Buyers beware

Notice provisions are a common feature of most commercial contracts, prescribing how contractual notices are to be served, when and in what form. In many cases, a notice provision will be included for administrative convenience, with the primary aim of ensuring that a contractual communication is brought to the attention of the intended recipient, with no obviously material consequences attached to non-compliance. However, not all such clauses are so innocuous. In certain instances, the penalties for non-compliance may be very significant indeed; two paradigm and much-litigated examples being, in the real estate context, notices to quit and, in the insurance context, notifications of circumstances. If a notice to quit is wrongly worded, it can make the difference between exercising a break clause under a lease or being bound in to the lease for a further, unwanted period. Similarly, a notification which does not meet the specific requirements of the liability insurance policy under which it is given may have serious repercussions for future