Serving Notice – Still Not As Simple As It Sounds!

The serving of notices sometimes feels more akin to bomb disposal, than posting a letter. The slightest wrong turn can potentially prove fatal! Unfortunately that has only been compounded by a recent Scottish case.

Courts have generally taken a strict approach to the contractual or statutory requirements governing the form and service of notices. The safety nets they have provided, notably in the case of Mannai Investment Company vs Eagle Star Life Assurance, allow some room for error, but not much! So the approach has essentially had to be: get them exactly right, or else!

The Scottish case of Hoe International Limited vs Anderson [2017] CSIH9 runs against that, but not in a particularly helpful way.