Chattel meaning

What is the background to the Act? In 2020 the Ministry of Justice tasked the Law Commission with examining the legal framework for crypto-tokens and other digital assets. That workstream, encompassing a review, consultation and a series of reports, resulted in recommendations for the Bill that became the Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025. What does the Act do? Before the Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 commenced on 2 December 2025, English law recognised only two categories of personal property: ‘things in possession’: typically, tangible items such as a chattel; and ‘things in action’: generally, legal rights that are enforceable by court action. The Act’s aim and effect is to make clear that where there is a ‘thing’ (i.e. something not given a particular name) which does not fall within the established meanings of ‘thing in possession’ or ‘thing in action’, that alone does not stop it from being the subject of a personal property right...

Questions about bailment frequently surface within the art sphere. For instance, warehousing or freight operators may owe bailment obligations when holding and/or moving artworks or other chattels. Lending pieces and/or using artworks as security or collateral can also create bailment relationships. Claims founded on breach of contract and/or negligence often additionally plead bailment. Further illustrations appear throughout this Practice Note. Bailment is a nuanced field. This Practice Note concentrates on bailment issues in the context of art law. For a fuller outline of bailment law generally, see Practice Note: Bailment. See also Q&A: How are damages quantified when bailed goods have been negligently lost? For a summary of aspects of art law pertinent to Private Client practitioners, see Practice Note: Art law-introduction for Private Client practitioners. Additional examples are set out across this Practice Note. What is bailment? Put simply, a bailment may arise at common law where one party assumes temporary possession of another party’s goods, for example: a collector, the bailor, delivers an...

When transferring an interest in land (whether freehold or leasehold) On a transfer of a land interest, and unless the contract states otherwise: fixtures are treated as part of the land and pass with the property; and fittings (also called chattels) are not part of the land and are excluded. It is not always straightforward to decide if a given item is a fixture or a fitting. That uncertainty can trigger disagreements over whether the item is included in the sale. It can also create difficulties when splitting the purchase price between the property and any chattels comprised in the sale for stamp duty land tax (SDLT)/land transaction tax (LTT) purposes (see: Tax—fixtures and fittings below). Under a lease, as between landlord and tenant, the drafting may mean an item is classed as a landlord’s fixture, a tenant’s fixture, or a fitting/chattel, and that classification can affect repairing obligations, reinstatement, insurance, rent review and the position on yielding up...

This Practice Note This Practice Note reviews principal UK legal matters connected to the deployment of unmanned aircraft, or drones, for leisure and business purposes. Unmanned aircraft systems are typically grouped into three broad classes recognised by regulators, covering the spectrum of activities relevant to recreational and commercial use in the UK context. The largest platforms, such as those designed for carrying passengers or for extended-range military use, are regulated as if they were crewed aircraft. Accordingly, they face comprehensive rules: airframe certification and registration, pilot licences, and operating procedures comparable to those applied in conventional civil aviation operations. This Practice Note does not address that class. A second class encompasses operations that cannot satisfy conventional certification, yet can be shown to be safe in practice. For many years, aviation authorities have possessed, and sometimes been obliged to exercise, powers to authorise such activities via permit-to-fly regimes, or by exempting operators from specified aeronautical rules. Often, these permissions or waivers carry platform-specific conditions or constraints tailored to the particular...

This Deed is dated [ date ] Parties [ insert name of Chargor ], a company incorporated in England and Wales, registered number [ insert company number ], with its registered office at [ insert address ] (the Chargor) [ insert name of Lender ] of [ insert address ] (the Lender) Recitals: The Lender has consented to provide a loan facility to the Chargor on the terms and conditions contained in the Facility Agreement (as defined below). As a condition precedent to the availability of that loan facility, the Chargor is required to enter into this Deed to grant security in favour of the Lender for the Secured Obligations (as defined below). ...