The Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal) (Property Chamber) Rules 2013

Provision of documents

16.—(1) Any document to be provided under these Rules, a practice direction or a direction must be—

(a) sent by prepaid post or by document exchange, or delivered by hand to the address specified in paragraph (5);

(b) sent by fax to the number specified for the proceedings;

(c) as regards any document sent or delivered to or by the Tribunal, by such other method as the Tribunal may permit; or

(d) as regards any document to be sent or delivered by a method other than one provided for by sub-paragraphs (a), (b) or (c) or another paragraph in this rule, by such other method as the recipient may permit.

(2) The Tribunal may provide any document (including any notice or summons or other information) under these Rules by—

(a) itself sending or delivering the document; or

(b) requiring a party to do so.

(3) In any case to which section 39, 41 or 53 of the 1986 Act applies, the applicant, not the Tribunal, must send or deliver a copy of the application and accompanying documents to the landlord of the agricultural holding to which the application relates and to any other person known to the applicant to be interested in the outcome of the application.

(4) If the Tribunal permits or directs documents to be provided to it by email, any requirement in these Rules for a signature on a document may be satisfied by a typed instead of a handwritten signature.

(5) Subject to paragraph (6), the address for the purposes of paragraph (1)(a) is—

(a) in the case of the Tribunal, the address of the office of the Tribunal;

(b) in the case of an incorporated company or other body registered in the United Kingdom, the address of the registered or principal office of the company or body or any alternative address notified by that company or body to the Tribunal and all other parties for the purposes of provision of documents;

(c) in the case of any other person, body or authority, the usual or last known address of that person, body or authority.

(6) The Tribunal and each party may assume that the address provided by a party or its representative or, in a reference, by the registrar is and remains the address to which documents should be sent or delivered until receiving written notification to the contrary and an alternative address for communications.

(7) Subject to paragraph (8), if a party provides a fax number, email address or other details for the electronic transmission of documents to them, that party must accept delivery of documents by that method.

(8) If a party informs the Tribunal and all other parties that a particular form of communication, other than pre-paid post or delivery by hand, should not be used to provide documents to that party, that form of communication must not be used.

(9) If the Tribunal or a party sends a document to another party or to the Tribunal by email or any other electronic means of communication, the recipient may request that the sender provide a hard copy of the document to the recipient. The recipient must make such a request as soon as reasonably practicable after receiving the document electronically.

(10) Unless the Tribunal otherwise permits, where a document is provided for the purposes of the proceedings is or contains a map, plan, drawing or photograph, any copy provided of that map, plan or drawing must be in the same colours as the map, plan, drawing or photograph of which it is a copy, and in agricultural land and drainage cases, maps of any holding or land must be to a scale of 1:10,000 or larger.

(11) The Tribunal may waive a requirement under these Rules to send or deliver a notice or other document to a person or make an order for provision by alternative method (whether by advertisement in a newspaper or otherwise) as the Tribunal may think fit if that person—

(a) cannot be found after all diligent enquiries have been made;

(b) has died and has no personal representative;

(c) is out of the United Kingdom; or

(d) for any other reason a notice or other document cannot readily be sent or delivered to that person in accordance with these Rules.

(12) Where an enactment requires evidence that a party has supplied any person with a document, that party may satisfy the requirement by providing a certificate signed by the party confirming that the document was provided in accordance with the requirements of this rule.