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Local Government (Water Services) Act 2025

Structural arrangements for providing water services - Responsibility for providing water services - Transfer of responsibilities, etc, to water organisation

14: Purpose and effect of transfer agreement

You could also call this:

"What a transfer agreement means and how it changes who provides your water services"

Illustration for Local Government (Water Services) Act 2025

When a transfer agreement is made, its purpose is to make it clear what is being transferred and what is not. This clarity is important for you, the territorial authority involved, and the board of the water organisation. It is also important that the public can easily understand what is happening.

The effect of a transfer agreement is that the water organisation takes over the responsibility of providing water services from the territorial authority. This means the water organisation becomes the new provider of those services.

If you want to know more about how transfer agreements work, you can look at Schedule 9 of the LGA 2002, which applies to transfer agreements in certain ways, depending on whether the transfer is from a territorial authority to a water organisation, or from a water organisation back to a territorial authority under section 15(1)(b).

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS1004294.

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13: Territorial authority’s actions before entering transfer agreement, or

"What a territorial authority must do before signing a water services agreement"

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15: When new transfer agreement required, or

"When to make a new agreement with a water organisation if things change"

Part 2Structural arrangements for providing water services
Responsibility for providing water services: Transfer of responsibilities, etc, to water organisation

14Purpose and effect of transfer agreement

  1. The purpose of a transfer agreement is to ensure that the effect of the agreement (the matters that are transferred and the matters that are not transferred)—

  2. is transparent to—
    1. the territorial authority that is party to the agreement; and
      1. the board of the water organisation; and
      2. can be readily ascertained by the public.

        1. The effect of a transfer agreement that transfers responsibility for providing water services is that the water organisation that is a party to the agreement replaces the territorial authority as the water service provider in relation to those services.

        2. Schedule 9 of the LGA 2002 applies to a transfer agreement as follows:

        3. for a transfer from a territorial authority to a water organisation, the schedule applies, with any necessary modifications, as if every reference to a council-controlled organisation were a reference to a water organisation:
          1. for a transfer from a water organisation returning matters to a territorial authority under section 15(1)(b), the schedule applies, with any necessary modifications, as if—
            1. every reference to a council-controlled organisation were a reference to a territorial authority; and
              1. every reference to a local authority were a reference to a water organisation.