Plain language law

New Zealand law explained for everyone

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Fast-track Approvals Bill

Fast-track approval approvals process for eligible projects - Miscellaneous provisions - Service of documents

28: Service of documents

You could also call this:

“How to send important papers to people for this law”

When you need to send a document to someone for this law, you have different ways to do it. If the person has given you an email address, you should send it there unless they’ve asked for another way. If they haven’t given an email address or have asked for a different way, you can:

  • Give it to them in person
  • Leave it at their home or work
  • Send it by post to their home or work
  • Use any other way that the rules say is okay

Sometimes, if you’re sending a document for a court case, you might have to follow different rules that the court has.

If you need to send a document to a government minister, you can send it to the head of their department instead.

For companies or groups, you can send the document to one of their officers or to their official office.

If you’re sending something to a partnership, you can give it to any of the partners. But for some special kinds of partnerships, there are different rules.

For government organisations, you can:

  • Take it to their main office
  • Send it to their official email address
  • Use any way that you and they agree on

If you send something by post, it’s usually considered received when it would normally have been delivered, unless there’s proof it didn’t arrive then.

Remember, these rules don’t change any laws about sending things to courts electronically.

This text is automatically generated. It might be out of date or be missing some parts. Find out more about how we do this.

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS943305.

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Part 2 Fast-track approval approvals process for eligible projects
Miscellaneous provisions: Service of documents

28Service of documents

  1. If a notice or other document is to be served on a person for the purposes of this Act,—

  2. if the person has specified an electronic address as an address for service for the matter to which the document relates and has not requested a method of service listed in paragraph (b) , the document must be served by sending it to the electronic address:
    1. if the person has not specified an electronic or other address as an address for service or if the person has requested any of the following methods of service, the document may be served by the requested method or any of the following methods:
      1. delivering it to the person:
        1. leaving it at the person's usual or last known place of residence or business or at the address specified by the person in any notice, application, or other document given under this Act:
          1. sending it by post to the person's usual or last known place of residence or business or to the address specified by the person in any notice, application, or other document given under this Act:
            1. complying with a means of service prescribed in regulations made under section 31 .

            2. However, if the document is to be served on a person to commence, or in the course of, court proceedings, subsection (1) does not apply if the court, whether expressly or in its rules or practices, requires a different method of service.

            3. Nothing in subsection (1) overrides the provisions of the Electronic Courts and Tribunals Act 2016.

            4. If a notice or other document is to be served on a Minister of the Crown for the purposes of this Act, service on the chief executive of the appropriate department of the public service in accordance with subsection (1) is to be treated as service on the Minister.

            5. If a notice or other document is to be served on a body (whether incorporated or not) for the purposes of this Act, service on an officer of the body, or on the registered office of the body, in accordance with subsection (1) is to be treated as service on the body.

            6. If a notice or other document is to be served on a partnership for the purposes of this Act, service on any one of the partners in accordance with subsections (1) and (5) is to be treated as service on the partnership.

            7. However, in relation to any partnership that is a firm under the Partnership Law Act 2019 , section 30 of that Act applies in relation to service of notices under this section.

            8. Despite subsection (1) , if a notice or other document is to be served on a Crown organisation for the purposes of this Act, it may be served—

            9. by delivering it at the organisation's head office or principal place of business; or
              1. by sending it to the electronic address that the organisation has specified for its head office or principal place of business; or
                1. by a method agreed between the organisation and the person serving the notice or document.

                  1. If a notice or other document is sent by post to a person in accordance with this section, it is to be treated, in the absence of proof to the contrary, as having been received by the person at the time when the letter would have been delivered in the ordinary course of the post.