Legislation Act 2019

Interpretation and application of legislation - Time and distance

56: Calculating periods of months (except for commencement of legislation)

You could also call this:

"How to count months when following the law"

When you see a time period in legislation, like one or more months, it is calculated in a specific way. You start counting from the beginning of the day in the month, then count the relevant number of months to find the ending month. The period ends just before the same day in the ending month, or if that day does not exist, it ends on the last day of the month.

You need to look at the specific day you are starting from, and then count the months. For example, if you start on 15 February, you count one month to get to March, and the period ends just before 15 March. If you start on 31 October and count six months, you get to April, but since April does not have 31 days, the period ends on 30 April.

If you are counting a period of months after a specific date, like after notice is sent, you start counting from the day after the notice is sent. This section does not apply when you are working out when legislation starts, for that you should look at section 28.

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Part 2Interpretation and application of legislation
Time and distance

56Calculating periods of months (except for commencement of legislation)

  1. A reference to 1 or more months in legislation is a reference to a period calculated as follows:

  2. the period starts at the start of the relevant day in the month; and
    1. the relevant number of months must then be counted to find the ending month; and
      1. the period ends immediately before the corresponding day in the ending month or (if there is no such day) at the close of the last day of the ending month.
        1. Examples

          If the legislation refers to a period of 1 month starting on 15 February, the period starts on 15 February and ends at the close of 14 March (because March has a corresponding day).

          If the legislation refers to a period of 6 months starting on 31 October, the period starts on 31 October and ends at the close of 30 April (because April does not have 31 days).

          If the legislation refers to a period of 3 months after the date on which notice is sent and notice is sent on 2 August, the period starts on 3 August (under item 2 in section 54) and ends at the close of 2 November.

        2. This section does not apply to commencement of legislation (see section 28).