Szabo & Associates News & Updates

Most lease agreements allow landlords to give notice to terminate a lease for a breach of its terms. A tenant must remedy a breach within a reasonable period of time after service of the notice. What constitutes a reasonable period of time to remedy the breach will, however, depend on the circumstances.

The recent case of Middleton v Schofield (2022) NSWSC 1454 demonstrates the importance, once again, of being precise in a Will if disputes are to be avoided. This issue was primarily about the use of extrinsic information to interpret the meaning of a Will. Was the reference to a real property called ‘Caringa’ one property or three contiguous properties customarily known as Caringa?

A Council, under the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997, can issue an environmental prevention notice if it ‘reasonably suspects that an activity has been or is being carried out in an environmentally unsatisfactory manner at any premises or by any person’. The aim is to ensure that the activity if carried on in the future, is done so in an environmentally satisfactory manner.

For a person deciding on who should inherit from their Will, questions of how much beneficiaries will receive and in what shares are important. These decisions can be made more difficult if, for example, there are particular concerns about a beneficiary or a perceived need for encouragement to achieve something. As a consequence, the Will-maker may wish to make a bequest conditional.

As a commercial property tenant, exiting a commercial property lease before the expiration date is not always straightforward. A lease is a legal contract, and a landlord can take you to Court if it is broken. However, depending on the circumstances, the landlord may be prepared to negotiate a compromise.