New South Wales Consolidated Acts

LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT 1993 - SECT 710

710 Service of notices on persons

(1) A notice required by or under this Act to be served on a person may be served as provided by this section.

(2) The service may be--

(a) personal, or

(b) by delivering the notice at or on the premises at which the person to be served lives or carries on business, and leaving it with any person apparently above the age of 14 years resident or employed at the premises, or

(c) by posting the notice by prepaid letter addressed to the last known place of residence or business or post office box of the person to be served, or

(d) by transmitting the notice by facsimile transmission to a number specified by the person (on correspondence or otherwise) as a number to which facsimile transmissions to that person may be sent, or

(d1) by transmitting the notice by electronic mail to an email address specified by the person (on correspondence or otherwise) as an address to which electronic mail to that person may be transmitted, or

(e) by fixing the notice on any conspicuous part of the land, building or premises owned or occupied by the person, or

(f) in the case of an offence involving a vehicle, by attaching the notice to the vehicle, or

(g) if the person to be served maintains a box at a document exchange established in New South Wales, by depositing the notice in that box or leaving it at another such exchange for transmission to the firstmentioned exchange for deposit in that box.

(2A) Subsection (2)(d1) does not authorise a notice to be transmitted to a person by electronic mail unless the person has requested the council, in writing, that notices of that kind be transmitted to the person by electronic mail, and has not subsequently withdrawn the request.

(2B) A person's request under subsection (2A) is taken to have been withdrawn in relation to a particular kind of notice only if the person has informed the council, in writing, that notices of that kind are no longer to be transmitted to the person by electronic mail.

(2C) While a person's request under subsection (2A) has effect in relation to a particular kind of notice, the address to which notices of that kind are to be transmitted is--

(a) the email address indicated in the request, or

(b) if the person subsequently directs the council, in writing, to transmit notices of that kind to a different email address, that different address.

(3) If a notice is deposited in a box, or left at a document exchange, service of the notice is, until the contrary is proved, taken to be effected 2 days after the day on which the notice is so deposited or left.

(4) In addition to the means of service prescribed by subsection (2)--

(a) in any case where the person to be served is, or after inquiry appears to be, absent from New South Wales, the service may be on the agent of that person by any of the means prescribed by subsection (2)(a), (b), (c) or (d), and

(b) in any case where the land, building or premises are unoccupied and the owner or the owner's address or place of residence is not known to the council, service by the council may be by advertisement in the approved form published in--

(i) a newspaper circulating in the area or part of the area in which the land, building or premises are situated that is published in print form at intervals not exceeding 26 days, or

(ii) a manner determined by the council having regard to the object of bringing notices to the attention of owners in cases of that kind, and

(c) in the case of the service of a rates and charges notice, the service may be effected by delivering the notice to the premises at which the person to be served lives or carries on business and depositing it in a box or receptacle at, on or in the proximity of those premises that is provided, used or designed for the reception of letters addressed to that person.

(5) The notice may be addressed by the description of "rateable person" or "owner" or "occupier" of the land, building or premises (naming or otherwise sufficiently indicating the same) in respect of which the notice is served, and without further name or description.

(6) The notice may be wholly printed, wholly written or partly printed and partly written.

(7) If a notice has been served by any of the means prescribed by this section, all inquiries required under this section are taken to have been made, and the service is conclusive evidence of them.

(8) Proof by affidavit or orally that a notice has been posted, or its transmission by electronic mail has been initiated, in accordance with this section is conclusive evidence of service.

(9) For the purposes of this section, a justice of the peace is authorised to take and receive an affidavit, whether any matter to which the affidavit relates is or is not pending in any court.