Completion Notice in UK Law

In that case his conduct was not, in my judgment, such as to amount to a waiver of the strict requirements of the notice to complete. Accordingly, in my judgment the purchasers remained at 7th February and thereafter in default under the notice to complete, and there was no negligence on the part of Mr. Moody in failing to advise them otherwise.

Since the statutory fusion of law and equity in 1875 it has been enacted (Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1873, Section 25 (7) now re-enacted in slightly different language in the Law of Property Act 1925, Section 41) that stipulations of a contract, as to time or otherwise, which according to rules of equity are not deemed to be orto have become of the essence of the contract are also to be construed and have effect at law in accordance with the same rules, The third parties rely on Section 41 on the point of construction.

In my judgment, the short answer to the defendant's point of law is that, for the purpose of applying s.2 (4) (b) and Part II of Schedule 1 (on the true construction of which her case depends) the 1980 Act treats a tenant as purporting to exercise his right to buy at any time and from time to time when he takes steps towards implementation of that right, up to and including completion of the purchase.

He had submitted that, in the absence of binding authority in this court, the issue of burden of proof should be decided by reference to “fairness, justice and common sense”. He relied on the general principle that “he who asserts must prove”. A completion notice under condition 6.8.1 contains an implied assertion by the giver that he is ready to complete, and accordingly, where that assertion is put in issue, it is for him to prove it.

Under the applicable condition the right to serve a completion notice is given to a party “who is ready, able and willing to complete”. The service of such a notice can be said therefore to carry with it an implicit assertion to that effect. Although the judgment of Blackburne J in Aero Properties contains statements suggesting that the burden of proof lies on the recipient of the notice, there does not appear to have been any argument on that point, as a distinct issue of law.

Why should a party who has not completed in compliance with the terms of a contract he has entered into, be entitled to yet longer time before he can be given notice to perform it?

Certainty is only achieved when the vendor is left in no reasonable doubt not only that a claim may be brought but of the particulars of the ground upon which the claim is to be based. The clause contemplates that the notice will be couched in terms which are sufficiently clear and unambiguous as to leave no such doubt and to leave no room for argument about the particulars of the complaint.