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When a commercial lease approaches its end, the question of what a tenant leaves behind and what they take with them can become one of the most contested and financially significant issues in the entire landlord-tenant relationship. Reinstatement clauses sit at the heart of this question, yet they are frequently misunderstood, poorly drafted, or treated as an…

Construction payment disputes are governed by strict statutory notice requirements. Under the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 (as amended), both employers and contractors must serve notices within defined timeframes and with prescribed content if they wish to preserve their position on payment.  A question that had not been authoritatively resolved, until now, is what happens when a payment notice is defective. Does…

The commercial property market is facing a genuine reckoning. Office demand has fragmented in the wake of hybrid working. Retailers have restructured, surrendered space and in some cases disappeared entirely. Household names that once anchored buildings and business parks have downsized, entered CVAs or vacated without warning. The lesson of recent years is that covenant strength, that long-cherished proxy…

New lending for UK commercial real estate reached £52.7 billion in 2025, its highest level in a decade. The research, published by Bayes Business School, generated broadly positive headlines, and with good reason. A 29% year-on-year increase in new lending is a meaningful signal of returning confidence in the market after a difficult few years. But for many property…

For decades, the withholding of a retention payment has been a common feature of construction contracts across the UK and is provided for in many standard forms including JCT and NEC. Contractors have worked under a system in which a percentage of their agreed contract sum was withheld by clients and main contractors as security against defective work. For contractors lower down the supply chain, that has long meant operating with money earned but…

Buried in the Housing Act 1988 was a legal quirk with nothing to do with short-term renting, and everything to do with the security of people who owned their homes on long leases. For years it caused real difficulties for buyers, sellers and mortgage lenders. Quietly, in the background, without most of those affected ever knowing it was there.…