26
Mar 2020
LEASES – COVID-19 IMPACT
As the Coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to spread across Australia its impact on commercial arrangements is a serious concern for landlords and tenants alike. The mandatory closure of licensed premises and various quarantining measures have resulted in landlords and tenants discovering that their commercial and retail lease agreements do not deal with unprecedented events like COVID-19. Force majeure clauses in leases are rare to find and rent abatement clauses are generally
12
Apr 2019
SALE OF SHARES V SALE OF BUSINESS
SALE OF SHARES V SALE OF BUSINESS There are two ways to buy a business: Buy the Company (or more accurately the shares in the Company that operates the business); or Buy the Business (being the assets of the business owned by the Company or other legal entity). Each option has its own pros and cons, and really depends on the type of business being operated (some business licences cannot
The highly anticipated Liquor Control Amendment Bill 2018 was presented to Parliament on 20 February 2018, and passed the lower house on 10 April 2018. In keeping with his election commitment, Premier Mark McGowan introduced a range of improvements in the way liquor outlets around the state are controlled. There are a number of key changes proposed which impact on liquor stores, in particular the larger liquor barns. As a result,
11
Apr 2018
IS A TRADE MARK WORTH IT?
Registration of a trade mark offers different, and important, protections to the registration of a business name. Whilst both can be used to identify your business, registering your business name does not give you legal proprietary rights over that name. Business Name A business name is the name under which your business operates. You only need to register a business name if you are trading under a name that is
31
Aug 2017
Is your contract unfair?
Dubbed the ‘Unfair Contracts Act’, recent changes to legislation finally provides parties to standard form contracts with greater protection. A standard form contract is one that has been prepared by one party to the contract and where the other party has little or no opportunity to negotiate the terms of the contract, effectively it is a ‘take it or leave it’ contract. These changes apply to contracts entered into on
31
Oct 2016
ELECTRONIC STORAGE OF COMPANY “BOOKS”
ELECTRONIC STORAGE OF COMPANY “BOOKS” As we have seen the development of technology take over in all forms of life, it seems that one area that many companies still lag behind in the electronic storage of its own corporate records. Records such as registers, recorded information, financial reports, financial records and documents can all be kept electronically (including in the cloud), albeit with some compliance requirements. These types of records