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New Zealand law explained for everyone

Resource Management Act 1991

Miscellaneous provisions

352: Service of documents

You could also call this:

“How to give someone a document for the Resource Management Act”

When you need to give someone a document for the Resource Management Act, you have to do it in a special way. If the person has given you their email address to use for this, you send the document to that email address. If they have not given you an email address, you can give the document to them in person, or deliver it to their home or work.

If you are giving a document to a Minister of the Crown, you give it to the chief executive of their department instead. When you give a document to a company or group, you can give it to one of the people in charge, or to their office. If the group is a partnership, you can give the document to any one of the partners.

You can also give documents to people by sending them by post, or by fax, or by leaving them at a special place called a document exchange. The Electronic Courts and Tribunals Act 2016 has some rules that you need to follow when giving documents to courts or tribunals. If you send a document by post, it is assumed that the person gets it when it would normally arrive in the mail, unless you can prove they got it at a different time.

If you are giving a document to a Crown organisation, you can deliver it to their main office, or send it to their fax number or email address. You can also agree with the organisation on a different way to give them the document.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM239099.

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Part 14 Miscellaneous provisions

352Service of documents

  1. Where a notice or other document is to be served on a person for the purposes of this Act,—

  2. if the person has specified an electronic address as an address for service for the matter to which the document relates, and has not requested a method of service listed in paragraph (b), the document must be served by sending it to the electronic address:
    1. if the person has not specified an electronic or other address as an address for service or if the person has requested any of the following methods of service, the document may be served by the requested method or any of the following methods:
      1. delivering it personally to the person (other than a Minister of the Crown):
        1. delivering it at the usual or last known place of residence or business of the person:
          1. sending it by pre-paid post addressed to the person at the usual or last known place of residence or business of the person:
            1. posting it to the PO box address that the person has specified as an address for service:
              1. leaving it at a document exchange for direction to the document exchange box number that the person has specified as an address for service:
                1. sending it to the fax number that the person has specified as an address for service.

                2. However, if the document is to be served on a person to commence, or in the course of, court proceedings, subsection (1) does not apply if the court, whether expressly or in its rules or practices, requires a different method of service.

                3. Nothing in subsection (1) overrides the provisions of the Electronic Courts and Tribunals Act 2016.

                4. Where a notice or other document is to be served on a Minister of the Crown for the purposes of this Act, service on the chief executive of the appropriate department of the public service in accordance with subsection (1) shall be deemed to be service on the Minister.

                5. Where a notice or other document is to be served on a body (whether incorporated or not) for the purposes of this Act, service on an officer of the body, or on the registered office of the body, in accordance with subsection (1) shall be deemed to be service on the body.

                6. Where a notice or other document is to be served on a partnership for the purposes of this Act, service on any one of the partners in accordance with subsections (1) and (3) shall be deemed to be service on the partnership.

                7. Despite subsection (1), if a notice or other document is to be served on a Crown organisation for the purposes of this Act, it may be served—

                8. by delivering it at the organisation's head office or principal place of business; or
                  1. by sending it to the fax number or electronic address that the organisation has specified for its head office or principal place of business; or
                    1. by a method agreed between the organisation and the person serving the notice or document.

                      1. Where a notice or other document is sent by post to a person in accordance with subsection (1)(b)(iii) or (iv), it shall be deemed, in the absence of proof to the contrary, to be received by the person at the time at which the letter would have been delivered in the ordinary course of the post.

                      Notes
                      • Section 352(1): replaced, on , by section 165(1) of the Resource Legislation Amendment Act 2017 (2017 No 15).
                      • Section 352(1AA): inserted, on , by section 165(1) of the Resource Legislation Amendment Act 2017 (2017 No 15).
                      • Section 352(1A): inserted, on , by section 36(2) of the Electronic Courts and Tribunals Act 2016 (2016 No 52).
                      • Section 352(2): amended, on , by section 135 of the Public Service Act 2020 (2020 No 40).
                      • Section 352(4A): inserted, on , by section 141(3) of the Resource Management (Simplifying and Streamlining) Amendment Act 2009 (2009 No 31).
                      • Section 352(4A)(b): amended, on , by section 165(2) of the Resource Legislation Amendment Act 2017 (2017 No 15).
                      • Section 352(5): amended, on , by section 165(3) of the Resource Legislation Amendment Act 2017 (2017 No 15).