Mail delivery failed to registered office address

[Naoko]

Hello everyone,

I'm a claimant dealing with a small track claim against a limited company that uses a residential address as its registered office. The defendant failed to acknowledge the claim, so I requested a default judgment. The company is trading. I will likely need to enforce the judgment with the help of an HCEO.

While awaiting the default judgment, I received an email from the court informing me about the unsuccessful delivery of the claim form done by the court:

“Your claim form is attached to this email.

The claim form is ‘un-served’ – this means Royal Mail could not deliver it and it was returned to us.
The claim form is ‘served’ if you believe the address is correct.

If the Defendant’s address is correct

No further action is required in order to serve the claim form.

If the Defendant has not responded to your claim, you may proceed with the case in the usual way and request judgment through your online account.
“...

The address is correct. It is the company's registered office address, verified against Companies House records. The defendant did not request to use an alternative address.

Royal Mail will likely be unable to deliver any further mail to this address. I have visited the property to try to find a reason for the delivery failure and found that it appears to be unattended with an overflowing mailbox located outside of the property.


1) I've decided to wait for the default judgment to be issued without taking further action for now. Please let me know if I'm overlooking anything with this decision.

2) Once the default judgment is issued, would it be beneficial to serve it, in addition to the court's service, to the defendant's business address (which is different from the registered office)? Do I need permission from the court to do this?


Any advice or experiences with similar situations would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

[atticus]

See CPR Part 6. You may "leave" the document to be served at the registered office. Can you pin it to the door?

That said, the signs are that your chances of actually getting any money out of this company are remote.

[Pezza54]

cpr 6.3 (2)(b) applies

Section 1139 (1) of the Companies Act 2006, referred to in 6.3 (2)(b) above, documents may be served by posting to the company's registered address.

The director(s) may be committing an offence under Section 86 (2) (a) and (b) of the Companies Act by not attending to the post at the registered address

[PallasAthena]

Not a legal opinion, but I love the idea of going round there with a hammer and nailing it to the front door while someone films you doing it as evidence of leaving the notice at their registered office. I'd be off doing that straight away.

Sadly I have to agree with atticus that even if you follow all the procedural rules your likelihood of actually getting hard cash from them isn't great.

[Naoko]

Hi all,

I'm studying the CPR rules from your responses, and I really appreciate your help. A big thank you to PallasAthena - you've cheered me up!

I believe I have a good chance of getting paid if I handle this correctly. The defendant filed accounts a few months ago showing over £100K in total net assets, I can also implied from the accounts around £100K profit from trading in 2023. The company is still trading from a leased venue with a known address listed on their website.

I find it odd that their registered office is an abandoned residential property, which prompted my initial post. Based on Pezza54's response, it seems this situation may be more concerning for the defendant than for me.

I worry a lot if the defendant will try to set aside the default judgment based on technicalities,etc., so I'm aiming to navigate in the most prudent way.

On that note, can I please try to clarify something else I'm researching? The defendant company paid my friend about two years ago, and the bank statement shows the payer details as "XYZ LIMITED, 12345678" with the latter being their account number. I believe this information could be used to enforce the judgment using a Third Party Debt Order (TPDO). However, I have the following questions:

1. I need to know the sort code or at least the bank name in addition to the account number. Can my friend request this information from their bank?
2. Is it legal for my friend to share the defendant's bank account details with me for enforcement purposes?
3. Would my friend need to provide a witness statement or attend a TPDO application hearing, if any, to explain how I obtained the bank details?

Thank you!

[Pezza54]

If I was in your position I would either phone or email Companies House to make sure the company's registered address on the public register is still the correct one. If it is, let them know about the pile of unopened post at the address

[PallasAthena]

I don't believe it is any part of Companies House's responsibilities to police whether companies pick up their mail from their Registered Office.

[JK2054]

1. I need to know the sort code or at least the bank name in addition to the account number. Can my friend request this information from their bank? - no they cannot
2. Is it legal for my friend to share the defendant's bank account details with me for enforcement purposes? why does your friend have them?
3. Would my friend need to provide a witness statement or attend a TPDO application hearing, if any, to explain how I obtained the bank details? if by this you mean the bank asking for it and them giving him/her it then dont worry because that wont happen

[Pezza54]

I don't believe it is any part of Companies House's responsibilities to police whether companies pick up their mail from their Registered Office.

