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Electricity Act 1992

Powers and duties of electricity operators and other owners of electrical works

30: Charging for access to road reserve

You could also call this:

“Rules for putting electrical equipment on roads without paying rent”

You can’t be charged rent for putting electrical works on roads. This applies to any electricity company that wants to build or install electrical equipment on, above, or below a road. No local council or anyone else in charge of roads can ask for rent money for this.

However, this rule doesn’t stop you from having to pay rates. Rates are a different kind of charge that councils can still ask for under a special law called the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002.

In this law, ‘road’ means what it usually does, but it also includes motorways. Motorways are big roads that are mainly for fast traffic between cities or towns.

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This page was last updated on

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM282480.

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Part 3 Powers and duties of electricity operators and other owners of electrical works

30Charging for access to road reserve

  1. Notwithstanding anything in this Act or in any other enactment, no local authority or other body or person having jurisdiction over any road shall require the payment, by or on behalf of any electricity operator, of any amount of or in the nature of rent in respect of any works constructed in, on, along, over, across, or under that road.

  2. Nothing in subsection (1) applies in respect of a rate that is assessed under the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002.

  3. In this section, the term road has the meaning given to it in section 2, but also includes a motorway within the meaning of the Government Roading Powers Act 1989.

Notes
  • Section 30(2): substituted, on , by section 137(1) of the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002 (2002 No 6).
  • Section 30(3): amended, on , by section 50(1) of the Land Transport Management Amendment Act 2008 (2008 No 47).