Building Safety Act 2022

29 Service of documents

(1) This section applies to a document required or authorised under this Part or Part 4, or regulations under either Part, to be given to a person; but this is subject to subsection (11).

(2) The document may be given by—

(a) delivering it by hand to the person,

(b) leaving it at the person’s proper address,

(c) sending it by post to the person at their proper address, or

(d) sending it by email to an electronic address at which the person has agreed to receive documents or has agreed to receive the document.

(3) The document may—

(a) in the case of a body corporate, be given in accordance with subsection (2) to an officer of the body;

(b) in the case of a partnership, be given in accordance with subsection (2) to a partner.

(4) For the purposes of this section, the “proper address” of a person (except an authorised officer of the regulator) is—

(a) in the case of a document to be given by or on behalf of the regulator to a person who has provided an address for service to the regulator, that address;

(b) subject to that—

(i) in the case of a body corporate (including a document given to an officer of the body), the address of its registered or principal office;

(ii) in the case of a partnership (including a document given to a partner), the address of its principal office;

(iii) in the case of any other person, their last known address.

(5) For the purposes of this section, the “proper address” of an authorised officer of the regulator is—

(a) the address specified by the officer, or

(b) if no address is specified, the address of the regulator’s principal office.

(6) If—

(a) the document is to be given to the person as the owner of any premises, a resident of any premises, or the accountable person of a higher-risk building, and

(b) the person’s name and proper address is not known, despite reasonable steps having been taken to ascertain it,

the document may be given by addressing it to the owner or resident of the premises (naming the premises) or the accountable person of the building (naming the building) and fixing it to a conspicuous part of the premises or building.

(7) A document left as mentioned in subsection (2)(b) is treated as given when it was left.

(8) A document sent as mentioned in subsection (2)(c) is treated as given 48 hours after it was sent, unless the contrary is proved.

(9) A document sent as mentioned in subsection (2)(d) is treated as given 24 hours after it was sent, unless the contrary is proved.

(10) A document fixed as mentioned in subsection (6) is treated as given 48 hours after it was fixed.

(11) This section does not apply to the giving of a document for which other provision is made by or under this Part or Part 4.

(12) In this section—

• “accountable person” has the same meaning as in Part 4 (see section 72);

• “agreed” means agreed in writing;

• “authorised officer” means a person in respect of whom an authorisation under section 22 is in force;

• “giving”: references to giving include similar expressions (such as serving);

• “specified” means specified in writing.