FNQ Commercial Law in Clifton Beach | Lawyer & law firm

FNQ Commercial Law

Locality: Clifton Beach

Phone: +61 478 278 325

Address: 222 Beaver St 4879 Clifton Beach, QLD, Australia

Website: http://www.fnqcommerciallaw.com

Likes: 21

Add/Update information

Reviews

Tags

• Lawyer & law firm
• Legal service

25.01.2022 Not entirely sure what to do with this page, but a friend of mine whose opinion I value says that I must have one. Watch this space I guess.

25.01.2022 Phew! what an interesting few weeks. One of the dangers of having a page like this is that if neglected it becomes very stale, very quickly. I have a few interesting things to post about but have not had time to do so.....Soon....

24.01.2022 Do you use Microsoft Office 365? Great product and puts the power of the near-ubiquitous "office" applications suite into the hands of everyone at very attractive prices. With one draw-back. Office 365 is web-based which means it is an attractive target for scammers. Below I have pasted links to to of the more recent (and sadly more successful) Office 365 scams. Both articles contains hints on how to avoid being scammed. https://www.mailguard.com.au/blog/o365-phishing-180502 https://brisbanesde.eq.edu.au//Email-scam-awareness---Micr

24.01.2022 Buying cheap goods from overseas - sometimes it is a bargain, sometimes it isn't. Like a lot of the things I write about this post is based on the recent experience of a client of mine and is published with their permission. My client purchased a number of LED lights from China when they arrived some didn’t work which was the first problem. Emails to the seller went unanswered, the people operating the electronic bazaar that facilitated the sale would only open a dispute wi...th the seller and declined to be actively involved (in spite of their claims to the contrary on the website in question). Cutting to the chase the reality is that the consumer protections we take for granted do not necessarily exist in other countries and to the extent that you might have a legal remedy in that country, the sheer cost of doing so may greatly exceed the amount of money lost. Hoping to salvage something my client took the lights that didn’t work to their local electrician his comments included:- These things are potentially lethal, the 240 volt supply lines are less than 2mm from the screws holding the light together and are just as close to the DC supply to the LED emitters themselves. The packets the lights came in claim US and EU approval, this is a lie, the actual devices are not so marked and would not, in any event, comply for use in the US or the EU. The electrician’s concluding recommendation was that all of the LED lights be driven over by a car and then placed in the bin. Now my client didn’t actually pay all that much for these lights, he was attracted by the very cheap price (around $AU4.50 each) but he was of course more than a little annoyed to discover that he had simply wasted his money. But what really gave him pause for thought was the potential consequences had he used the ones that did work and something had gone wrong down the track. The use of unapproved electrical devices is, of course, illegal as well as ill-advised and had someone been electrocuted or one of the lights caught fire (both potential outcomes according to the electrician) my client may have been left without insurance and facing a court. All for saving a few dollars importing his own lights. Now, I’m not suggesting that you only buy electrical goods from Australian suppliers, but if you do buy from overseas remember that it is up to you to ensure that the devices comply with our local laws. It is insufficient for the box they come in to bear (copied) compliance marking, the device itself must bear the compliance marking and sufficient information to identify the manufacturer if they do not then I would only use the device(s) after they had been examined by a licensed electrician and pronounced safe.

22.01.2022 Franchise businesses. A franchise can be a great way of doing business. As I said on my main website the thing to remember about Franchises is that in addition to you, your staff, your suppliers and your landlord you get another "mouth to feed" in the form of your Franchisor. Most Franchise agreements call for the Franchisor payment to come off the top of your gross, before you pay anyone else, in fact in many franchising chains the Franchisor will have direct debit arrangeme...nts on your business account so that they take their payment when it falls due, regardless of any other circumstances. That is why it is important to have your Accountant forensically examine the books before your business contract becomes unconditional. It's also important that your Lawyer seeks to have due-diligence provisions inserted into the business contract to allow you a lawful way out of an unwanted contract if the business does not come up to expectations during the due-diligence phase. See more

21.01.2022 I hope everyone had a great Easter break. I left a week early to go to a gathering of VW Kombis at Stanthorpe QLD and came back with a head cold, it has taken a few days but I am a going concern again now. Once again I find myself in something of a dilemma as to what to talk about, So I'll talk about something that happens again and again and is quite heart-breaking to watch. The story goes like this - a person decides to open their own business, they know the trade well, ha...ve carefully looked at all aspects of the target business and just know that they can run it better/more efficiently and make more money from it than the current owner. In essence, they complete their own due diligence and in the process, they investigate the trends both in the target business but in the industry generally, they reviewed the supply chains and looked at marketing costs, worked out ways to refurbish the premises and decided which of the existing staff they wished to keep. Satisfied with all aspects of the business they resign from their existing employment and sign an unconditional business contract. Do you see what they missed - they were so busy evaluating the business that they didn't give the Landlord a second thought, which is a bit awkward because the Landlord represents a substantial cost to any small business. So, it came as something of a surprise that the Landlord wanted 3 months worth of rent and outgoings as a security bond and nothing like that had been included in the planned budget. Fortunately, there was a happy ending, but this is a situation I see all too often. Moral of the story, talk a proposed business purchase through with a lawyer before you sign anything - some lawyers ( like me, to give a blatant self-plug) don't even charge for an initial consultation.

16.01.2022 What happens to a lease if you sell your business? The short answer is that under normal circumstances the lease will be transferred (the actual term is assigned) to the buyer. Most leases contain terms about the assignment of the lease and usually require that the landlord must be satisfied that the buyer (assignee) is financially sound before consenting to the assignment. if the Landlord (acting reasonably) is not satisfied with the proposed assignee, then the sale may not...Continue reading

14.01.2022 Hey, I don't want to just talk about "war stories" - is there any aspect of business law (or any other law for that matter) that you would like to see a post on?

