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Commercial landlords in England and Wales have been operating under considerable uncertainty about the future of energy efficiency requirements for some time. The current minimum standard, an EPC E rating, has been in place since 2018, but successive consultations have pointed toward a significantly higher threshold, leaving landlords and their advisers working toward targets that…

When a tenant approaches a commercial landlord with a request to sublet, the consent process can appear straightforward on the surface. Check the lease, instruct solicitors, issue a licence. The risks of getting it wrong, however, are anything but straightforward. A poorly assessed consent decision can erode rental tone across an estate, introduce operationally incompatible…

Construction disputes usually present as arguments about delay, defective work or payment. Look behind many of them, though, and the real cause can often be traced back to something that was never properly resolved before the contract was signed. A specification didn’t match the drawings, or a programme assumed something the contract didn’t actually provide…

The sale of leasehold property can become significantly more complicated where completion depends upon a landlord consenting to the sale. In Mulberry Homes (Hazel Grove) Ltd v Scoto Ltd, the High Court considered how that requirement interacts with the contractual provisions governing completion and rescission contained in the Standard Commercial Property Conditions. The court was…

The Construction Industry Scheme  (CIS) has long been a feature of the tax landscape for those working in and around the built environment, but it has rarely troubled conventional real estate finance arrangements. That position was tested sharply in May 2026. A change to HMRC’s internal guidance, followed swiftly by a further revision in June,…

When a contractor fails, the consequences seldom stop at the contractor itself. For a developer, the insolvency of a main contractor can freeze a construction programme overnight, place funding arrangements under immediate strain, push practical completion beyond the dates promised to purchasers and tenants, and set off disputes running the length of the supply chain. …