Plain language law

New Zealand law explained for everyone

Public Works Act 1981

Legalisation, stopping, and exchanging of roads

119: Taking severances

You could also call this:

“Land near new roads can be taken if it becomes hard to use”

If the government declares some land as a road, it might make nearby land harder or more expensive for the owner to keep using. If this happens, the Minister can decide to take that nearby land too.

When the Minister takes this nearby land, it can be given to someone else. It might go to the owner of another piece of land, or to the local council, or to the government. The Minister will say who gets it in a notice.

The Minister can’t take this nearby land without getting permission first. The owner and anyone else with a legal interest in the land must agree in writing.

If the local council gets this land, they can use it like any other closed road. If the government gets it, it becomes a closed government road.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM47332.

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Part 8 Legalisation, stopping, and exchanging of roads

119Taking severances

  1. If, as the result of any land being declared road by a notice under section 114, any adjacent land, whether owned by the Crown or not, would become significantly more costly to retain at the same standard as previously or significantly less useful to the owner, lessee, or licensee, the Minister may, by the same or a subsequent notice, declare such adjacent land to be taken under this subsection.

  2. On the declaration of the taking of any land under subsection (1), the land shall vest—

  3. in the registered owner or owners of the land comprised in the record of title specified in the notice as that in which the land taken is to be incorporated; or
    1. if no such title is specified, in the territorial authority specified in that behalf in the notice; or
      1. if no such title or territorial authority is specified, in the Crown—
          1. free from all reservations, restrictions, trusts, rights, titles, estates, or interests of any kind whatsoever, except so far as may be otherwise provided for in the notice.

        1. No land shall be declared taken under subsection (1) without the written consent of the owner, lessee, or licensee, and of every other person having a registered estate or interest in the land.

        2. Any land taken under subsection (1) and vested under subsection (2) in—

        3. the territorial authority, may be dealt with by the territorial authority in all respects as if it had been comprised in a road stopped under section 116:
          1. the Crown, shall be deemed to be stopped Government road.

            Compare
            • 1948 No 39 s 29(6), (6A)–(6C)
            Notes
            • Section 119(2)(a): amended, on , by section 250 of the Land Transfer Act 2017 (2017 No 30).