Section 15 – Service of notices etc

Party Wall etc. Act 1996

(1) A notice or other document required or authorised to be served under this Act may be served on a person—

(a) by delivering it to him in person;

(b) by sending it by post to him at his usual or last-known residence or place of business in the United Kingdom; or

(c) in the case of a body corporate, by delivering it to the secretary or clerk of the body corporate at its registered or principal office or sending it by post to the secretary or clerk of that body corporate at that office.

If the notice or other document is sent by post then under the above subsection it is deemed served when it would have been received in the ordinary course of post, unless the recipient can prove that he did not receive it (Freetown Limited v Assethold Limited).

An award is served when it is actually received by the party, and not when it was received by all the parties (Riley Gowler Ltd v National Heart Hospital). An award can only be served on the parties, and not on their surveyors (Gyle-Thompson v Wall Street Properties).

(2) In the case of a notice or other document required or authorised to be served under this Act on a person as owner of premises, it may alternatively be served by—

(a) addressing it “the owner” of the premises (naming them), and

(b) delivering it to a person on the premises or, if no person to whom it can be delivered is found there, fixing it to a conspicuous part of the premises.