Can a statutory demand be served by email or post?

Personal Service is always encouraged and a creditor needs to illustrate that everything has been done to bring a demand to the attention of a debtor. The legal test is that a creditor ‘must do everything possible to bring the statutory demand to the Debtor’s attention and if practicable in the particular circumstances serve the demand personally’. However if personal service (meaning putting into the hands of the debtor) is not practicable or possible, the courts can decide later that it was appropriate to have sent the demand by email. This can be known as substituted service. The courts can take a broad approach to service, especially where a debtor is trying to avoid being personally served. As an example service by Facebook has been found to be valid however the difficulty for creditors is that they risk using an alternative method of service, issuing a petition (incurring costs and court fees) and the court then saying that the method was not valid. Therefore care needs to be taken in relation to service.