Plain language law

New Zealand law explained for everyone

Public Works Act 1981

Legalisation, stopping, and exchanging of roads

115: Certificate of consent may be registered

You could also call this:

“This law explains how to officially record permission to turn private land into a road”

When someone wants to turn their land into a road, they need to get permission from certain people. If they get this permission, the Minister or local authority can send a special document called a certificate to the Registrar-General of Land. The Registrar-General will then record this certificate against the land titles for free.

The certificate needs to include important information like a description of the land, the names of people who agreed to make it a road, and details about any land that might be given in exchange. It also needs to say where and when you can look at the plans and permission documents.

If there’s a small mistake in describing the land in the certificate, it’s okay as long as the Registrar-General can still figure out which land it’s about.

After the certificate is recorded, if someone new buys an interest in the land, they don’t need to give permission for the land to become a road.

If someone takes out a loan using the land as security after the certificate is recorded, they can agree in writing to transfer that loan to any land they get in exchange.

If someone sells the land after the certificate is recorded, any agreements about exchanging land still apply to the new owner.

Anyone can ask to see the permission documents and plans mentioned in the certificate. They can also ask how much of the plan has been carried out.

When the land is no longer affected by the road plan, or when all the permissions have been acted on, the Minister or local authority can tell the Registrar-General to remove the certificate from the land title.

The Minister, someone they allow, or the chief executive of the local authority must sign these certificates or notices to remove them.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM47318.

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114: Declaring land to be road, or

"Making land into a road: How the government turns land into a road for everyone to use"

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116: Stopping roads, or

"How the government can close a road and what they need to do first"

Part 8 Legalisation, stopping, and exchanging of roads

115Certificate of consent may be registered

  1. Where it is proposed that land shall be declared to be road pursuant to section 114, and any consents required under subsection (2) of that section have been given in writing, the Minister or local authority may forward a certificate in accordance with this section to the Registrar-General of Land who shall, without fee, register it against the title to all land affected.

  2. Every certificate under this section shall set out—

  3. the description of the land affected by the certificate and (unless the whole of the land comprised in a record of title or a surveyed lot is to be affected) the description of the portion to be declared to be road by reference to a plan approved by the Chief Surveyor:
    1. the name of each person who has given his written consent to the declaring of the land to be road:
      1. the total area of severed land and closed road that is to be vested in the registered owner in exchange or the fact that no such land is to be vested, as the case may require:
        1. the place where, and the hours during which, the plans and consents (or copies of them) may be inspected, and a reference by which they may be identified.

          1. The validity of a certificate under this section shall not be affected by any misdescription in it of the land if sufficient information appears on the face of the certificate for the Registrar-General of Land to identify the land intended to be affected by it.

          2. Where, after the registration of such a certificate, any person registers an interest in any land affected by it, the consent of that person shall not be required to the Minister making a declaration under section 114(1).

          3. If, before the giving of any notice under section 114, any mortgage or charge is registered against the land after the registration of the certificate, and the registered owner and the mortgagee or chargeholder stipulate in writing that the land or closed road being vested in the registered owner in exchange for the land being declared to be road is to be subject to such new mortgage or charge, the original consents shall be deemed to be varied accordingly.

          4. If, after such a certificate is registered, a transfer instrument of the fee simple of the land affected by the certificate is registered, any consent that is given on the condition that land or closed road shall be vested in the registered owner as at the date of the certificate shall be deemed to be given on the condition that such land or closed road shall be vested in the registered owner as at the date of the notice declaring the land to be road.

          5. Every person who applies at the place and within the hours specified in a certificate under this section for permission to inspect the copy of the consent shall be shown the copy and any plan referred to in it, and shall if he so requests be advised of the extent to which effect has been given to the consents obtained.

          6. Where the Minister or local authority is satisfied—

          7. that any land against which a certificate under this section is registered is not affected or is no longer affected by the proposal to which the certificate refers; or
            1. in any other case, as soon as the consents have been acted upon so far as they affect the title or titles against which the certificate is registered—
                1. the Minister or territorial authority may notify the Registrar-General of Land to that effect and the Registrar shall, without fee, note the discharge against the title to the land.

              1. Every certificate or notice of discharge under this section shall be signed by the Minister or by some person authorised by the Minister in that behalf or, in the case of a territorial authority, shall be signed by the chief executive.

              Notes
              • Section 115(1): amended, on , by section 250 of the Land Transfer Act 2017 (2017 No 30).
              • Section 115(2)(a): amended, on , by section 250 of the Land Transfer Act 2017 (2017 No 30).
              • Section 115(2)(c): amended, on , by section 250 of the Land Transfer Act 2017 (2017 No 30).
              • Section 115(3): amended, on , by section 250 of the Land Transfer Act 2017 (2017 No 30).
              • Section 115(5): amended, on , by section 250 of the Land Transfer Act 2017 (2017 No 30).
              • Section 115(6): amended, on , by section 250 of the Land Transfer Act 2017 (2017 No 30).
              • Section 115(8): amended, on , by section 250 of the Land Transfer Act 2017 (2017 No 30).
              • Section 115(9): amended, on , by section 262 of the Local Government Act 2002 (2002 No 84).