AC-2024-LON-002192 - [2025] EWHC 2815 (Admin)

Section 172(2) of the 1990 Act provides:

“A copy of an enforcement notice shall be served –

(a)

on the owner and on the occupier of the land to which it relates; and

(b)

on any other person having an interest in the land, being an interest which, in the opinion of the authority, is materially affected by the notice.”

Service of the notice is required to take place not more than 28 days after its date of issue: s.172(3)(a).

Section 329(1) provides that any notice or other document required to be served or given under the 1990 Act may be served or given by any of the methods identified in subsections (a)-(d). The key provision for the purposes of this appeal is s.329(2) which provides:

“Where the notice or document is required or authorised to be served on any person as having an interest in premises, and the name of that person cannot be ascertained after reasonable inquiry, or where the notice or document is required or authorised to be served on any person as an occupier of premises, the notice or document shall be taken to be duly served if –

(a)

it is addressed to him either by name or by the description of ‘the owner’ or, as the case may be, ‘the occupier’ of the premises (describing them) and is delivered or sent in the manner specified in subsection (1)(a), (b) or (c); or

(b)

it is so addressed and is marked in such a manner as may be prescribed for securing that it is plainly identifiable as a communication of importance and –

(i)

it is sent to the premises in a prepaid registered letter or by the recorded delivery service and is not returned to the authority sending it, or

(ii)

it is delivered to some person on those premises, or is affixed conspicuously to some object on those premises.” (Emphasis added.)

The appellant also places reliance on the contrast with the wording of s.329(3), which provides:

“Where –

(a)

the notice or other document is required to be served on or given to all persons who have interests in or are occupiers of premises comprised in any land, and

(b)

it appears to the authority required or authorised to serve or give the notice or other document that any part of that land is unoccupied,

the notice or document shall be taken to be duly served on all persons having interests in, and on any premises comprised in that part of the land (other than a person who has given to that authority an address for service of the notice or document on him) if it is addressed to ‘the owners and any occupiers’ of that part of the land (describing it) and is affixed conspicuously to some object on the land.”

Section 174 provides, so far as material:

“(1)

A person having an interest in the land to which an enforcement notice relates or a relevant occupier may appeal to the Secretary of State against the notice, whether or not a copy of it has been served on him.

(2)

An appeal may be brought on any of the following grounds –

(a)

that, in respect of any breach of planning control which may be constituted by the matters stated in the notice, planning permission ought to be granted or, as the case may be, the condition or limitation concerned ought to be discharged;

(b)

that those matters have not occurred;

(c)

that those matters (if they occurred) do not constitute a breach of planning control;

(d)

that, at the date when the notice was issued, no enforcement action could be taken in respect of any breach of planning control which may be constituted by those matters;

(e)

that copies of the enforcement notice were not served as required by section 172;

(f)

that the steps required by the notice to be taken, or the activities required by the notice to cease, exceed what is necessary to remedy any breach of planning control which may be constituted by those matters or, as the case may be, to remedy any injury to amenity which has been caused by any such breach;

(g)

that any period specified in the notice in accordance with section 173(9) falls short of what should reasonably be allowed.

…

(6)

In this section ‘relevant occupier’ means a person who –

(a)

on the date on which the enforcement notice is issued occupies the land to which the notice relates by virtue of a licence; and

(b)

continues so to occupy the land when the appeal is brought.”

Section 176(5) provides:

“Where it would otherwise be a ground for determining an appeal under section 174 in favour of the appellant that a person required to be served with a copy of the enforcement notice was not served, the Secretary of State may disregard that fact if neither the appellant nor that person has been substantially prejudiced by the failure to serve him.”