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Companies

Lease removal

A deregistered company has a lease over your property.

Where a deregistered company is a lessee of your property you may be able to apply to ASIC to have a registered lease removed from the property title so you can re-lease the property.

A registered lease is a lease that has been registered over the property at the land titles office.

ASIC may – but is not obliged to – complete an outstanding obligation on behalf of a deregistered company and execute a surrender of lease.

Alternative remedies you must try before applying to ASIC

1. Request to titles office directly

ASIC exercises its powers under the Act as a last resort only and not usually where another legal remedy is available.

The re-entry remedy is still available despite deregistration of the lessee. You must firstly contact the land titles office about using the re-entry provision under the relevant state/territory legislation. If this process requires any notices to be served on the deregistered company, then they should be addressed to the deregistered company and served c/o to property.law@asic.gov.au.

ASIC has no objection to the Land Titles Office removing the lease under state legislation. You can refer the Land Titles Office to this website when making your application.

Examples of the re-entry provisions include:

  • ACT - Section 87 of the Land Titles Act 1925 (ACT)
  • NSW - Section 55 of the Real Property Act 1900 (NSW)
  • NT - Section70 of the Land Title Act (NT)
  • QLD - Section 68 of the Land Title Act 1994 (Qld)
  • SA - Section 126 of the Real Property Act 1886 (SA)
  • TAS - Section 68 of the Land Titles Act 1980 (Tas)
  • VIC - Section 70 of the Transfer of Land Act 1958 (Vic)
  • WA - Section 104 of the Transfer of Land Act 1893 (WA)

For more information on removing leases please contact the relevant Land Titles Office.

2. Reinstatement

Before making an application for ASIC to deal with the property, you should ask via asic.gov.au/question if reinstatement of the company by ASIC is available. If it is, then it will be more convenient and perhaps more cost-effective for you. Reinstatement is also appropriate if you are seeking to recover any outstanding debt owing by the deregistered lessee.

See Apply to ASIC to reinstate a company for more information.

How to apply to ASIC for a surrender of lease

If the alternative remedies outlined above are not available to you then you may wish to apply to ASIC's Property Law Team for a surrender of lease.

Checklist: Surrender of Lease under s601AF

Use this checklist to prepare, and then submit, your application to ASIC:

Download PDF Checklist: Surrender of Lease under s601AF (PDF 296 KB)

Instructions for submitting your application are contained in the Checklist.

You will also need to complete the following indemnity.

Indemnity: Surrender of release

This indemnity is to be used when making an application to ASIC's Property Law Group for the surrender of a lease over your property in the name of a deregistered company.

Download draft indemnity: Surrender of release (word 59KB)

More information

This is only a general guide as to ASIC's approach to the property and rights that pass to ASIC and the Commonwealth on deregistration of a company. This document does not represent legal advice and should not be interpreted as such. Each application or enquiry will be considered on its facts and decided on its individual merits, based on all the information available to ASIC at the time. We encourage you to seek your own professional advice to find out how the law applying to deregistered companies affects your individual circumstances.