Matters you should consider when entering into a commercial lease.

Before you sign a commercial lease with a landlord, you should understand that you are entering into a legal relationship which will bind you for the term of the lease.

If you breach the terms of the lease, your landlord can sue you for damages or take other forms of compensatory action against you.

From the perspective of a business owner, a lease is an asset and an integral part of a business and can mean continuous prosperous trade for the tenant for many years to come. If you decide to sell your business in the future, the importance of a good commercial lease becomes magnified and is just as important as the goodwill of your business.

• Our commercial lawyers at One Law can advise you on the following important matters for a variety of commercial leases:
• Whether the provisions of the Retail Leases Act NSW 1994 apply to the lease?
• What terms are favourable to you and what terms should be removed?
• If the landlord is charging you for something they are not allowed to do?
• Your right as a tenant to sub-lease to a third party?
• Your obligation as a guarantor if your company is leasing
• Any make good clauses and your obligations when you take over
• Terms allowing the landlord to terminate and take possession of the premises and if they are lawful under the law

Make an appointment with one of our commercial lawyers for a no obligation consultation regarding any of the above.

Small debt successfully recovered in Local Court

Our client Nathan loaned a total of $6,000 to his friend, on the basis that it would be repaid within a certain amount of time. Unfortunately, this didn’t go to plan, and Nathan and his friend were unable to settle through negotiation.

Action was brought against his friend in the Local Court and eventually listed for a small claims hearing. Our team argued that several attempts were made to recover the total amount loaned, however those attempts were unsuccessful, and that Nathan’s friend had wasted the Courts time and resources by continuing to make frivolous statements.

We also argued that Nathan’s friend had intentionally misled the Court by making statements which contradicted other documents they had already filed in Court. Instead of repaying the loan as promised, Nathans friend was making unsubstantiated claims that resulted in Nathan incurring further legal costs to bring this claim forward.

We successfully won the case against Nathan’s friend, and Nathan was awarded judgement in his favour. Orders were made for the total amount loaned to be repaid, including interest on the total amount claimed. We were also able to claim the maximum amount of costs that can be ordered in a small claims matter.

Successful negotiations result in recovery of unpaid rent money from lessee.

Our clients Julian and Simon owned a commercial building of about 10 shop lots. Unfortunately, one of the tenants broke their contract and left the tenancy and commercial property without giving any notice. This meant our clients were left out of pocket.
One Law was retained to act for Julian and Simon, and through extensive investigations we were able to track down the tenants. We then commenced court proceedings against them. The tenants retained legal representation, and within a short space of time we successfully negotiated a settlement, recovering unpaid rent money from them.

Court proceedings were withdrawn, saving both parties money in extensive litigation and court fees. This proved to be a win-win for both Julian and Simon as well as the other party.

Business Partners win against a Builder for building left with Defects and Incomplete work.

Our clients Brad and Steve were business partners who entered into a Home Building Contract with a builder to carry out building works which included the construction of residential and commercial premises for over 2.5 million dollars.

As the project progressed, the builder carried out additional works and charged our clients an additional $50k.

At the conclusion of the project, both Brad and Steve discovered there were numerous defects and incomplete work in the subject build. To rectify the issue, the men had to fund the extra costs to fix the defects. This was an additional blow as not only were they paying extra money, but they were now also losing potential rental income.

A case was brought against the builder for recovery of the cost of rectifications and defects, and loss of rental income. Brad and Steve were then hit with a cross claim against our clients alleging further costs for additional works done.

Our specialist team of Commercial Lawyers acted for Brad and Steve in the District Court matter and prepared the matter all the way to a Final Hearing.

One week before the commencement of the Hearing, the builder offered to settle the matter and discontinue the cross claim against our clients. This was a great win for Brad and Steve, as they were able to recover the costs of rectification and defects, including loss of rental income.

Petrol station operator & company director facing loss of family home from corporate watchdogs.

Our client Chris, along with another director operated a small petrol station in Sydney. Much like many other people, Chris put all his trust and confidence in his business partner, who assured him that the maintenance and financial stability of the business, along with all legal responsibilities would be well taken care of.

Unfortunately, the business suffered financially, and debts quickly escalated. With financial pressure intensifying, Chris and the other director could no longer see eye to eye and a decision was made to close down the company.

Almost a year later, corporate watch dogs audited the company along with both the directors and found many gaps in the books and records of the business. Chris was subsequently hit with a tax bill of almost $150,000.00 from the ATO, for affairs arising from the company and the petrol station business. Coupled with this, Chris was also facing other sanctions and penalties from the Australia Securities and Investment Commission.

Stressed and concerned, Chris sought One Law’s assistance and we successfully negotiated a deal with the ATO. We managed to get Chris a good outcome which meant he only had to pay back a fraction of the initial amount, especially noting the other director had disappeared and was nowhere to be found.

Informal Partnerships Challenged in the Supreme Court of NSW.

Our client Sam, was an Iraqi migrant who had come to Australia to live a better life. He had put all his life’s savings into a number of different partnership businesses with a number of other partners.

It wasn’t long before some of these partners took advantage of Sam’s limited knowledge in business and the English language, and tried to exclude him from the business dealings.
Sam sought guidance from the team at One Law’s, and we soon discovered that these partnerships were not created in a formal manner, so proving they even existed was a challenge.

Our Commercial Lawyers conducted due diligence and gathered evidence, from bank statements to paperwork, and even text messages from our client’s mobile phone (which had to be translated from Arabic to English). This was all to commence proceedings in court to ensure Sam’s rights and entitlement in all the partnership businesses and assets were preserved.

Once the other partners saw that Sam had good legal support and representation behind him, we were able to successfully bring all parties to the table and start the process of negotiation to obtain a favourable result for Sam without having to go to court.

Formworker facing a $83,000 claim against his company receives $35,000 by way of a lump sum settlement.

Our client Timothy was a formworker for a company with whom he had done sub-contracting formwork and steel fixing work on a residential job site in the Sydney Metropolitan Area that worth almost half a million dollars.

Timothy had completed the work and had paid his workers out of his own pocket, but the main contractor refused to pay our client for the final stages of the work. Timothy was left out of pocket and came to One Law for assistance.

After initial investigations, we found out that Timothy did not have the required license and qualifications to be carrying out the work they were doing for the contractor. To make matters worse, Timothy was sued by the contractor, who alleged defective and incomplete work, in the amount of approximately $83,000.00.

The team of Commercial lawyers at One Law, were able to successfully negotiate a lump sum settlement of $35,000.00 in favour of our client and the court case was withdrawn by the contractor.