Acquisition of Land Act 1981

6 Service of documents. E+W

(1) Any notice or other document required or authorised to be served under this Act may be served on any person either by delivering it to him, or by leaving it at his proper address, or by post, so however that the document shall not be duly served by post unless it is sent by registered letter, or by the recorded delivery service.

(2) Any such document required or authorised to be served upon an incorporated company or body shall be duly served if it is served upon the secretary or clerk of the company or body.

(3) For the purposes of this section and of section 7 of the M1 Interpretation Act 1978 the proper address of any person upon whom any such document as aforesaid is to be served shall, in the case of the secretary or clerk of any incorporated company or body, be that of the registered or principal office of the company or body, and in any other case be the last known address of the person to be served:

Provided that where the person to be served has furnished an address for service, his proper address for the purposes aforesaid shall be the address furnished.

(4) If the authority or Minister having jurisdiction to make the order in connection with which the document is to be served is satisfied that reasonable inquiry has been made and that it is not practicable to ascertain the name or address of an owner, lessee [F1 , tenant] or occupier of land on whom any such document as aforesaid is to be served, the document may be served by addressing it to him by the description of “owner”, “lessee” [F2 , “tenant”] or “occupier” of the land (describing it) to which it relates, and by delivering it to some person on the [F3 land or, if there is no person on the land to whom it may be delivered, by leaving it or a copy of it on or near the land].

[F4 (5) Any notice or other document required or authorised to be served on a person under this Act may be served by sending it to an email address or uploading it to a website at which the person has agreed in writing to receive notices or documents for the purposes of the compulsory purchase order to which the notice or document relates.

(6) Any notice or other document required or authorised to be served under this Act on—

(a) an acquiring authority,

(b) a confirming authority,

(c) an inspector,

(d) a local authority, or

(e) a statutory undertaker,

may also be served electronically by a method mentioned in subsection (7).

(7) The methods of electronic service are—

(a) sending the notice or document to an appropriate email address, or

(b) uploading the notice or document to an appropriate website.

(8) For the purposes of subsection (7)—

(a) an email address or website is an appropriate one for the service of notices or documents if the person being served has—

(i) provided the email address or details of the website to the sender for the purposes of communicating with them about land subject to the compulsory purchase order or about the order itself, or

(ii) published the fact that the email address or the website may be used for those purposes;

(b) an email address is also an appropriate one for the service of notices or documents if the person being served has previously used it for the purposes of communicating with the sender about land subject to the compulsory purchase order or about the order itself.

(9) A notice or other document sent electronically is, unless the contrary is proved, to be treated as having been received on the working day immediately following the day on which it was sent.

(10) In this section—

• “inspector” means a person appointed under section 14D;

• “local authority” means a local authority within the meaning of section 7(1) or section 17(4);

• “statutory undertaker” includes the persons mentioned in section 16(3) and in the definition of statutory undertaker in section 17(4);

• “working day” means a day other than a Saturday, a Sunday, Christmas Day, Good Friday or a bank holiday under the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971 in England and Wales.

(11) This section does not apply to a communication required or authorised to be sent under this Act to the High Court.]

Textual Amendments

F1 Word in s. 6(4) inserted (6.8.2004 for specified purposes, 31.10.2004 in so far as not already in force) by Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 (c. 5), s. 100(2)(a) (with s. 100(8)); S.I. 2004/2097, art. 2; S.I. 2004/2593, art. 2(a)

F2 Word in s. 6(4) inserted (6.8.2004 for specified purposes, 31.10.2004 in so far as not already in force) by Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 (c. 5), s. 100(2)(b) (with s. 100(8)); S.I. 2004/2097, art. 2; S.I. 2004/2593, art. 2(a)

F3 Words in s. 6(4) substituted (25.09.1991) by Planning and Compensation Act 1991 (c. 34, SIF 28:1), s. 70, Sch. 15, para8; S.I. 1991/2067, art.3.

F4 S. 6(5)-(11) inserted (18.2.2026) by Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 (c. 34), ss. 105(1), 118(5)(a) (with ss. 105(4)(5), 116)

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C1 S. 6 applied (13. 2. 1992) by British Railways Act 1992 (c. i), s.17(2).

C2 S. 6 applied (with modifications) (18.12.1996) by 1996 c. 61, s. 2, Sch. 2 paras. 6(8), 7(8)

S. 6 applied (with modifications) (21.7.1994) by 1994 c. xi, s. 23(2)(with s. 39)

S. 6 applied (with modifications) (21.7.1994) by 1994 c. xv, s. 22(b)(with s. 47)

C3 S. 6 applied (with modifications) (22.7.2008) by Crossrail Act 2008 (c. 18), Sch. 2 paras. 5(8), 6(8)

Marginal Citations

M1 1978 c. 30.