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New Zealand law explained for everyone

Public Works Act 1981

Dealing with land held for public works

42A: Solatium payment for loss of opportunity to purchase

You could also call this:

“Extra money if you can't buy back land taken for public use because it's returned to Māori”

If you have land taken for a public work, and that land is returned to Māori ownership because of a decision by the Waitangi Tribunal or a law passed by Parliament, you might be able to get a special payment. This payment is called a solatium payment.

You can ask for this payment if you would have had the chance to buy the land back, but can’t because it’s been returned to Māori ownership. You need to apply to the Land Valuation Tribunal when you would have received the offer to buy the land back.

When you apply, you need to tell the head of the department that deals with land surveys. The Tribunal will look at several things to decide how much to pay you. They’ll think about:

  • The money you were paid when the land was first taken
  • Any other payments you received
  • What the land is worth now
  • Whether you could have afforded to buy the land
  • How connected you are to the land, especially if you or your family have been associated with it for a long time
  • How much the chance to buy the land back might be worth

The most you can get as a solatium payment is $20,000.

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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=DLM46085.

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"Selling extra land the government doesn't need anymore"

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42B: Notice of right to apply for solatium payment, or

"You can ask for money if the government doesn't need your land anymore"

Part 3 Dealing with land held for public works

42ASolatium payment for loss of opportunity to purchase

  1. Where—

  2. a recommendation made or deemed to have been made by the Waitangi Tribunal under section 8A of the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 for the return to Maori ownership of any land that is held for a public work takes effect as a final recommendation; or
    1. any provision of an Act of Parliament returns to Maori ownership any land that immediately before being so returned was held for a public work,—
        1. any person (being the person from whom that land was acquired or the successor of the person from whom that land was acquired) who would, but for section 8A(5) of the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 or the effect of the Act of Parliament by which the land was returned to Maori ownership, have received in respect of that land in the normal course of events an offer under section 40 or section 41 may, at the time at which the offer would have been made, apply to the Land Valuation Tribunal for a solatium payment from the Crown for the loss of the opportunity to purchase the land.

      1. Every person who makes an application to the Land Valuation Tribunal under subsection (1) shall, as soon as practicable after making that application, serve a copy of that application on the chief executive of the department within the meaning of section 2 of the Survey Act 1986.

      2. Subject to subsection (4), the Land Valuation Tribunal shall, in assessing the amount of any solatium payment payable under this section, take into account—

      3. the fact that the person from whom the land was acquired was paid, at the time of acquisition, the then market price as agreed or assessed; and
        1. any other payments made to the person from whom the land was acquired; and
          1. the fact that the offer under section 40 or section 41 would, in most cases, have been an offer to sell the land at the current market value of the land as determined by a valuation carried out by a registered valuer; and
            1. the reasonable likelihood of the offeree being financially capable of accepting the offer; and
              1. the degree of attachment that the offeree has to the land, including, in particular, the degree of attachment that exists by reason of the offeree or members of the offeree's family or both having been associated with the land over a considerable period of time; and
                1. the likely market value of the opportunity to purchase the land.

                  1. No solatium payment payable under this section in respect of the loss of the opportunity to purchase any land shall exceed $20,000.

                  Notes
                  • Section 42A: inserted, on , by section 38 of the Waikato Raupatu Claims Settlement Act 1995 (1995 No 58).
                  • Section 42A(2): amended, on , by section 5 of the Survey Amendment Act 1996 (1996 No 55).