First Principles of Business Law

3. Property rights in chattels

3.5.1. Bailment of chattels

In this section we consider circumstances in which an owner might temporarily give someone possession of their chattels, while retaining ownership of them. We can generally refer to such circumstances as instances of 'bailment'. The owner of the property is the bailor and the person who temporarily possesses it is the bailee.

However, it is important to realise that the exact nature of any particular bailment depends on the agreed purpose for which possession of the property in question is handed over.

The different kinds of bailment that are explained in this section are:

• Bailment for reward
• Bailment for safekeeping
• Bailment for repair
• Gratuitous bailment for use