Franchisees' Retail Premises Occupancy Models in Australia; The Rights and the Risks

Abstract

Among the most significant aspects of conducting a retail business are the costs, risks and liabilities associated with the retail site. This is the case whether a business is franchised or not, but franchising injects a further level of complexity into the concept of a retailer trading from premises. The property interests in the retail site could take one of many different forms. The diverse arrangements have a range of ramifications at law. This paper identifies the most common contract based models for franchisees legal links to retail premises in Australia and addresses issues that arise from each of these models.

Keywords: franchisor, franchisee, retail lease, sub lease, license, landlord, tenant, lessor, lessee, liquidator, New South Wales, Australia, empirical, risk

JEL Classification: G33, K11, K12, K20