POST office deliveries. Locally

[alice]

Is there any way to prove when a letter was delivered?  I’ve just received a letter that was posted over two weeks ago. My  response had legal implications and I have missed the final date. 

[Penguin68]

Sadly the law presupposes delivery based on date of posting (oh, when that was true!). You could request of Ms Hayes some confirmation that poor and missed deliveries have been a continuing problem locally for some time which she has been struggling against - it may be that a letter of support from your MP could help any plea of mitigation, but you will be able to 'prove' nothing.

This is part of the ongoing disgrace that the private and mainly foreign owned company quite wrongly, in my opinion, trading under the name 'Royal' Mail has become. And its Regulators, knowing full well that it had failed its service obligations still allow it to trade.

[IlonaM]

It is true that there is an accepted deemed receipt in law. However, there has been some discussion regarding where postal strikes/covid, for example, cause delay in receipt causing detriment: see link to potentially helpful article - https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/article/1808201/postal-strikes-delay-important-legal-documents-–-does-hr-need-know which deals with HR issues but similar situations could be argued by analogy.

Act promptly to notify the other party/tribunal/court etc of the delayed receipt and get some advice as soon as possible. Getting supporting evidence of chronic problems of local postal service, as Penguin suggests, would also be a good idea. You could try getting email confirmation from Post Office of reasons for recent delay i.e. staff illness etc. I chased a parcel recently and the customer services agent could check the recent service record to confirm that there had been staff illness  in the relevant time period.

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Edited June 2, 2023 by IlonaM

[alice]

Really appreciate this llona many thanks

[IlonaM]

I can't promise the result you're hoping for, but when I was in practice I'd always put in representations to see if we could mitigate situations beyond my clients' control. Given the combination of strikes, illness and chronic delay, hopefully there might be some room for understanding and flexibility.

Edited June 2, 2023 by IlonaM