[2024] UKUT 24 (LC)

As I have found that the notices of intent were not insufficiently precise, in view of the previous communications between the parties, the second ground of appeal does not arise.

The answer to the question of principle is supplied by Younis. A notice of intent is not necessarily void if it provides an insufficiently clear or precise statement of the reasons for proposing the financial penalty. If the only information supplied by the Council had been the statements in the notices themselves, and if the schedule of work and photographs of the defects had not been provided, it is likely that I would have concluded that the notices were of no effect and that the penalties should be discharged because it would not have been possible for the respondent to mount an informed defence before the Council took its decision to confirm the penalties by serving final notices. In the event, the respondent had the information she required but chose not to make representations.

I leave one point open. That is whether the effect of a notice of intent must be determined on the basis of the material available to the recipient before the time for making representations against it expires, or whether an invalid notice can be cured by information supplied with a final notice, or in the context of an appeal to the FTT. The hearing of an appeal by the FTT takes the form of a rehearing, so it might be said that information supplied at that stage puts the recipient in a position to mount an effective defence. On the other hand, it might be argued that there is prejudice to the recipient of a defective notice, sufficient to justify treating a defective notice as a nullity, if they have to persuade the FTT to take a different view from that taken by the authority. I prefer to say nothing about that point and to leave it for decision on another occasion if it arises.