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Freedom Camping Act 2011

Enforcement, miscellaneous, and transitional provisions - Enforcement officers

37: Enforcement officers may seize and impound certain property

You could also call this:

“Enforcement officers can take away things used for illegal camping”

Enforcement officers have the power to take away and hold onto property in certain areas if it’s being used to break the law. They can do this in local authority areas or on conservation land. Before they take the property, they need to tell the person using it that they’re breaking the law and ask them to stop. They also need to warn the person that if they don’t stop, the officer can take the property away. The officer must give the person a fair chance to stop what they’re doing before taking the property.

After an officer takes property, they need to give a notice to the person who had the property or to the owner if they can find them. This notice needs to be in a special form. If there isn’t a special form, they use a form that’s included in another part of the law.

There are some extra rules about when officers can take property, which are explained in another part of the law.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM3742896.

Topics:
Housing and property > Land use
Environment and resources > Conservation
Government and voting > Local councils
Crime and justice > Police and safety
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36: Enforcement officers may require certain persons to leave local authority area, conservation land, or LINZ land, or

“Officers can ask you to leave if they think you're breaking camping rules”

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38: Requirements relating to seizure and impoundment of boats and motor vehicles, or

“Rules for taking boats and cars when people break freedom camping laws”

Part 3 Enforcement, miscellaneous, and transitional provisions
Enforcement officers

37Enforcement officers may seize and impound certain property

  1. An enforcement officer may seize and impound property in a local authority area or on conservation land—

  2. if the property has been or is being used in the commission of an offence; and
    1. if it is reasonable in the circumstances to seize and impound the property or, if section 38 applies, the requirements of that section are satisfied; and
      1. if the property is both being used in the commission of an offence and in the possession of a person at the time the officer proposes to seize it and, before seizing and impounding it, the officer—
        1. has directed (orally or in writing) the person committing the offence to stop committing the offence; and
          1. has advised (orally or in writing) the person committing the offence that, if he or she does not stop committing the offence, the officer has power to seize and impound the property; and
            1. has provided the person with a reasonable opportunity to stop committing the offence.

            2. As soon as practicable after seizing and impounding property, an enforcement officer must give a notice in the prescribed form—

            3. to the person in possession of the property at the time it was seized and impounded; or
              1. if paragraph (a) does not apply, to any person who the officer can ascertain is the owner of, or has an interest in, the property.

                1. If there is no prescribed form for the purposes of subsection (2), a notice must be in the form set out in Schedule 2.

                2. This section is subject to section 38.