are aimed to protect small businesses from unfair terms in
standard form contracts.
Standard form
contracts are contracts where the terms and conditions are set by one party and
the counter-party has little or no opportunity...
Sunday, 24 July 2016
Enforcing Chinese Arbitration Awards in Australia
With so much trade between China
and Australia the question arises of how to resolve disputes when agreements are
breached.
Many commercial agreements now
include arbitration provisions for resolving disputes.
Disputes between Chinese companies and
their Australian counterparts may be subject to the United Nations Commission
on International Trade Law (UNCITRL) and its arbitration rules.
Where contracting parties have an
arbitration clause in their agreement and a dispute arises the parties submit
to arbitration and an award is made.
Once...
Thursday, 21 July 2016
Our China Conveyancing Team Expands
We are delighted to announce the appointment of Peter
(Chi-Yuen) Pang and William Spencer-He to our China
Conveyancing Team.
Peter and William are experienced Australian trained lawyers
and will add further depth to our expanding China Conveyancing Practice.
Peter has previously acted as an Academic Advisor for the
China Law Society for a period of over 8 years, prior to that Lecturing at
various Universities in Hong Kong and Australia.
William has acted as a Solicitor at various practices in
Victoria. Prior to this he has...
Tuesday, 19 July 2016
Changes to SMSF “Safe Harbour” Guidelines
In an earlier article this year we mentioned the ATO’s
Practice Compliance Guideline 2016/5 on what constitutes arm’s length borrowing
terms for limited recourse borrowing arrangements (LRBA).
PCG2016/5 sets out the “Safe Harbour” terms on which SMSF
trustees may structure their LRBA’s consistent with an arm’s length dealing.
For existing LRBA’s with related parties, PCG2016/5 states
that the ATO will not select an SMSF for income tax review for the 2014-15 year
or earlier years in certain circumstances provided that the SMSF entered...
When is FIRB approval required for the purchase of Australian commercial land?
There is much
interest from offshore investors, or foreigners living in Australia on a
non-permanent basis, in buying Australian commercial land, often for
redevelopment or to enjoy an existing rental income stream.
For a foreign
purchaser (individual or corporation) of Australian residential property, they must
obtain the approval of the Australian Government's Foreign Investment Review
Board (FIRB) before signing a
contract of sale. However, a foreign
purchaser buying commercial land, FIRB approval is not always required. ...
Friday, 15 July 2016
Due Diligence and IPO’s
On 14 July 2016 ASIC released Report 484 “Due
Diligence Practices in Initial Public Offerings”. The Report outlines ASIC’s key findings from
its review of due diligence practices of issuers of securities in relation to
twelve initial public offers (IPO’s). The Report is designed to help issuers of
securities, their directors and advisors to conduct effective due diligence.
Due diligence practice is the process issuers adopt to comply
with their obligations under Part 6D.2
of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth)...
Sunday, 10 July 2016
Landlords and Essential Safety Measures
We
often receive enquiries from landlords and tenants concerning essential safety
measures obligations and whether it is the landlord or the tenant who must
comply with those obligations.
Essential
safety measures (ESM) are defined in Part 12 of the Building and
Regulations 2006 (Vic) and are essentially a broad range of obligations
ranging from sprinkler and air-conditioning systems, fire extinguishers, exit
signs and compliance inspection, reporting and maintenance.
Until
May 2015 there was much confusion in the property industry over...
Wednesday, 6 July 2016
Liquor Licensing and changes of directors and shareholders of Licensees
Quite often we are engaged to assist with the
purchase of a licensed business which usually occurs by way of a sale by a
licensed vendor of its business assets to a purchaser which is accompanied by an
application to transfer the liquor licence to the purchaser.
Where
the licensee is a corporation, an alternative method exists for effecting the
sale of the licensed business, which involves the sale of shares in that
corporation to the purchaser and a change of directors of that
corporation. This method does not require an application...
Tuesday, 28 June 2016
Ask about incentives when buying property 'off-the-plan'
With purchasers finding it increasingly difficult to secure
the purchase of a property at auction, many are turning to private sale
negotiations to buy a property not yet constructed based on plans and
specifications. This is called buying "off-the-plan" and is regulated
by the Sale of Land Act 1962
(Vic).
When negotiating to buy a property "off-the-plan"
be sure to ask the selling agent or developer if they are offering any
incentives to you as part of the sale.
Many developers do this to sweeten the deal and ensure a quick
sale. ...
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