Recovering debt when tenants refuse to pay their rent

This client was a landlord and encountered a tenant who moved out of his property having not paid rent for about a year, and with one year remaining on the lease.

After advising the client of their rights, we drafted and sent a letter of demand to the tenant. When the tenant did not pay, we advised the client of their options for debt recovery. The client decided to issue a statutory demand under the Corporations Act. 

The tenant decided to pay and a settlement was negotiated with the tenant paying what it owed, with a further smaller payment of make good and also some further lost rent. 

The client obtained certainty without the need for expensive and uncertain court action. The client could relet the premises to another tenant without any risk.

We build strong and lasting relationships with our clients providing peace of mind in what can be stressful periods of life

Hillhouse has acted for this client since 2015, from the purchase of their first property when they had no kids, through to their fourth property purchase and fifth child. We have provided the full spectrum of legal services for them including property purchases; employment law issues; estate planning; and land rights and mining.

This client provided the following testimonial: 

“Several years ago, we were recommended Hillhouse Legal Partners by another of our professional advisors. After that first experience, Hillhouse Legal Partners 'sold' us with their professionalism, knowledge, diligence and efficiency. Michael Morris and the Hillhouse team have since continued to provide us with valuable, thorough and straightforward advice and representation for our property purchases, contractual documentation, HR matters and ultimately any aspect of our cattle and property enterprise that we require. We, too, would recommend Michael and Hillhouse Legal Partners to others in our industry and to anyone seeking proficient and caring legal representatives.”

We believe the real value is the relationship and knowledge we have of their business, their family and how they do things. We know what they want, their risk profile and what matters to them and just get on with it.

Providing certainty concerning a new business lease and acquiring early access for fit-out

Our client was a small company with 10 staff. They were entering into a new Lease as a Lessee with a different landlord in the same suburb. We provided a review of and advice on the Lease and associated documents, including incentive to enter into the lease and a parking licence. 

With our advice, the correction, negotiation and execution of the Lease documents was completed and the risk of any non-compliance within the lease documents was removed, avoiding the possibility of disputes down the track. By remaining in continual contact with our client and their relevant staff, we ensured that they attended to all lease obligations. In doing so, we obtained early access to the building so that our client could commence fit-out, a very desirable outcome for the client.

Our Employment Law experts provide clear advice and strategic solutions to Fair Work non-compliance issues

Our client, who was in the process of retiring, received a claim from an employee alleging they were entitled to hundreds of thousands of dollars in underpayments.

On the client’s records it was unclear as to the amounts owing to the employee. We advised our client on the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) and the relevant award. On our advice, the amount actually owing to the employee was approximately $100,000 less than the employee asked for.

We sent correspondence to the employee’s representatives setting out our calculations and the amount our client believed to be owing to the employee.

Within a week of us sending our client’s correspondence, the employee accepted our client’s offer to settle the matter for substantially less than the amount originally requested by the employee.

Assertive and efficient dealing in debt recovery to secure a desirable outcome for our client

Our client engaged a supplier to develop bespoke software for their company. After certain milestones were reached, our client attended to payment for the software. The supplier then failed to produce the final deliverable. The client reached out to the office of fair trading who corresponded with the software developer, however the dispute was not resolved.

We advised the client of their options and legal rights under the terms of their agreement with the supplier. The client instructed us to send correspondence to the supplier offering to settle the matter in return for a refund. 

Within two weeks of sending correspondence to the software developer we received an offer to settle the matter which our client was happy to accept.