ABSTRACT
A statutory notice may have been incorrectly completed or may contain an error. The test which is to be applied in determining whether such a notice is valid or not was that laid down by Goulding J in Carradine Properties Ltd v Aslam [1976] 1 WLR 442 as being whether ‘… the notice is quite clear to a reasonable tenant receiving it? Is it plain enough that he cannot be misled by it?’. This was subsequently approved and followed by the Court of Appeal in Germax Securities Ltd v Spiegal (1978) 37 P & CR 204 and Bridgers v Stanford. It has also been approved by the House of Lords in relation to break notices in Mannai Investment Co Ltd v Eagle Star Life Assurance Ltd [1997] 3 All ER 352, HL. The effect of the test in practice is that the court will ignore a minor error in a notice, but not serious ones which would mislead the tenant.