Please read the article "Get ready for changes to UK company law" at companieshouse.blog.gov.uk

Companies House are providing themselves with greater powers to query information and request evidence
new rules for registered office addresses

"Companies that do not have an appropriate registered office could be struck off the register"

CH were aiming to introduce these new rules by 4 March 2024. I don't know whether they achieved that date.

[PallasAthena]

I'm very familiar with the changes, which are anti-fraud provisons - eg when someone names your house as their registered office it will give you greater powers to object to it being registered and RO to require evidence that you are authorised to use it. It doesn't make CH responsible for making sure companies collect their mail from their RO.

[Pezza54]

Under the new rules the registered office must have a person present at the address to acknowledge delivery of recorded post

If CH is made aware that post sent to the registered office is not being replied to, they may decide to send a recorded letter only to find royal mail were unable to deliver it as no one present to sign for receipt of the letter

[Naoko]

1. I need to know the sort code or at least the bank name in addition to the account number. Can my friend request this information from their bank? - no they cannot
2. Is it legal for my friend to share the defendant's bank account details with me for enforcement purposes? why does your friend have them?
3. Would my friend need to provide a witness statement or attend a TPDO application hearing, if any, to explain how I obtained the bank details? if by this you mean the bank asking for it and them giving him/her it then dont worry because that wont happen

For point (2), my friend provided services to the defendant, who paid via bank transfer. The bank statement shows the defendant's account number and full company name as the payer.

For point (3), I meant a witness statement from my friend for the court, as I would need to provide evidence per PD72 [3.1]:

"The court will not grant speculative applications for third party debt orders, and will only make an interim third party debt order against a bank or building society if the judgment creditor's application notice contains evidence to substantiate his belief that the judgment debtor has an account with the bank or building society in question."

If point (1) is not possible, then points (2) and (3) are irrelevant indeed. Thank you.

[JK2054]

If your friend has the account number, you can make an interim application with that yes. but he can't ask his bank for it then give it to you i don't think.
No he wouldn't need to make a statemnet for application 3.
If you have an account number, you can look up which bank that account is with and make the application to that bank.

Hope that helps

[Naoko]

I recently obtained a default judgment and have notified the defendant (limited company) by sending it to both their registered office and business address, as well as via email.

The defendant promptly responded with a set-aside application, which I view positively since they are now engaging. I received from the defendant, by post, their N244 form for the set-aside application, along with their witness statement and some supporting documents.

In the N244 form, the defendant stated:
a. They want the application to be dealt with "without a hearing."
b. The application should be served on the claimant (me), which they have already done.

I would like to provide my witness statement for the hearing and prefer that the matter be heard at least with remote hearing or, ideally, in person.

I'm seeking guidance on the following procedural questions:

1. Should I expect to receive any directions from the court and service of the application by the court?
2. If no directions are given by the court, what is the deadline for submitting my witness statement?
3. What is the correct way to notify the court that I would like the application to be dealt with at a hearing?

And two more verbose questions, if I may please:

4. The defendant may have breached the Companies Act (post #3); there's photographic evidence of their overflowing mailbox. They have an unsatisfied CCJ for £3XX from early this year, indicating non-compliance with court judgments. I'm considering asking the court to make the set-aside conditional on the defendant paying my claimed amount into court, so I won't have to rely on their compliance if the final judgment is against them. Is such request reasonable?

5. In their witness statement, the defendant claims they posted a response to my LBA and requested all mail be sent to their business address, providing a copy of the letter but no proof of postage. I never received it and suspect it was recently written and backdated. I'll note the lack of proof in my witness statement, but is there anything else I can do? Perhaps request the court to order them to provide original proof of posting? Anything else sensible?

I'm curious how more experienced people deal with such cases where the defendant may be lying about sending correspondence or claiming verbal communications that never occurred.

Thank you for your help.

[Pezza54]

Answer to Q5: CPR states first class post and service is effected by putting the letter in a post box. So asking for proof of posting won't really help. If the defendant had proof they would have included it in their witness statement/evidence
The only way to prove a letter was put in a post box would be make a video of the envelope being put in the post box making sure the address was legible

Answer to Q!,Q2 and Q3: The judge will decide if the application is suitable for decision without a hearing.( PD 23A 2.3) If this happens you should receive directions from the court so you should be ready to apply to vary the court order quickly (cpr 23.8 (3) (a) - application fee £15)

Practice Direction 23A- Applications covers the topic of applications in detail. 7.1 to 7.5 covers the evidence for applications