Section 617: Service of notices.

Housing Act 1985 · 1985 c. 68View on legislation.gov.uk

Part XVIII: MISCELLANEOUS AND GENERAL PROVISIONS

Where under any provision of this Act it is the duty of a local housing authority to serve a document on a person who is to the knowledge of the authority—

a person having control of premises, however defined, or
a person managing premises, however defined, or
a person having an estate or interest in premises, whether or not restricted to persons who are owners or lessees or mortgagees or to any other class of those having an estate or interest in premises,

the authority shall take reasonable steps to identify the person or persons coming within the description in that provision.

A person having an estate or interest in premises may for the purposes of any provision to which subsection (1) applies give notice to the local housing authority of his interest in the premises and they shall enter the notice in their records.

A document required or authorised by this Act to be served on a person as being a person having control of premises (however defined) may, if it is not practicable after reasonable enquiry to ascertain the name or address of that person, be served by—

addressing it to him by the description of "person having control of" the premises (naming them) to which it relates, and
delivering it to some person on the premises or, if there is no person on the premises to whom it can be delivered, by affixing it, or a copy of it, to some conspicuous part of the premises.

Where under any provision of this Act a document is to be served on—

the person having control of premises, however defined, or
the person managing premises, however defined, or
the owner of premises, however defined,

and more than one person comes within the description in the enactment, the document may be served on more than one of those persons.

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This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.