This article summarises a recent case where the court applied the letter of the law to the CIL regulations, which had tripped up a hapless self-builder.   A failure to serve the correct notice meant he was irrevocably prevented from claiming his proper relief.  The court had little choice.   But this is yet another indictment of the CIL regulations, which after years of amendment are still fraught with anomalies and far from perfect.    Surely the time has come for these regulations to be properly looked at by a working group who understands the property industry so they can be revised root and branch and made to work fairly at last.