Local Government (Rating) Act 2002

Rating of Māori freehold land - Charging orders

101: Powers of Māori Land Court to make charging order

You could also call this:

"Māori Land Court can order you to pay unpaid rates after 6 months"

The Māori Land Court can make a charging order if you have not paid your rates for more than 6 months. This means the court orders you to pay the local authority the amount of unpaid rates and the cost of getting the order. You can find more information about applying for this in section 99.

If your land is controlled by trustees, the court will only make an order if the local authority has tried to get the trustees to pay the rates. The court also considers if someone else is responsible for paying the rates, like when section 96 applies.

In this case, the court checks if the local authority has already taken that person to court to get the rates paid, but was unable to get the money, or if it's unlikely they will get the money even if they take them to court. There's another rule, section 108, that the court must also think about when making a decision.

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This page was last updated on 18 July 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM132789.

Topics:

Government and voting > Local councilsMāori affairs > Māori landHousing and property > Land use

100: Matters that must be taken into account by Māori Land Court, or

"Things the Māori Land Court must think about when dealing with unpaid rates on Māori land"

102: Charging order must be registered, or

"You must register a charging order from the Māori Land Court to make it official."

Part 4Rating of Māori freehold land
Charging orders

101Powers of Māori Land Court to make charging order

If the Māori Land Court is satisfied, after hearing an application made under section 99, that the rates are payable and have been unpaid for more than 6 months since the due date, the court must make a charging order against the land in favour of the local authority for the amount of the unpaid rates and the cost of obtaining the charging order.
Despite subsection (1), the court must not make an order unless it is satisfied,—
if the land is vested in trustees, that all reasonable steps have been taken by the local authority to obtain payment of the rates from the trustees; or
if a person is liable to pay the rates because section 96 applies, that—
1. the local authority has taken proceedings against that person to recover judgment for all or some of the rates and has been unable to recover the amount of the judgment; or
2. having regard to all the circumstances of the case, those proceedings are unlikely to result in the rates being recovered.

Subsection (2) does not override section 108.