Notice terminating lease - notice sent by recorded delivery - irrebuttably deemed to have been served on date of posting - deeming provisions not contrary to tenant's human rights

CA Webber (Transport) Ltd v Railtrack plc: CA (Lords Justice Peter Gibson and Longmore): 15 July 2003

The claimant was the tenant of two business premises.

The landlord sent notices by recorded delivery terminating the leases.

The claimant contended that the notices were invalid, being served less than six months before the date of specified termination.

The judge made a declaration that the notices were valid.

The claimant appealed.

Anthony Tanney (instructed by William Heath & Co) for the claimant; Romie Tager QC and Justin Kitson (instructed by Thomas Eggar) for the landlord.

Held, dismissing the appeal, that the effect of section 23 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927, was that where a landlord served a notice under section 25 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, by sending it through the post by recorded delivery to the addressee at his place of abode, it was irrebuttably deemed to have been served; that service was deemed to have been made on the date that the notice was put in the post and not the date of actual receipt; that it was not unreasonable nor disproportionate to landlord and tenant alike for section 23 to be interpreted as excluding section 7 of the Limitation Act 1978; and that so to construe section 23 did not fall foul of the Human Rights Act 1998.