It is not unusual for residential property to be let to a corporate entity, to be used, for example, to provide a home for a director or other employee of the company, either by way of a sub-tenancy or more often a licence. The tenancy will usually provide for a permitted occupier and the terms of that occupation and will usually seek to ensure that a sub-tenancy is not created. The tenancy is governed by the terms of the contract entered into

Yes, bank holidays are excluded when calculating the time period in an adjudication under the Scheme for Construction Contracts. The Scheme for Construction Contracts (the Scheme) contains certain default provisions for the right to commence, and conduct of, an adjudication. Pursuant to section 108(5) of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 (HGCRA 1996), the provisions of the Scheme are implied into a construction contract if it is silent on, or contradicts, any of the requirements in subsections 108(1) to (4). In addition, some contracts that are not subject

A debtor under a regulated consumer credit agreement, a consumer hire agreement or a Regulated Mortgage Contract (RMC) may be granted more time by the court to repay a debt, if the court considers it just to make such an order. This protection enables the court, if it is just to do so, to redraw the terms of an agreement to reasonably reflect the customer’s ability to repay the debt within a reasonable period. The court’s discretion is based on balancing the interests of the firm and the customer. The time order provisions

This Practice Note contains a jurisdiction-specific Q&A guide to cloud computing in Austria published as part of the Lexology Getting the Deal Through series by Law Business Research (published: September 2022). Authors: MGLP Rechtsanwälte | Attorneys-at-Law—Árpád Geréd 1. What kinds of cloud computing transactions take place in your jurisdiction? Austria has seen a rising adoption of cloud computing applications in recent years. Although less than a decade ago the legal possibility of using cloud computing was still widely discussed, now most Austrian businesses make use of cloud computing offerings, ranging from full cloud-sourcing to single applications. Of the various XaaS offerings, the use of infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) as well as software-as-a-service (SaaS) are the most prevalent. Due to the large amount of small and medium-sized businesses, cloud storage and backup solutions as well as cloud applications are statistically used most and have a very high acceptance in relation to the number of businesses. This is also due to even small IT service providers offering managed or cloud solutions, usually related to storage and backup. Those offerings are hosted either

Agile software development methods are now being widely used in the IT sector and are increasingly advocated as preferable to the traditional waterfall development model. However, contracting for agile software development projects remains a challenge. Most standard software development contracts were designed for use with the waterfall model and can be difficult to reconcile with the principles that underpin Agile working practices. What is Agile? ‘Agile’ is an umbrella term for a number of different software development models or methods (including Scrum, Extreme Programming (XP), Crystal Clear and Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM)). A detailed overview of these development models is beyond the scope of this Practice Note. However, for further information about how Agile development models work in practice, see Bird & Bird’s Position Paper: Contracting for Agile software development projects. Waterfall v Agile Software Methodologies—key distinctions The waterfall model The key feature of the waterfall model is that it is sequential—development of the software in a single process — the project is divided into a sequence of separate phases (ie design, coding, testing

Dispute Resolution Analysis: There has been a recent increase in group litigation claims in England and Wales including competition actions, financial services claims and personal injury claims. Product liability claims have existed for a long time, but England and Wales are seeing a rise in this type of litigation, which may also be commenced as a group action. In this article, Sophia Whiteman of Lanier, Longstaff, Hedar & Roberts LLP, briefly outlines the legal principles which apply to a typical product liability claim and discusses the factors which are likely to have contributed to the growth of these claims in England and Wales.

This week’s edition of Construction weekly highlights includes a Court of Appeal decision on the ‘residential occupier’ exclusion from the adjudication regime under the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 (HGCRA 1996) (RBH v James), a case in which the Technology and Construction Court (TCC) considered the extent of an adjudicator’s power to revise completion dates and several matters of contractual interpretation (Mace v Baltic Investment), publication of a United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Working Group II report on its 83rd session addressing electronic arbitral awards and the use of AI in dispute resolution, and the UK Supreme Court (UKSC) and Judicial Committee of the Privy Council’s (JCPC) Business Plan for 2026–29.

This Practice Note considers the role of prime brokers and also sets out a brief overview of some of the services prime brokerage firms typically provide to their clients, (including alternative investment funds (AIF) and their managers), with a particular focus on AIFs in the UK and the EU. It also sets out an overview of regulatory areas relevant to prime brokers (for example, material EU changes under Directive (EU) 2024/927 (AIFMD II), including updated depositary, disclosure and reporting requirements; and current UK supervisory focus on disclosure quality, margining, operational resilience and non-bank leverage). What is prime brokerage? ‘Prime brokerage firms’ (investment banks or other financial institutions) may provide ‘prime brokerage services (both terms are defined in the Glossary of the FCA Handbook (FCA glossary) , as further detailed below), for instance to an AIF or other large investment client. As noted in a January 2025 speech published by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) delivered by its Executive Director for Authorisations, Regulatory Technology and International Supervision, Rebecca Jackson on prime brokerage (Rebecca Jackson speech), in practice, prime brokerage

This week's edition of Commercial weekly highlights includes: the Court of Appeal decision in Winros Partnership v Global Energy Horizons Corporation which considered recovery of solicitors' fees under conditional fee agreements where termination of the agreement occurred before the contractual entitlement to payment arose, the decision in Socar Trading SA v City Trade and Investment SA which considered the interpretation of minimum quantity obligations in a sales contract during trial delivery periods, and news that the Equality and Human Rights Commission's draft updated code of practice for services, public functions and associations has been laid before Parliament.

Dispute Resolution analysis: The First Chamber of the European Court of Justice has ruled that a person who contracts with a foreign exchange brokerage to use its online trading platform should be regarded as a ‘consumer’ for the purposes of the jurisdiction provisions of Regulation (EU) 1215/2012, Brussels I (recast), if the person is not using the platform for professional activity. Such users would therefore be entitled to sue the brokerage which operates the platform in their home courts, irrespective of the provisions of the underlying contract. Written by David Juckles, barrister, at Hailsham Chambers.

Employment analysis: Where a litigant in person asserts that they have been subject to detrimental treatment, and resigned as a result, consideration should be given to whether constructive dismissal is being asserted, to avoid falling into the ‘constructive dismissal trap’. Whether or not there has been a constructive dismissal can be relevant not only to dismissal claims but also to contractual claims before the employment tribunal, for example if there has been a constructive dismissal the employer will not be able to rely on a post-termination clause in the employment contract to recoup recruitment fees, according to the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT).

Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) has published Offshore Wind Insight 2026, a report assessing opportunities and challenges across the global and UK offshore wind market. The report outlines ongoing market consolidation, a high level of unsuccessful auctions internationally and continued cost pressures driven by inflation and the cost of capital. Despite these challenges, the report notes that the UK is expected to reach around 18.8 GW of installed offshore wind capacity by the end of 2026, with capacity additions linked to projects awarded contracts through the Contract for Difference (CfD) Allocation Round 7 (AR7), which allocated 8.4 GW.