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Freedom Camping Act 2011

Enforcement, miscellaneous, and transitional provisions - Enforcement officers

41: Protection against claims resulting from seizing or impounding of property under section 37

You could also call this:

“Officers are protected when they take and hold campers' property”

If you’re camping in New Zealand, you should know about a rule that protects enforcement officers when they take and hold onto property. This rule is part of the Freedom Camping Act 2011.

The law says that if an enforcement officer takes your property as part of their job, they won’t be responsible for any damage or loss that happens to it. This means you can’t ask them to pay for any problems with your stuff after they’ve taken it.

However, there’s an exception to this rule. If the officer didn’t act in good faith, or if they were really careless and didn’t take care of your property like a reasonable person would, then they might be held responsible. This means that officers still need to be careful and do their job properly.

Remember, this rule is specifically about property that’s taken under section 37 of the Act. It’s there to help officers do their job without worrying about every little thing that might happen to the property they’ve taken.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM3742901.

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Part 3 Enforcement, miscellaneous, and transitional provisions
Enforcement officers

41Protection against claims resulting from seizing or impounding of property under section 37

  1. An enforcement officer is not liable for any loss or damage to property arising directly or indirectly from the seizing and impounding of the property under section 37.

  2. Subsection (1) does not apply if the enforcement officer acted without good faith or if his or her omission or neglect was a major departure from the standard of care expected of a reasonable person in the circumstances.