138.—(1) Any notice required or authorised to be served under these Regulations to any person may be given by—
(a)delivering it to the person;
(b)leaving it at the person's proper address; or
(c)sending it by post to the person at that address.
(2) Any such notice may—
(a)in the case of a body corporate, be served on an officer of the body;
(b)in the case of a limited liability partnership, Scottish partnership or unincorporated partnership, be served on a partner or a person having the control or management of the partnership business; and
(c)in the case of an unincorporated body other than an unincorporated partnership, be served on an officer of that body.
(3) For the purposes of this regulation and section 7 of the Interpretation Act 1978 M1 (service of documents by post) in its application to this regulation, the proper address of any person on whom a notice is to be served is—
(a)in the case of a body corporate, the address of the registered or principal office of the body;
(b)in the case of a limited liability partnership or a Scottish partnership, the address of the registered or principal office of the partnership;
(c)in the case of an unincorporated partnership or any other unincorporated body, the address of the principal office of the partnership or body;
(d)in the case of a person on whom the notice is served in reliance on paragraph (2), the proper address of the body corporate, partnership or other unincorporated body in question; and
(e)in any other case, the last known address of the person in question.
(4) If a person on whom a notice is to be served under these Regulations has specified an address for service of such a notice, that address is also to be treated, for the purposes of this regulation and section 7 of the Interpretation Act 1978 in its application to this regulation, as that person's proper address.
(5) If the name or address of any occupier of premises on whom a notice is to be served under these Regulations cannot, after reasonable inquiry, be ascertained, the notice may be served by leaving it conspicuously affixed to a building or object on the premises.
(6) This regulation is subject to any provision of these Regulations, or to any direction given under these Regulations, which relates to the service of any notice under these Regulations.
(7) This regulation does not apply to the service of any notice required or authorised to be served under the Acquisition of Land Act 1981 M2, as applied by these Regulations (see regulation 36 (powers of compulsory acquisition)).
(8) In this regulation—
(a)“body corporate” does not include a limited liability partnership or a Scottish partnership; and
(b)references to serving include references to similar expressions (such as giving or sending).