48Service of notices(1)

The 1993 Act is modified as follows.

(2)

For section 55 (service of notices) substitute—

55Service of notices(1)

Any notice or other document required or authorised by or under this Act to be given to or served on a person may be given or served—

(a)

by being delivered personally to the person,

(b)

by being sent to the proper address of the person—

(i)

by a registered post service (as defined in section 125(1) of the Postal Services Act 2000), or

(ii)

by a postal service which provides for the delivery of the document to be recorded,

(c)

by being transmitted to the person electronically.

(2)

But where any notice or other document required or authorised by or under this Act to be given to or served on a person as being the person having any interest in land and it is not practicable after reasonable inquiry to ascertain their name or address, it may be given or served—

(a)

by addressing the notice to “The person with an interest in the land” (describing the land), and

(b)

either—

(i)

delivering the notice personally to some responsible person on the land, or

(ii)

affixing it (or a copy of it) to some conspicuous object on the land.

(3)

For the purposes of subsection (1)(b), the proper address of a person is—

(a)

in the case of a body corporate, the address of the registered or principal office of the body,

(b)

in the case of a partnership, the address of the principal office of the partnership,

(c)

in any other case, the last known address of the person.

(4)

For the purposes of subsection (1)(c)—

(a)

electronic transmission of a document must be effected in a way that the recipient has indicated to the sender that the recipient is willing to receive the document,

(b)

the recipient’s indication of willingness to receive a document in a particular way may be—

(i)

specific to the document in question or generally applicable to documents of that kind,

(ii)

expressed specifically to the sender or generally (for example on a website),

(iii)

inferred from the recipient having previously been willing to receive documents from the sender in that way and not having indicated unwillingness to do so again,

(c)

the sender’s uploading of a document to an electronic storage system from which the recipient is able to download the document may constitute electronic transmission of the document.

(5)

Where a document is served as mentioned in subsection (1)(b) on an address in the United Kingdom it is to be taken to have been received 48 hours after it is sent unless the contrary is shown.

(6)

Where a document is served as mentioned in subsection (1)(c) it is to be taken to have been received 48 hours after it is sent unless the contrary is shown.