13.01.2022 Purchase of property by your self-managed Super Fund. This will be a brief post as to adequately cover this topic would require a rather thick book. In fact, because this area is so fraught, for the very first time I am adding the following disclaimer to one of my posts. Please note this social media post is NOT legal advice and you should not act on it without fully discussing your particular needs with your solicitor, your accountant, and your financier. This post is a ge...Continue reading

13.01.2022 The "My Police" daily email service posted advice this morning on what to do if you are in the unfortunate position of having a traffic accident. I am sure that they will not mind me reposting their advice here. "A traffic crash must be reported to police if anyone has been injured, where a driver is refusing to provide their details, if any of the drivers appear affected by alcohol or drugs or if any of the vehicles involved cannot be driven due to the extent of damage. Did ...you know minor traffic crashes don’t need to be reported to police? In the event of a minor or non-reportable traffic crash, you may move your vehicle to prevent traffic congestion. You are still required by law to exchange driver details which can be forwarded to your insurance company or used in civil proceedings along with any notes or photographs you have taken. If you do later find you need a police occurrence number for insurance purposes, you can complete an online traffic crash form available at the Policelink website or alternatively phone Policelink on 131 444." The only things I think that I want to add; 1/. Take the names and contact details of any witnesses 2/. take photos of the positions of the cars involved and of the damage to all vehicles 3/. I disagree slightly with the "my police" post in that I think that any accident, no matter how trivial should be reported vis police link and an "incident number" obtained. I'll share why I think it is necessary to take those extra steps from my own experience. Some years ago my partner accidentally reversed into a vehicle parked on the other side of our street. There was no damage at all to our car, just a black tyre smudge which came off with soapy water and a sponge. It was actually difficult to see if any damage had actually been done to the other car as it was in a poor state, full of rust and bearing the marks of having had more hits than Elvis. We apologized to the owner, who seemed quite unconcerned at the time, and thought that was the end of the matter. You can imagine our surprise when sometime later we received a letter demanding $2,000 dollars for the damage done to the other car (which would have been around five times what it was worth) and which enclosed a number of photos of the "damage" allegedly done by our vehicle. And that is why it is important to take photos and report accidents, as the digital photos I took at the time strangely did not show the far more extensive damage the rust bucket received at some later time. Naturally, we refused to pay anything and we never heard from the attempted fraudster again. But, if we had not taken the photos there may have been a different outcome. For those interested, you can subscribe to the "My Police" email service at https://mypolice.qld.gov.au/media-email-subscriptions/

13.01.2022 I had a thought today. What would people like me to write about? Are there any issues that anyone would like discussed in this rather one-sided forum?

10.01.2022 Well, we are very close to the end of another year. FNQ Commercial Law will have restrictions on availability from 21 December to 3 January, due to me traveling South to visit my father - I'll still be available on the phone, however. To everyone, but especially those who like me are traveling by road - play safe out there, don't ride or drive whilst fatigued, or drinking and I'll see you all in 2018.

09.01.2022 Retail Shop Leases. When you are negotiating entry into a lease that falls under the compass of the Retail Shop Leases Act, the Landlord and Tenant are required to make disclosures to each other and the tenant must obtain Legal and Financial advice in relation to the lease. The required forms can be found at https://publications.qld.gov.au/da/retail-shop-leases-forms And if I may for one moment touch on a topic that will make life so much easier for your Lawyer and Account...ant. Generally, you will have the draft lease and the Landlord's disclosure in electronic form, please send it to them at least a day prior to your meeting so that they have time to read the documents prior to meeting with you. If you only have paper copies, go to the Library or Officeworks and photocopy them yourself, it will save you time and money. And finally, the big one. Please, please, please, when you sit down with your Accountant or your Lawyer, take the time to have read the Landlord's disclosure and the draft lease yourself. Yes it takes time, but this is your money and lifetime assets you are putting on the line, it is an important document and you should read it yourself and then ask questions about any aspects of it that cause you concern. See more

09.01.2022 Ok, just discovered something really obvious. My thoughtful web designer gave me my letterhead and business card base as a vector graphic - looks a lot better than my scanned letterhead. Now I have spent enough time mucking around with web pages, Facebook pages and the like, it's time to start work!

07.01.2022 Sorry for the lengthy silence everyone. I've been a bit busy, but I have some material I think is interesting that I hope to post in the next couple of days.

01.01.2022 Must be something to do with the rain, there have been a lot of minor traffic accidents over the past few days. The most important thing to remember if you are in an accident is to remain calm, there is no point in berating the driver of the other car. Likewise don't be in too big a hurry to accept fault, if you are insured it is not your call to accept blame for an accident, just exchange address details and the names of your respective insurers. Below I've linked a very he...lpful page from the RACQ. A couple of quick things you can do to preserve your rights and protect yourself. 1. The days of registration labels has passed, to verify that the other vehicle is in fact registered download and install the QLD REGO CHECK app from either the Apple store or Google Play you should have this app on your phone always, particularly if you drive other people’s cars a lot or if you are looking at prospective purchases. Going back to our accident scenario - if the other vehicle is not registered, call the police. 2. Take photos, I’m yet to see a modern phone that can’t take photos, make sure registration plates are visible, and if the other driver will allow you to do so, photograph their driver’s license. 3. See your insurer as soon as possible. And now, the very useful RACQ page:- https://www.racq.com.au//car-a/unusual-motoring-situations