To Spam or Not to Spam- Statutory Notices and Service by Email
A recent decision regarding taxi licensing has caught my eye, courtesy of a report by the excellent barristers at Francis Taylor Building who acted on the case. Given that I mostly write about property and housing matters you might wonder why I have suddenly developed an interest in taxi licensing. Sadly, I haven’t! But this decision has important implications across a range of local authority enforcement matters.
In this case Maidstone Council sought to revoke a taxi driver’s licence. They emailed him a notice to that effect rather than posting it. The notice went into the spam folder for the taxi driver’s email and so he did not get it for some time. As a result he missed the strict 21 day time limit for appealing such a revocation to the Magistrates. It was argued before the Magistrates and then before the High Court that the time limit had not stared to run until the email was actually seen by the taxi driver because it had not been properly served.
New Case Law on Service of Gas Safety Certificates, EPC and How to Rent Guide
The valid service of the accompanying documents - Gas Safety Certificates, EPC and How to Rent guide as per the Deregulation Act 2015, for the purpose of serving a valid Section 21 notice was considered in the case of D’Aubigny v Khan & Anor.
Background
Ms D’Aubigny was the tenant under an assured shorthold tenancy (AST).
The landlords (The Khans) served a Section 21 notice.
The tenant challenged the validity of the Section 21 notice, claiming that she had not received the accompanying documents.
The landlords had served all documents by post to the tenant.
Issue
The tenant argued that not only had she not received the prescribed documents, but there was also no clause in the tenancy agreement which permits service of notices and documents by post.
The landlords argued that the tenancy agreement included a clause which allowed service of the prescribed documents by post but in any event Section 7 of the Interpretation Act 1978 (“the Act”) applied, which permits service by post.