Plain language law

New Zealand law explained for everyone

Companies Act 1993

Removal from the New Zealand register

325: Disclaimer of property by the Crown

You could also call this:

“How the government can refuse unwanted property from removed companies”

When a company is removed from the New Zealand register, some of its property may go to the Crown. The Secretary to the Treasury can choose not to accept this property if it’s more trouble than it’s worth. This is called a disclaimer.

To do this, the Secretary writes a notice saying they don’t want the property. They then have to tell everyone about this decision.

If the Secretary disclaims the property, it’s treated as if it never went to the Crown in the first place. Some rules about what happens to the property after it’s disclaimed are the same as if the company had given it up just before being removed from the register.

The Secretary can only disclaim property within certain time limits. They have 12 months from when they first find out about the property. Or, if someone asks the Secretary to decide by a certain date (at least 60 working days after they ask), the Secretary must disclaim before that date.

If the Secretary says in the disclaimer notice when they first found out about the property, this is considered true unless someone can prove otherwise.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM322851.

Topics:
Business > Industry rules
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“Property ownership changes when a company is removed from the register”

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Part 17 Removal from the New Zealand register

325Disclaimer of property by the Crown

  1. The Secretary to the Treasury may, by notice in writing, disclaim the Crown's title to property vesting in the Crown under section 324 if the property is onerous property within the meaning of section 269.

  2. The Secretary must forthwith give public notice of the disclaimer.

  3. Property that is disclaimed under this section shall be deemed not to have vested in the Crown under section 324.

  4. Subsections (3), (5), and (6) of section 269 apply to any property that is disclaimed under this section as if the property had been disclaimed under that section immediately before the company was removed from the New Zealand register.

  5. Subject to any order of the court, the Secretary to the Treasury is not entitled to disclaim property unless—

  6. the property is disclaimed within 12 months after the vesting of the property in the Crown first comes to the notice of the Secretary; or
    1. if any person gives notice in writing to the Secretary requiring the Secretary to elect, before the close of such date as is stated in the notice, not being a date that is less than 60 working days after the date on which the notice is received by the Secretary, whether to disclaim the property, the property is disclaimed before the close of that date,—
        1. whichever occurs first.

      1. A statement in a notice disclaiming property under this section that the vesting of the property in the Crown first came to the notice of the Secretary to the Treasury on a specified date shall, in the absence of proof to the contrary, be evidence of the fact stated.

      Compare
      • 1955 No 63 s 338
      Notes
      • Section 325(5)(b): amended, on , by section 40 of the Companies Act 1993 Amendment Act 1994 (1994 No 6).