CONTENT OVERVIEW
- Identifying the Requirements of a Valid Notice
- The Interpretation of Notices
- Common Issues
- Waiver, Estoppel and the Withdrawal of Notices
- Service at Common Law
- Service Pursuant to Contractual Provisions
- Methods of Service Authorised by Statute
- Appendices
- Index
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FULL CONTENT DETAILS
Identifying the Requirements of a Valid Notice
Introduction, The ‘two-stage approach’, The policy of upholding notices that achieve their purpose, ‘Mandatory requirements’ and ‘directory requirements’ , Statutory notices, Examples of requirements of notices that have been held to be directory (ie where non-compliance with the requirement has been held not to invalidate a notice), Contractual notices, ‘Formal requirements’, Requirements merely to convey a particular meaning, ‘Formal requirements’, The significance of the distinction between requirements to convey a particular meaning and ‘formal requirements’, Prescribed forms and forms ‘substantially to the like effect’ etc, The general approach of the court: does the inaccuracy or omission go to the substance of the notice?, The omission of material that would have been irrelevant to the actual recipient, It is irrelevant whether the actual recipient was, in fact, prejudiced, The adoption of a version of a prescribed form that has been superseded, Inaccuracies in ‘particulars’
The Interpretation of Notices
Introduction: the general principles for interpreting documents, The decision in Mannai Investment v Eagle Star, The facts of Mannai Investment, The interpretation of the break clause, The interpretation of the notice, Contractual and statutory notices fall to be interpreted in the same way, The ‘reasonable recipient’ would have to be in no doubt, The test is objective: it is irrelevant how the recipient or the server interpreted a notice, The server’s subjective interpretation of a notice is irrelevant, The actual recipient’s subjective interpretation of a notice is irrelevant, The ‘objective contextual scene’ against which notices fall to be interpeted, Covering letters, Other notices, Rent demands and litigation, Matters of which the server and/or recipient were unaware (including material in the public domain), The non-factual background, Would a reasonable recipient have had legal advice?, Types of ‘defect’ amenable to the reasoning in Mannai Investment
Common Issues
Is a written notice required?, Fraudulent statements, Proposals and requests, The server’s motivation Signatures, What is a signature?, Signatures in covering letters, Signatures of agents, Signatures of companies, Notices served ‘without prejudice’ to a previous notice, Notices served ‘subject to contract’ or ‘without prejudice’, Inconsistencies, Ascertaining when a notice is required to be served, Provisions apparently requiring service of a notice on a particular date, Provisions specifying a period during which a notice must be served, Provisions requiring service ‘not less than’ a specified period before an event, Consequence of missing a deadline for the service of a notice, The usual rule, Rent review notices, Specification of the date of expiry of a notice, The identity of the correct server and recipient, Legal proprietors, An apparent exception to the general rule: service of a notice to quit following the death of the tenant, Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1994, s 18, Joint owners, The correct server of a notice where a legal estate is jointly owned, The general rule: notices must be served by, or on behalf of, all of any joint owners , An exception to the general rule: notices to quit, Another exception to the general rule: Agricultural Holdings Act 1923, s 12, The identity of the recipient of a notice where an estate in land is vested in joint owners, Misidentification of the server, Notices identifying an agent as the server, Misidentification of the recipient, Law of Property(Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1994, s 17(1)
Waiver, Estoppel and the Withdrawal of Notices
Introduction: waiver and estoppel, Loss of a right to serve, or to rely upon, a notice, Loss of a right to object to the fact that no notice has been served, Loss of a right to dispute the validity of a notice, Loss by a recipient of an entitlement to dispute the validity of a notice, Invalid method of service, Service by the wrong person, Service after a contractual deadline, Incorrect date for the expiry of a notice, Defective contents, Loss by the server of a right to dispute the validity of a notice, Limitations on the application of estoppel and waiver, An estoppel cannot be used as ‘a sword’ to create a cause of action, Public policy may prevent a waiver or an estoppel from defeating a statutory right, Withdrawal of notices, Consensual ‘withdrawal’ or ‘retraction’ of a notice to quit or a break notice
Service at Common Law
Introduction, Service by the person entitled to serve the notice (or his agent), Service by agents, Service by sub-agents, Ratification by the principal, ‘Validation’ by the acquisition by the server of an invalid notice of an interest that would have entitled him to serve the notice, Service on the recipient (or his agent), A notice must be received by, or come to the attention of, the recipient, The presumed sequence in which notices are deemed to have been served, Service on an agent of the recipient, Solicitors, Managing agents and the like, Servants, Rent collectors, Service on a recipient incapable of understanding a notice, ‘Indirect’ service and the misidentification of the principal, The same person as the server and the recipient
Service Pursuant to Contractual Provisions
Introduction, Methods of service, ‘By post’, At the recipient’s ‘last known address’, Consequences of failing to adopt a contractual method of service
Methods of Service Authorised by Statute
Introduction, The purpose of statutory methods of service, Human rights, The statutory provisions do not exhaustively prescribe how notices can be served, Can the statutory provisions relating to service be used ‘as an engine of fraud’?, Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1994, ss 17 and 18, Section 17: Server unaware of death, Section 18: Service prior to the grant of representation, Law of Property Act 1925, s 196, To what types of notice does s 196 apply?, (i) Notices required or authorised by the Law of Property Act 1925 to be served, (ii) Notices required to be served by any instrument affecting property executed or coming into operation after the commencement of [the Law of Property Act 1925] unless a contrary indication appears, The methods of service authorised by the Law of Property Act 1925, s 196, (i) Leaving the notice at the last-known place of abode or business
in the United Kingdom of the person to be served, (ii) Affixing or leaving a notice at demised or mortgaged premises, or the office or counting-house of a mine, (iii) Sending the notice by registered post or recorded delivery, Landlord and Tenant Act 1927, s 23, To what notices does the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927, s 23 apply?, Methods of service authorised by the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927, s 23,(i) Personal service, (ii) Leaving the notice at the recipient’s last known place of abode in England and Wales, (iii) Sending the notice by registered post or recorded delivery, (iv) Service upon the landlord’s predecessor in title, Methods of service not exhaustive, Service on the agent of a tenant, The relationship between the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927, s 23(1) and the Interpretation Act 1978, s 7, The Agricultural Holdings Act 1986, s 93, Methods of service authorised by the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986, s 93, (i) Delivering the notice to the recipient, (ii) Leaving the notice at the recipient’s proper address, (iii) Sending the notice to the recipient by post in a registered letter or by the recorded delivery service, Service on agents and servants, Change of landlord, agricultural Tenancies Act 1995, s 36 150, Methods of service authorised by the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995, s 36, Other statutes
Appendix
Directory of Authorities About Property Notices Referred to in the Text, Common law property notices (other than landlord and tenant notices), Common law landlord and tenant notices, Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Act 1920, Agricultural Holdings Act 1923, Agricultural Holdings Act 1948, Housing Repairs and Rents Act 1954, Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, Leasehold Reform Act 1967, Agricultural Holdings (Notices to Quit) Act 1977, Rent Act 1977, Housing Act 1980, Agricultural Holdings Act 1986, Landlord and Tenant Act 1987, Housing Act 1988, Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act 1995, Appendix 2, Mannai Investment Co Ltd v Eagle Star Life Assurance Co Ltd
Index
