New South Wales Consolidated Acts

RETAIL LEASES ACT 1994 - SECT 14

14 Key-money and lease preparation expenses prohibited

(1) A person must not, as lessor or on behalf of the lessor, seek or accept the payment of key-money or lease preparation expenses in connection with the granting of a retail shop lease and any provision of a retail shop lease is void to the extent that it requires or has the effect of requiring the payment of key-money or lease preparation expenses in connection with the granting of the lease.

(2) If a person contravenes this section--

(a) the person is guilty of an offence and liable to a penalty not exceeding 100 penalty units, and

(b) (whether or not the person is convicted of an offence under paragraph (a)) the lessee is entitled to recover from the lessor as a debt any payment made or the value of any benefit conferred by the lessee and accepted by or on behalf of the lessor in contravention of this section.

(3) This section does not prevent a lessor--

(b) from receiving payment of rent in advance, or

(c) from securing performance of the lessee's obligations under the lease by requiring the provision of a security bond or other bond or a guarantee from the lessee or any other person (such as a requirement that the directors of a company that is the lessee guarantee performance of the company's obligations under the lease), or

(d) from seeking and accepting payment for goodwill of a business from a purchaser of the business, but only to the extent that the goodwill is attributable to the conduct of the business by the lessor, or

(e) from seeking and accepting payment for plant, equipment, fixtures or fittings that are sold by the lessor to the lessee in connection with the granting of the lease, or

(f) from seeking and accepting payment for the grant of a franchise in connection with the granting of the lease.

(4) This section does not prevent a person, as lessor or on behalf of the lessor, from requiring payment by a prospective lessee or the lessee of a reasonable sum in respect of lease preparation expenses incurred in connection with making an amendment to a proposed lease that was requested by or on behalf of the prospective lessee or the lessee, other than--

(a) an amendment to insert or vary the particulars of the lessee, the rent or the term, or

(b) an amendment to remedy a failure by or on behalf of the lessor to include or omit a term of the proposed lease that was, at the time of the failure to include or omit, agreed between the lessor and the proposed lessee or lessee to be included in or omitted from the proposed lease, or

(c) an amendment requested before the lessor is given a lessee's disclosure statement under section 11A.

(5) If a prospective lessee or the lessee is liable to pay a reasonable sum referred to in subsection (4), the lessor must provide the prospective lessee or lessee with a copy of any account presented to the lessor in respect of those expenses. The prospective lessee or lessee is not required to make any such payment until the lessor has complied with this requirement.