The only franchising laws in Australia at the moment protect the Franchisor's and the franchisee is left totally out in the cold. My husband and I had a "Reputable" established Australian Card and Gift franchise for 4 1/2 years and lost in excess of $500K and have had to liquidate our business and declare personal bankruptcy. Our store has been reopened by the Franchisor and is back up for sale. Do they have to declare our situation to any prospective franchisee? No. The just have to say we chose to leave, they can then tell the prospective franchisee that we were bad operators even though we won local business awards in our category and increased turnover in our store by 40% in the first 12 months.

When our figures started to drop due to local retail expansion our franchisor came to see us to we thought see what they could do to help, only to let us know that we had "Retail Leprosy" and that the problem was our fault. After we approached our Centre Manager and they agreed that they would and could find someone to take over our site so we could get out we had a meeting with the Franchisor and asked them to write to the Centre confirming this was OK with them as they had the head lease. The agreed and then changed their minds and refused. They forced us to trade another 12 months until the end of our lease, we had a closing down sale and three weeks later they reopened the store in the same location for 2 months reemployed our staff, then moved it to a new location and are now trying to sell it.

What legal ramifications are there for them? NONE and even if there was we have nothing left to fund it anyway.

Something has to be done to prevent other families loosing their life savings, home and health.

Regards
LJSV