New South Wales Consolidated Acts

RETAIL LEASES ACT 1994 - SECT 41

41 Procedure for obtaining consent to assignment

The following procedure applies to the assignment of a retail shop lease that requires the consent of the lessor--

(a) A request for the lessor's consent to an assignment of the lease must be made by the lessee in writing.

(b) The lessee must provide the lessor with such information as the lessor may reasonably require to be satisfied that the financial resources and retailing skills of the proposed assignee are not inferior to those of the lessee.

(c) The lessee must provide the proposed assignee with an
"updated lessor's disclosure statement" (comprising a copy of the lessor's disclosure statement given to the lessee in respect of the lease together with details of any changes that have occurred in respect of the information contained in that disclosure statement since it was given to the lessee).

(d) For the purpose of enabling the lessee to provide the proposed assignee with the required updated lessor's disclosure statement, the lessor must provide the lessee with an updated lessor's disclosure statement within 14 days after being requested to do so by the lessee.

(e) If the lessor fails to provide the updated lessor's disclosure statement, it is sufficient compliance with the requirement to provide the proposed assignee with an updated lessor's disclosure statement if the lessee instead provides a lessor's disclosure statement completed by the lessee to the best of the lessee's knowledge (but with information as to current outgoings in place of information as to estimated outgoings).

(f) The lessor must deal expeditiously with a request for consent to assignment of the lease.

(g) The lessor has 28 days (the
"decision period" ) to decide whether to consent or to refuse consent to assignment. The decision period starts from when the request for consent was made by the lessee or from when the lessee has complied with the requirements of this section (whichever is later).

(h) The lessor is taken to have consented to assignment if the lessee has complied with this section and the lessor has not, within the decision period, given notice in writing to the lessee either consenting or withholding consent to assignment.

(i) The regulations may prescribe a period that is to replace the period of 28 days as the decision period in this section.