70Misleading or deceptive conduct

70 Misleading or deceptive conduct

(1)  A party to a retail lease must not, in connection with the lease, engage in conduct that is misleading or deceptive to another party to the lease or that is likely to mislead or deceive another party to the lease.

Penalty:  In the case of –

(a) a body corporate, a fine not exceeding 300 penalty units; and

(b) an individual, a fine not exceeding 150 penalty units.

(2)  Without in any way limiting the matters to which a prescribed body or prescribed person may have regard for the purpose of determining whether a party to a retail lease has contravened subsection (1) in connection with the lease, the prescribed body or prescribed person may have regard to the following matters:

(a) whether any conduct engaged in by a party to the retail lease resulted in the creation of a false impression by another party to the lease;

(b) whether a party to the retail lease hid any information in relation to the lease from another party to the lease;

(c) whether a party to the retail lease made any claims in relation to that lease that the party knew, or ought to have known, were false.

(3)  In determining whether subsection (1) has been contravened –

(a) a prescribed body or prescribed person must not have regard to any circumstances that were not reasonably foreseeable at the time of the alleged contravention; and

(b) a prescribed body or prescribed person may have regard to circumstances existing before the commencement of this section but not to conduct engaged in before that commencement.

(4)  A landlord or a tenant who suffers loss or damage as a result of the misleading or deceptive conduct of another person in contravention of subsection (1) may apply to a prescribed person or prescribed body to recover the amount of the loss or damage from the other person.