Fixture meaning

Banking & Finance—December 2025 and January 2026 case round-up Skyros Maritime Corp and another company v Hapag-Lloyd AG ‘Skyros’ & ‘Agios Minas’ [2025] EWCA Civ 1529 Shipping finance—charterparty damages for late redelivery of vessels The Court of Appeal allowed the owners’ appeal from the Commercial Court concerning damages arising from the delayed redelivery of time‑chartered container ships. The vessels, ‘SKYROS’ and ‘AGIOS MINAS’, were returned late in breach of the charterparties by Hapag‑Lloyd, after the owners had already arranged to sell them. The central question was whether the owners could obtain substantial damages—calculated as the gap between market and charter rates—for the overrun period even though they had no plan to re‑fix the ships. The Court of Appeal confirmed they could. Applying the settled maritime principle, damages for late redelivery are assessed by reference to the market rate, irrespective of whether the owner would, in fact, have gone back into the market to secure a new fixture. When quantifying loss, the owners’ post‑redelivery plans were...

In this issue: Property management Insurance Easements, rights and covenants Property development Statutory compliance Residential property Transferring property Property taxes Property in Scotland Additional property updates this week Daily and weekly news alerts Trackers New Q&A Property management No recovery of landlord’s legal costs via service charge In Triplark Ltd v Martin Howard [2025] UKUT 232 (LC), the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) confirmed that a landlord could not pass legal costs through a service charge where the lease wording addressed only building management. The Tribunal stressed that service charge clauses must state, in clear and unequivocal terms, that legal costs are recoverable. The landlord had attempted to recoup £55,492.23—covering general legal advice, litigation expenditure, and costs from actions against third parties—under a provision allowing recovery of ‘proper fees salaries charges and expenses’ tied to management of the building. Applying Arnold v Britton [2015] UKSC 36 and following Sella House Ltd...

In this issue: Key developments and horizon scanning Disputes and remedies Repairing obligations and dilapidations Service charges Enforcing security and property insolvency Contractual issues Property disputes in Scotland Additional Property Disputes updates LexTalk®Property Disputes: a Lexis®Nexis community Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Key developments and horizon scanning Renters' Rights Bill receives Royal Assent On 27 October 2025, the Renters’ Rights Bill gained Royal Assent, becoming the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 (RRA 2025). Among its reforms, RRA 2025 scraps Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions and introduces a streamlined tenancy model, under which all assured tenancies are periodic. Further headline measures include establishing a Private Rented Sector Ombudsman with binding dispute resolution powers and creating a comprehensive Private Rented Sector Database to strengthen regulation. The Act also mandates applying both the Decent Homes Standard and Awaab’s Law (see below) to the private rented...

Tax relief for expenditure on fixtures A taxpayer can often obtain tax relief for expenditure on fixtures by claiming plant and machinery allowances. For wider guidance on the availability of plant and machinery allowances in general, see Practice Note: Plant and machinery allowances—types and rates, and for further detail on how allowances are claimed and calculated, see Practice Notes: How plant and machinery allowances are claimed—income tax and How plant and machinery allowances are claimed—corporation tax. To qualify for allowances, expenditure on fixtures must satisfy the same conditions that apply to other categories of plant, together with additional rules that are specific to fixtures...

Determining who holds intellectual property in the designs, drawings, specifications and similar materials created for a construction project is vital for all participants involved in the process. The copyright owner of the designs produced will wish to safeguard their rights, limit how and to what extent others may use them, and secure recourse and remedies where infringements occur. Conversely, parties that must reproduce or rely on the designs need to ensure they possess sufficient rights and permissions to permit such use. In the construction sphere, designs are commonly prepared by the architect, civil and M&E engineers, as well as by the contractor itself and its subcontractors. Consequently, clauses addressing copyright ownership are a standard fixture of professional appointments, building contracts and collateral warranties used on such projects. This Practice Note concentrates specifically on such provisions within a consultant’s appointment. Copyright in designs Copyright subsists automatically in any original artistic work; the author does not need to register their rights formally or apply for this protection. Under the Copyright,...

Class action litigation has long been a fixture of US courts, its modern trajectory often linked to the US Supreme Court’s decision in Green Tree Financial Corp v Bazzle, 539 U.S. 444 (2003) (Bazzle). US case law recognises that class disputes may proceed in arbitration where an arbitration agreement allows it. Persistent uncertainties remain, however, about what amounts to consent to class arbitration and whether that gateway issue is for a court or an arbitral tribunal to decide. Nevertheless, several prominent arbitral institutions have introduced rules addressing class arbitration. Note: the US judgments mentioned in this Practice Note are not reported by LexisNexis UK. What is class action dispute resolution? Class actions were created to manage alike claims held by many claimants within a single proceeding. A representative plaintiff brings the case on behalf of others in comparable positions and applies to the court to ‘certify’ the matter as a class action. Certification is governed by established criteria and is generally warranted only where numerous claimants assert similar...