Corporate & Commercial
Contracts, structures and governance for businesses that need the paperwork to hold when something goes wrong.
Mergers & Acquisitions
Buying or selling a business, from the term sheet and due diligence through to completion and the restraints that follow.
Litigation & Dispute Resolution
Commercial disputes in the NSW, ACT and Federal courts, resolved early where that is possible and run properly where it is not.
Technology and Software
Your product scales digitally. Your contracts have to scale with it.
The track record
Judgments and tribunal outcomes, transactions completed, appointments taken, and the conversations we are part of in Australia and in Germany.
Germany
A German desk for businesses moving between Australia and the German-speaking market.
Singapore
Singapore law where it governs the contract, and the arbitral seat that carries much of the region’s work.
Property
We act on the buying, selling and leasing of property in two jurisdictions.
For owners, buyers, landlords and tenants in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. Leasing is the largest part of this practice, not conveyancing, and most of the work is done by Annie Jin.
2007
Practising in Australia since
3
Offices: Sydney, Canberra, Frankfurt
2
Legal systems, one team
1
Principal on every matter
How a property matter runs
Six stages, and the decisions inside them
01
Before anything is signed
The cheapest point to fix a property problem is before you are committed to it. Most of what goes wrong later was visible in the contract or the lease at the start, and was either not read or not understood. We would rather look at a document for an hour now than argue about it for a year.
02
The contract, or the lease
What it obliges you to do, what it lets the other side do, and what it is silent on. On a lease the questions that matter most are usually the ones nobody negotiates: who pays for what, what happens at the end of the term, what you must restore, and whether you can assign or sublet if your plans change. On a retail lease, some of these answers are set by statute, not negotiation.
03
What you are actually buying
In the Australian Capital Territory land is not held freehold. It is held on a long Crown lease, granted and administered by the ACT Government, and the lease’s purpose clause sets out what the land may be used for. A use the purpose clause does not permit is not cured by a development approval; the lease itself has to be varied. Buyers from interstate are frequently surprised by this. We check the purpose clause before you commit, not after.
04
Searches and enquiries
Planning, title, and whatever the property is exposed to that the contract does not volunteer. The two jurisdictions start from different places: an ACT seller must have a disclosure package ready, with building and pest reports for a house, before the property is even offered, while a NSW seller attaches far less. On a strata property the owners corporation’s records still matter in both: the levies, the funds, the minutes, and whether the building has a defect problem that no certificate volunteers.
05
Signing, and the point of no return
When you become bound differs between the two jurisdictions and by the kind of transaction, and so does whether you have a cooling-off period at all. Buy at auction and there is none in either jurisdiction. We tell you plainly when you can still walk away, when you cannot, and what walking away would cost.
06
Completion, and afterwards
Settlement, adjustments and registration, and on a lease, registration where the term calls for it: in both jurisdictions a lease running beyond three years should be registered. Duty and the settlement adjustments are dealt with as part of the transaction. The tax consequences of how you buy are for an accountant, and where a property is being bought in a trust or a company we want the accountant’s view on the structure before the contract is signed rather than after.
Selected matters
Work we have done
No client is named and no property is identified. The kind of transaction, the side we acted on and the jurisdiction are. Leasing is the largest part of this practice and the list reflects that.
Commercial leasing
A landlord's tenancy portfolio in a medical precinct
Acted for the landlord across the whole portfolio, on new leases, renewals and registrations as each fell due.
Landlord side · ACT
Commercial leasing
Assignment of a lease in a wholesale market
Acted on the assignment and the landlord’s consent.
Lease assignment · Queensland
Commercial leasing
Lease reviews and negotiations for incoming tenants
Acted for the tenant, on the terms that decide what a lease costs beyond the rent.
Tenant side · NSW and ACT
Commercial leasing
Surrender of a lease before the end of its term
Acted on the surrender and the make-good position.
Exit · ACT
Conveyancing
Purchases and sales of residential property
Acted for buyers and for sellers, in both jurisdictions, including strata and Crown lease titles.
Both sides · NSW and ACT
Conveyancing
Review of an off-the-plan contract before exchange
Acted for the buyer, on what the developer could still change after signing.
Off the plan · ACT
Property disputes
Claim over damage caused to a neighbouring property
Acted for the owners bringing the claim.
Damage claim · ACT
Property disputes
Owners corporation claims over building defects
Acted on both sides of this kind of dispute, for owners and for the developer and builder.
Supreme Court · NSW and ACT
Who does the work
The person you meet is the person who runs it
Fabian Hoffmann
Principal · Sydney, Canberra and Frankfurt
Juris Doctor (ANU) and the First State Examination in Law (Bielefeld), admitted in the Australian Capital Territory, Notary Public of the Society of Notaries of New South Wales, member of the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators, and Vertrauensanwalt for both the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Austria. Works in German and English, and tutored contract law at the ANU College of Law for four years.
Mason Keene-McCann
Principal · Canberra
Admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of Victoria and holds a practising certificate in the Australian Capital Territory. Joined Boettcher Law in 2022 and works with barristers and experts on contested commercial matters.
Annie Jin
Solicitor · Sydney
Juris Doctor (University of Sydney) and a Bachelor of Commerce (Auckland) majoring in management and commercial law. Admitted in July 2024. Works in English and Mandarin, and carries much of the firm’s day to day corporate and contract work.
Australia and Germany
One team, both legal systems
Where a matter runs across both jurisdictions, the German side is handled by our Frankfurt office under German law, not passed to correspondent counsel and marked up. That is the practical difference: one team, one set of documents, and nobody translating between two firms at your cost.
Duty, land tax and the tax consequences of who owns the property sit with an accountant. We work with Accru Felsers through the German Professional Services Alliance, and on a purchase through a trust or a company we want their view before the contract is signed, not after.
Related
Also relevant to a property
Send us the contract
Whether it is a contract for sale, a lease you have been handed, or a problem with a property you already own, send us the document. We will tell you what it commits you to, what we would change, and what it will cost to deal with.
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