New South Wales Consolidated Acts

RETAIL LEASES ACT 1994 - SECT 11

11 Lessor’s disclosure statement

(1) At least 7 days before a retail shop lease is entered into, the lessee must be given a disclosure statement for the lease. A disclosure statement is a statement in writing that contains the information, and is accompanied by the material, that is contained in or required to complete or accompany the form of disclosure statement set out in the prescribed form (but only to the extent that is relevant to the lease concerned). The layout of the disclosure statement need not comply with that of the prescribed form. However, a lessor’s disclosure statement is complete for the purposes of this section only if it has attached to it a form to be completed by the lessee in the form prescribed for the purposes of section 11A.

Note: Because the disclosure statement need only include information relevant to the lease, if the retail shop is not in a retail shopping centre the disclosure statement need not include information that is relevant only to shops in retail shopping centres.

(2) If a lessee was not given a disclosure statement as required by subsection (1) or if the disclosure statement that was given to the lessee was incomplete or contained information that at the time it was given was materially false or misleading, the lessee may terminate the lease by notice in writing to the lessor at any time within 6 months after the lease was entered into, unless subsection (3) prevents termination.

(3) The lessee cannot terminate the lease under this section on the ground that the disclosure statement is incomplete or contains information that is materially false or misleading if:

(a) the lessor has acted honestly and reasonably and ought reasonably to be excused for the failure concerned, and

(b) the lessee is in substantially as good a position as the lessee would have been if the failure had not occurred.

(4) If a lease is entered into by way of the renewal of a lease, a written statement (a "lessor’s disclosure update") that updates the provisions of an earlier disclosure statement given to the lessee is, in conjunction with that earlier disclosure statement, considered to be a disclosure statement given for the purposes of this section at the time the lessor’s disclosure update is given.

(5) The termination of a lease under this section does not affect any right, privilege, obligation or liability acquired, accrued or incurred under the lease in respect of any period before its termination.

(6) A lessor under a retail shop lease is guilty of an offence if subsection (1) is not complied with in relation to the lease.

Maximum penalty: 50 penalty units.

Note: Clause 20 of Schedule 3 provides that the forms set out in Schedule 2 are taken to be prescribed for the purposes of sections 11 and 11A until regulations prescribing the forms and repealing Schedule 2 are made.