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Address for service

including wills and probate
brightncheerful
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Address for service

#174446

Postby brightncheerful » October 17th, 2018, 2:24 pm

I am advising the tenant of a commercial property where the landlord is a limited company that is registered in the Isle of Man.

The Isle of Man is not part of the UK or EU but has the status of 'crown dependency’ with an independent administration.

I want to serve notice on the landlord.

According to the register of title (of the property), the address for service has changed but there is no information in the register as to the whereabouts. I am going to assume it would be the registered office.

A representative of the landlord (not an officer of the company and whose claim to represent has not been proven to me in a document signed by an authorised signatory pp the landlord) has told me that the address for service can either be the registered office in IoM or c/o of a different address of an unconnected/related party in England and Wales.

Apart from the fact that it doesn't make sense, at least not to me, for a limited company to have different addresses for purpose of service, I am not going to use the E&W address in case that would prejudice the purpose of my notice.

Under the lease, any notice served under or in connection with the lease is to be in writing and be treated as properly served if compliance is made with either the provisions of Section 196 of the Law of Property Act 1925 (as amended by the Recorded Delivery Service Act 1962) or Section 23 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927.

When the lease was granted, the landlord was a company registered in E&W. The 1925 Act only applies to the law of property in England and Wales. The 1962 Act extends to the Isle of Man. LTA27 s23(1) says "Any notice, request, demand or other instrument under this Act shall be in writing and may be served on the person on whom it is to be served either personally, or by leaving it for him at his last known place of abode in England or Wales, or by sending it through the post in a registered letter addressed to him there, or, in the case of a local or public authority or a statutory or a public utility company, to the secretary or other proper officer at the principal office of such authority or company, and in the case ofa notice to a landlord, the person on whom it is to be served shall include any agent of the landlord duly authorised in that behalf."

I have spoken with a surveyor in Isle of Man to check my assumption the company would only have one address for service: confirmed.

My question is how best to go about satisfying the lease for proper service. My feeling is that provided I do what I normally do when serving notices (recorded delivery, signed for, to the registered office, presupposing no other address specified in the lease) the landlord would be hard-pressed to deny that the notice served does not comply with the requirements of the lease.

What would you think?

dionaeamuscipula
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Re: Address for service

#174631

Postby dionaeamuscipula » October 18th, 2018, 9:37 am

brightncheerful wrote:What would you think?


I'd expect the registered office to be the correct address for service, but IOM company law might be different to E & W. Unlikely but you never know.

When in doubt, send the notice to all potential addresses and by all available means. The only one that really matters is the one that is required by the legislation/contract, so as long as that is one of them, to the best of your ability. So serve on the reg office and the alternative given, and in accordance with what it says in the lease if that is different, even if you are sure (but have not been officially told) that the address in the lease is out of date [I don't know anything about real estate law, but that is the position with notice under a commercial contract).

DM

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Re: Address for service

#174680

Postby Lootman » October 18th, 2018, 1:25 pm

What I have noticed with a few businesses is that the address given is just for post. In fact sometimes it is a post office box. Such an address works well if you send things by normal mail. But that address will ONLY accept normal post from the Royal Mail.

So if for instance you send something by delivery or package service, e.g. FedEx, it will be returned. Likewise any type of letter that requires signing for will not be accepted. It's rather like how you cannot hand deliver an item to a post office box (at least not without a stamp).

In such cases the business should provide another address which can sign for mail, receive overnight deliveries and packages etc.

And in fact I operate that way myself. I hardly use my home address for any purpose, so almost no business or entity knows where I live. All my post goes to a business office. In my case, however, that office will sign for post, accept packages and so on. The only thing I would not have sent there is a large domestic appliance :lol:

There was one occasion when I knew there was a court document heading my way which I did not want to receive, so I instructed my office to reject it, and so they did. I was eventually served, of course, but some weeks later which suited me fine. Ironically it was service by normal post that was successful, and not anything delivered in person or by courier or process server.


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