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New Zealand law explained for everyone

Public Works Act 1981

Legalisation, stopping, and exchanging of roads

117: Dealing with stopped roads

You could also call this:

“Rules for dealing with roads that are no longer used”

When a road is stopped, which means it’s no longer used as a road, the local council can deal with the land as if it had been stopped under a different law called the Local Government Act 1974.

If the stopped road was a Government road or State highway, it can be treated as land that’s no longer needed for public work.

For State highways, Government roads, or other roads if the local council agrees, the land from the stopped road can be:

  • Swapped for land needed for a new road
  • Dealt with as Crown land
  • Given to the owner of land next to it, if that’s considered fair

If the land next to the stopped road is a joint family home, the stopped road land can be given to the people who set up the joint family home.

Before the land is given away, the Chief Surveyor will give it a new description. The Registrar-General of Land will update their records with this new description.

If the stopped road land is exchanged for land that’s being leased from the Crown, it becomes part of that lease. The same rules and conditions apply to it as the rest of the leased land.

If the stopped road is next to or crosses a reserve or public work land, it can be added to that land. It then belongs to whoever owns that land and follows the same rules.

If the reserve or endowment belongs to the Crown or is managed by the Commissioner of Crown Lands, any land added to it can be included in leases of nearby land within the reserve or endowment.

Any land added to a lease follows the same rules and conditions as the rest of the leased land.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM47324.

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Part 8 Legalisation, stopping, and exchanging of roads

117Dealing with stopped roads

  1. Notwithstanding anything in section 40, if a road as defined in section 315 of the Local Government Act 1974 has been stopped under this Act, the land comprising the stopped road may be dealt with by the territorial authority in the same manner and in all respects as if the road had been stopped pursuant to the Local Government Act 1974.

  2. The land comprising any Government road or State highway or part thereof that has been stopped may under this Act be disposed of or dealt with as land no longer required for a public work.

  3. In the case of any stopped road that was, immediately before its stopping, a State highway, Government road, or part thereof, or if in the case of any other stopped road the territorial authority so consents, the land comprising the stopped road—

  4. may, by the notice declaring the road to be stopped, or by a subsequent notice by the Minister, be vested or otherwise disposed of in exchange for any land required for any other road; or
    1. if not required for the purpose of exchange, may be dealt with as Crown land under the Land Act 1948 or, if the Minister in the case of stopped Government road or State highway or the territorial authority in the case of any other stopped road certifies that he or it considers it equitable to do so, may be vested in or otherwise disposed of to the owner of any adjoining land.

      1. If the land to be vested pursuant to subsection (3) adjoins land that is settled as a joint family home under the Joint Family Homes Act 1964, and the land to be so vested is intended to be included in the land so settled, it may be vested in the settlor or settlors of the joint family home.

      2. Before any land is so vested or disposed of, the Chief Surveyor shall allocate a new description to the land comprising the stopped road, and shall forward to the Registrar-General of Land a copy of that description, and the Registrar shall amend his records accordingly.

      3. All land disposed of under this section by way of lease or licence in exchange for land held under lease or licence from the Crown shall be deemed to be incorporated in that lease or licence from the Crown, and shall, subject to any consequential adjustment of rent, be held on the same tenure and upon the same terms and conditions, and be subject to the same rights, titles, interests, and encumbrances, as the other land comprised in that lease or licence.

      4. Notwithstanding anything in subsections (1), (2), and (3), if the land comprising any stopped road or any part of that land intersects or is adjacent to any reserve, endowment, or land held for a public work, the Minister may, by the notice declaring the road to be stopped or by a subsequent notice, declare that land or part to be added to the reserve, endowment, or land held for a public work, as the case may be; and thereupon the land shall vest in the owner of the land to which it is added and be subject to the same reservations and trusts as the land to which it is added.

      5. If any reserve or endowment is vested in the Crown or, not being so vested, is lawfully administered by the Commissioner of Crown Lands appointed under section 12A of the Survey Act 1986, any land added to it under subsection (7), or any part of land so added, may be incorporated in any lease or licence of adjacent land within the reserve or endowment.

      6. Any land incorporated in a lease or licence under subsection (6) shall, subject to any consequential adjustment of rent, be held on the same tenure and on the same terms and conditions, and be subject to the same rights, titles, interests, and encumbrances, as the other land comprised in that lease or licence.

      Compare
      • 1928 No 21 s 149
      • 1948 No 39 s 29(3B)–(3F), (4), (5)
      Notes
      • Section 117(5): amended, on , by section 250 of the Land Transfer Act 2017 (2017 No 30).
      • Section 117(8): amended, on , pursuant to section 9(2) of the Survey Amendment Act (No 3) 1989 (1989 No 139).