How important is it to get legal advice in the area of commercial leases?
A. Most people today tend to believe that little expertise needs to be applied to both leases and conveyancing. This couldn’t be further from the truth. In the area of commercial leases there has been a recent decision of the NSW Court of Appeal which confirms how important it is for small business operators to get legal advice on commercial leases. In that case a tenant sued the landlord. In that case the tenant had failed to obtain proper legal advice and had not executed a lease leaving it open to the landlord to have him evicted causing the tenant to sue alleging that there was an informal or equitable lease on foot. The tenant lost as he had no formal right to run his business from that location and as a result he had imperilled his commercial interests and ended up having to pay the other party’s costs. Q. Recently I was kicked out of a commercial warehouse which I occupy as part of my business which the landlord alleged was invalid even though it was signed by the agent on his b
