Sam Saad

They're quite important in a lease.

They need to be looked at carefully because this clause could be something that could be a huge cost to a landlord if they don't carefully look at it.

It's important if you're a landlord for you to look at the fact that is there going to be the tenant that's repairing the fit out at the end of it, taking it away, or is it going to be your cost?

If it's your cost, it's an investment you need to look at to make sure you account for those costs.

It's a clause that can be easily glazed over by buyers when they're going to do a review of a lease.

If you're buying a property, you want to make sure the tenant removes as much of the fittings as possible so there is as little cost for you as the landlord in moving in.

Or alternatively, you want to have that discretion to be able to make a decision on it.

Yeah, absolutely.

And it's super important that you detail all of that or you make sure it's at least covered off in the lease that you're already going into because you won't be able to change those terms after you enter into the lease or buy the property.

Yeah absolutely.

Look, for commercial leases, it's unregulated.

Whatever the terms of the lease are what governs what happens in terms of assignments.

You've got terms that are drafted.

Some leases are drafted quite vaguely.

Others are quite detailed in terms of what needs to happen when you assign a lease.

However, on the other hand, with a retail lease, irrespective of what the lease outlines or how detailed your lease is, it's always the Retail Leases Act that applies.

So you might have very strict procedures that are outlined in a lease, but at the end of the day, it's going to fall back with the Retail Leases Act and what that outlines in terms of what needs to happen.

And it's really important because these are quite strict procedures that a lawyer helps you out navigating your way through an assignment process under a retail lease.

The thresholds are not as high, but they can be quite hard to get through if you don't do it right.

Yeah, look, if I had a penny for each time that happened, I'd be a millionaire.