Where person directed to attend is absent from hearing
26.—(1) Where a person who is directed by the assessor to attend before the assessor for a hearing under regulation 24(3) is absent from the hearing, the assessor may continue to make a determination.
(2) A determination made under paragraph (1) may, on an application by the person mentioned in that paragraph, be set aside by the assessor or another assessor if that assessor is satisfied that the person had a good reason for being absent from the hearing, and that it is just in the circumstances to set aside the determination made in that person’s absence.
(3) An application under paragraph (2) must —
(a)
be in Form 10; and
(b)
be submitted to the Registrar, and served on the parties to a determination concerned (but not on the person that submitted the application) by a prescribed mode of service, no later than 5 working days after the date of the assessor’s determination made under paragraph (1) is sent to the parties to the determination or such longer period as the Registrar may allow.
(4) Any party to a determination that wishes to oppose the application for setting aside must, within a period directed by the Registrar, submit to the Registrar and serve on the person that submitted the application under paragraph (2), and every other party to the determination, by the prescribed mode of service, a reply in Form 11.
(5) Where an assessor hearing the application decides to set aside the determination made under paragraph (1) —
(a)
the assessor may do so on such terms as he or she considers just; and
(b)
he or she may proceed to hear the parties to the determination and make the determination in relation to the affected contract.