News

Equipment lease contracts: The bare necessities and why

In Australia there is no statute of equipment leasing law, nor is there any code of practice. So, in theory, parties to a lease are free to agree the terms of their bargain every time they enter into a transaction. The main parties are the owner of the equipment, usually called the lessor, and the… Read More

Debanking: what it is, and what you can do about it

Introduction Debanking is the process whereby a bank closes all a customer’s accounts, such that the customer can no longer operate them. This can apply to both business and retail customers. It means that unless the customer keeps transactional accounts at another financial institution, it risks becoming financially destitute, for an unknowable period of time,… Read More

Doing Business in Australia

Setting Up New Companies / Units / Sales offices All types of business entities are relatively inexpensive and straight forward to set up in Australia. Generally, international investors, foreign head offices and other parties from outside Australia will choose to set up a local company. The most common type of company which overseas investors set… Read More

The problem with sub-leasing under the PPSA

In brief If an equipment lessee fails to register a sub-lease under the PPSA it risks losing its rights to the equipment whilst remaining bound by its obligation to make lease payments to the initial lessor. The problem The practice of sub-leasing equipment under the Personal Property Securities Act (PPSA) has been an unresolved issue… Read More

ACCC shreds standard equipment finance contracts: key terms declared unenforceable

In brief In August 2022 the Federal Court gave judgment in the unfair contract terms (“UCT”) case launched nearly two years ago by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (“ACCC”) against Fujifilm Business Innovation (formerly Fuji-Xerox) (“Fujifilm”) The judgment declared many well understood equipment finance terms to be unfair and hence unenforceable. Because Fujifilm had… Read More