NTK posted in time but delivered late, strange wording from NCP

Coupon-mad

I think we should start telling people to ask those questions of the DPO, in cases where the PCN purports to be dated in time but the OP tells us that it arrived a week later.

CardiffCrank

Nothing on the envelope to identify it as being NCP. The return address on the back seems to belong to "Mail Smart", according to Google.

CardiffCrank

Hopefully the new statutory CoP (or the audit/scrutiny processes within the framework) will require PPCs to have to show when a NTK was actually posted, in future, because they fail to even show it was sent at all, at the moment.

I found myself wondering what on earth PoFA could mean when it says that two working days can be relied on as the time to delivery "unless proved otherwise". How do I prove the date of delivery? It certainly seems to be saying that if I can prove it was delivered late, I win, regardless of when it was posted.

If I enter a sworn affidavit, that is evidence. Unless they enter sworn evidence to the contrary, surely my account has to be taken as true? Additionally, if you can demonstrate it was sent via a mail consolidator it provide grounds for the testimony to be considered more credible. I also dated it on receipt - having worked in a solicitors' for a while I know they love 'contemporaneous memos'. I think that adds a bit of credibility too.

Coupon-mad

That's all very true and what you have discovered may well help others to argue that a NTK arrived too late for keeper liability. 

Thankyou for spotting this about the mail 'consolidator' and sharing it!

DW190

to have been effected at the time at which the letter would be delivered in the ordinary course of post.

Using a consolidator is not the ordinary course of the post.

Johnersh

@dw190 is correct. Insofar as PoFA does not define "service" as far as I can tell, it does refer to the ordinary service address for civil proceedings. So, if we consider the CPR methods of service, those are:

1. Personal service
2. First class post (or any method of post which provides for delivery on the next working day)
3. Fax (email is subject to some additional requirements) 
4. A method specifically permitted by the court.

So, in theory, if not using a method that guaranteed next working day delivery, there is no presumption of service/receipt at all or within 2 days of dispatch.