1st Class Bailiffs Articles

When serving Statutory demands we have recently had to clarify the timings needed between the letter of appointment being sent out and the bailiff / Investrigator re-attending for service.

  

The main provision concerning the time for service is found in the Practice Directions : Insolvency Rules [2000]. These state that “a first class prepaid letter should be written to the debtor”  and that “at least two business days notice should be given of the appointment”.

 

The first issue is then when the Court considers that the debtor has received the letter of appointment. The guidance concerning service of a document by first class post is found in Civil Procedure Rules. These state that a letter sent by first class post is considered served the second day after posting.

 

The Practice Directions then require that the debtor is then allowed “at least two business days notice” before the agent re-attends to effect service. Unfortunately the Court have not been consistent with their interpretation of the meaning of “at least two business days”. Sometimes the Court decides that this includes the day of service, sometimes the Court decides that the “at least” means the day of service is not included as one of the “two business days”. The spirit of the Practice Directions is to allow the debtor the opportunity to re-arrange appointments if so required and so it is difficult to argue if the court do decide that the day of service is not included as one of the business days..

 

The following chart therefore details the longest time case scenario’s dates on which service of the letter of appointment is considered as served following posting by 1^st class post, and also the earliest day that the appointment can take place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day Letter Sent	Day Letter Served	“At least” Two Business Days	Earliest Possible Day to re-attend
Monday	Wednesday	Thursday/Friday	Saturday
Tuesday	Thursday	Friday/Monday	Tuesday
Wednesday	Friday	Monday/Tuesday	Wednesday
Thursday	Saturday	Monday/Tuesday	Wednesday
Friday	Monday	Tuesday/Wednesday	Thursday
Saturday	Monday	Tuesday/Wednesday	Thursday
Sunday	Tuesday	Wednesday/Thursday	Friday

 

 

 

N.B. This chart assumes that there are no Bank Holidays between the date the letter of appointment is sent and the appointment date – if there were any Bank Holidays these would also need to be considered.

 

From the chart you can see that in certain circumstances it is possible to serve in under seven days but given the potential for confusion we would rather that all letters of appointment make the day of appointment at least full calendar week from the day the letter was sent. The time scale applies equally to the service of Statutory Demands and Petitions. 

 

“As per the Civil Procedure Rules the letter was deemed served two days after posting.”