Business and commercial lawyers in Perth for confident business decisions.

How we can help

• Buying and selling businesses; business settlements and due diligence.
• Retail and commercial leases; assignment, options and market-rent issues.
• Shareholder, partnership and unit-holder agreements.
• Corporate and commercial contracts.
• Loans, mortgages, guarantees and securities.
• Business succession.
• Commercial and partnership disputes.
• AML/CTF compliance advice.
• SME legal membership options.

Buying or selling a business in Western Australia

Buying a business is one of the largest financial commitments most people make, and the contract usually favours whoever drafted it. Before signing it is worth checking exactly what is being sold, whether the lease can be transferred and on what terms, employee entitlements you may inherit, equipment leases or encumbrances, and whether the seller is restrained from setting up nearby. Selling has its own traps: the warranties you are asked to give, restraints that limit what you can do next, and personal guarantees that do not end just because the business changed hands.

• Buying or selling a business in Western Australia →

Commercial and retail lease review

For most small businesses the lease is the biggest ongoing commitment after wages, and the most common source of disputes we see. Rent reviews, outgoings, options to renew, make-good obligations at the end of the term, personal guarantees, and what happens if you sell the business all sit inside that document. Some Perth premises also fall under the Commercial Tenancy (Retail Shops) Agreements Act 1985 (WA), which gives retail tenants protections many tenants — and some landlords — do not realise apply.

• Commercial lease review and advice in Perth →
• Retail shop lease advice →

Structures, owners agreements and contracts

The right structure affects your tax position, your personal exposure if something goes wrong, and how easily you can bring in partners later. Just as important is what happens between the people who own the business: a written owners agreement sets out how decisions are made, how profits are shared, and what happens if an owner wants out, becomes ill or dies. Most partnerships that end badly never had one. Alongside that sit the contracts you use every day — terms of trade, supply and service agreements, franchise documents — where the cost of a review before signing is a fraction of the cost of a dispute afterwards.

• Business structures →
• Shareholders and partnership agreements →
• Commercial contract drafting and review →

Loans, guarantees and securities

Banks and landlords routinely ask business owners, and sometimes their family members, to sign personal guarantees. A guarantee can put your home and personal assets behind the business's debts, and many people sign without independent advice on what they are actually agreeing to. If you have been asked to guarantee someone else's loan, get advice before you sign rather than after the demand arrives.

• Loans, guarantees and securities →
• Bank guarantees and guarantor advice →

Succession, and disputes when they arise

What happens to the business if you die, lose capacity or simply want to retire? For family businesses succession is where commercial law meets estate planning — buy-sell agreements, insurance funding, and a will that lets the business keep trading. When relationships between owners break down instead, most disputes resolve by negotiation, a structured buy-out or mediation rather than a hearing. Our approach is to establish your legal position first, then pursue the cheapest path that protects it.

• Business succession and continuity →
• Partnership and business partner disputes →

Legal help in English and Vietnamese

Legal Care Australia is one of the few Perth firms providing business and commercial advice in both English and Vietnamese. Contracts, leases and guarantees are hard enough in your first language. If you or your business partners are more comfortable in Vietnamese, we can advise, explain the documents and correspond in Vietnamese at every step, at the same fee. Chúng tôi hỗ trợ pháp lý bằng tiếng Việt.

• Vietnamese-speaking legal help →

What happens at your first consultation

Bring the documents — the draft lease, the sale contract, the loan pack, the correspondence. In an hour we identify the legal issues and where the risk actually sits, tell you what we would push back on and what is standard, map the options and their likely cost, and give you a clear recommendation on next steps. You leave knowing where you stand, whether or not you engage us further.

• Our published fees →

Process

1. 1

   Initial consultation: the documents, the issues, and a written fixed-fee quote.

2. 2

   Review or drafting, with a written report of the risks and what we would change.

3. 3

   Negotiation with the other side where you want it, scoped and quoted separately.

4. 4

   Settlement, signing or lodgement, with the deadlines managed.

5. 5

   Where a dispute arises, your position established before anything is sent.

What to prepare

• The contract, lease or agreement, and any offer or heads of agreement already signed.
• Financial statements and tax returns where a business is being bought or sold.
• The premises lease, and any guarantee or bond the landlord requires.
• Loan and security documents, and any guarantee you are being asked to sign.
• Any shareholders, partnership or joint venture agreement.
• Correspondence recording what has been agreed commercially.

Risks, deadlines and common mistakes

• Signing an offer before advice — the conditions in that first document decide whether you can exit.
• Missing the window to exercise an option to renew a lease.
• Assuming a personal guarantee ends when you sell the business or leave the company.
• Buying a business without confirming the lease can be assigned to you.
• Trading with owners but no written agreement about exits, valuation or deadlock.
• Make-good obligations discovered at the end of a long lease term, when the cost is unavoidable.