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91AA: Process for determining abandonment applications within 10 working days without hearing
or “How the court quickly decides if a tenant has left their home without telling anyone”
You could also call this:

“How the landlord tells the tenant about a case after they've moved out”

If you’re a landlord and you file an application within 2 months after your tenancy ends, you can serve notices or documents to your tenant in several ways. You can send them by post to the address the tenant gave you. You can also deliver them to the rental property and put them in the mailbox or attach them to the door. You can give them to the tenant in person, serve them as described in [section 136(2)], or send them to the tenant’s email or fax number.

If you file an application more than 2 months after the tenancy ends, you have different options. You can give the notices or documents to the tenant in person. You can post them to an address the tenant gave you in the last 2 months. You can take them to where the tenant lives now and give them to someone who looks at least 16 years old, lives there, and confirms the tenant lives there. Or you can give them to the tenant’s lawyer or agent who is allowed to receive things for the tenant.

These rules are more important than the rules in [section 136(1) and (2)].

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Next up: 91B: Substituted service, etc

or “ How to tell someone about important papers when you can't give them to them directly ”
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Part 3 The Tenancy Tribunal
Procedure

91AService on tenants following application

  1. If a landlord files an application within 2 months after the termination of the tenancy to which it relates, any notice or other document required to be served on the tenant in connection with the application is deemed to have been properly served on the tenant if—

  2. it is sent by post addressed to the tenant at the address or the Post Office box given by the tenant as an address for service in accordance with this Act or to a contact address that the tenant has supplied to the landlord in writing within the 2 months before the application; or
    1. it is delivered to the premises to which any address for service relates or to that contact address and either placed in the mailbox or attached to the door in a prominent position; or
      1. it is given to or served on the tenant personally; or
        1. it is given to or served on the tenant in accordance with section 136(2); or
          1. it is transmitted to the email address or facsimile number given by the tenant as an address for service.

            1. If the landlord files an application more than 2 months after the termination of the tenancy to which it relates, any notice or other document required to be served on the tenant relating to the application must be given to or served on the tenant—

            2. personally; or
              1. by posting it to a contact address that the tenant has supplied to the landlord in writing within the 2 months before the application; or
                1. by delivering it to the place where the tenant now lives and giving it to any person appearing to be aged 16 years or older who appears to be residing at that place and who confirms that the tenant resides there; or
                  1. by giving it to any solicitor or other agent of the tenant duly authorised by the tenant to receive service on his or her behalf.

                    1. This section overrides section 136(1) and (2).

                    Notes
                    • Section 91A: inserted, on , by section 63 of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Act 2010 (2010 No 95).