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RETAIL LEASES ACT 1994 - SECT 61 Trading hours

RETAIL LEASES ACT 1994 - SECT 61

Trading hours

61 Trading hours

(1) A lease of a retail shop is taken to include provision to the effect that a lessor is not entitled to change the core trading hours of the retail shopping centre of which the shop forms part except with the approval in writing of the lessees of a majority of the retail shops in the shopping centre (whether or not those retail shops are retail shops to which this Act applies). The initial fixing of trading hours in a new shopping centre is not a change to core trading hours and is not affected by this subsection.
(2) Subsection (1) does not operate to permit a lessor to ignore the requirements of any other agreement, arrangement or understanding that prevents or restricts a change to core trading hours by the lessor in a retail shopping centre.
Note : An example of how subsection (2) operates is where another agreement requires a 75% majority of lessees to be in favour of a change to core trading hours before the lessor can make the change. Subsection (2) requires that the other agreement be complied with also, so that a 75% majority must be obtained and not merely the 50% majority required by subsection (1).
(3) This section does not prevent a lease providing for the action that may be taken by a lessor in the event of a lessee not trading in accordance with core trading hours, including provisions--
(a) enabling the lessor, as a condition of granting consent to a lessee trading outside core trading hours, to require the lessee to pay, or pay a contribution towards, the costs of opening the retail shopping centre during those extended trading hours, or
(b) requiring a lessee who trades outside core trading hours to make specified payments or additional payments in respect of advertising and promotional costs for the shopping centre.
(4) The
"core trading hours" of a retail shopping centre are the times when retail shops in the shopping centre are required to be open for business, whether the requirement is imposed by or under a lease or by or under some other agreement, arrangement or understanding between lessors and the lessees.