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124B: Applications by existing holders of resource consents
or “People who already have permission to use natural resources get first chance to keep using them when their permission runs out.”
You could also call this:

“New people wanting to use natural resources can ask for permission, but they might have to wait if someone else is already using them.”

This law is about what happens when you want to apply for permission to use natural resources like water, air, or land. Here’s what you need to know:

You can apply for this permission if you don’t already have it. But if someone else is already using the resource, you have to wait until their permission is about to run out. You can send in your application more than 3 months before their permission ends.

When you apply, the people in charge won’t look at your application right away. Instead, they’ll tell the person who’s already using the resource that you’ve applied. This gives that person a chance to apply to keep using the resource.

If the person using the resource now tells the people in charge they don’t want to apply again, or if they don’t apply more than 3 months before their permission ends, then the people in charge will look at your application.

But if the person does apply to keep using the resource, the people in charge will wait to look at your application. They’ll decide about the other person’s application first. If that person gets to keep using the resource, your application might not be considered for the parts of the resource they’re allowed to use.

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Next up: 125: Lapsing of consents

or “Resource consents expire if not used within a certain time, but you can ask for more time if needed.”
Next

Part 6 Resource consents
Duration of consent

124CApplications by persons who are not existing holders of resource consents

  1. This section applies when—

  2. a person makes an application for a resource consent to undertake an activity under any of sections 12, 13, 14, and 15 using a natural resource; and
    1. the person does not hold an existing consent for the same activity using some or all of the same natural resource; and
      1. a consent granted as a result of the application could not be fully exercised until the expiry of the consent described in section 124B(1)(a); and
        1. the person makes the application more than 3 months before the expiry of the consent described in section 124B(1)(a).

          1. The consent authority must—

          2. hold the application without processing it; and
            1. notify the holder of the existing consent—
              1. that the application has been received; and
                1. that the holder may make an application affected by section 124.

                2. If the holder of the existing consent notifies the consent authority in writing that the holder does not propose to make an application affected by section 124, the consent authority must process and determine the application described in subsection (1)(a).

                3. If the holder of the existing consent does not make an application affected by section 124 more than 3 months before the expiry of the consent, the consent authority must process and determine the application described in subsection (1)(a).

                4. If the holder of the existing consent makes an application affected by section 124 more than 3 months before the expiry of the consent, the consent authority must hold the application described in subsection (1)(a) until the determination of the holder's application and any appeal.

                5. If the result of the determination of the holder's application and any appeal is that the holder's application affected by section 124 is granted, the application described in subsection (1)(a) lapses to the extent to which the use of the resource has been granted to the holder.

                Notes
                • Section 124C: inserted, on , by section 67 of the Resource Management Amendment Act 2005 (2005 No 87).