- The type of equipment that is being installed
- Where the equipment needs to go
- The type of land in the area
Equipment (also referred to as assets) that may need to be installed as part of your application:
- Overhead poles and lines
- Underground cables
- Transformers/switchgear
- Underground gas pipes.
More information about easements and the process can be found below. You can find a diagram of the easement process here.
What is an easement?
An easement is a legal right granted to one party to use a portion of another party's land for a specific purpose. Essentially, it's a permission to use a specific area of land for a particular activity, like access or utilities such as electricity or gas.
An easement gives us the right to put our equipment on someone else’s land. An easement is registered on the Record of Title for the land, so it stays in place even if the land is sold.
The equipment remains our property and we’re responsible for maintaining it. An easement also gives us the right to access the land when we need to inspect or maintain the equipment.
As the landowner or occupier, it’s also important you know that we may have existing rights to access your land to undertake certain works on our equipment. These rights are given by the Electricity Act 1992 and apply if our equipment was installed or constructed before 1 January 1993.
Responsibilities
You will
- Not allow trees or vegetation (other than grass) to grow in the easement area
- Not build new structures (such as buildings, sheds, fences) within the easement area
- Not disturb the soil beneath the easement area
- Not do anything to damage our equipment or reduce the minimum clearances for the equipment. Learn more about building near lines
- Not restrict access to our equipment
- Pay to repair or replace our equipment if you damage it
We will
- Have the right to install, operate, inspect, maintain and upgrade our equipment
- Give notice before accessing your property, except in emergencies
- Cause as little disturbance as possible
- Repair any damage we cause
- Access the equipment by agreed routes
Supporting documents
The easement process explained
Here’s what you can expect when we need an easement on your land or on your neighbour’s land.
You’ll need to engage a lawyer and a surveyor as part of the process, and you’ll be responsible for their costs. You’ll also be responsible for working with your affected neighbour/s and paying their legal and survey costs.
We’ll guide you through the process of obtaining an easement, and let you know what you need to do along the way.
Before works can start
We’ll send you an Easement Form and Ownership Notice which outlines the equipment to be installed or altered on your land.
You need to:
- Fill in your lawyer and surveyor details
- Return the form to easements@powerco.co.nz
- Keep the form for your records
If our equipment will be installed or altered on your neighbour’s land, you’ll also get an Easement Form and Ownership Notice for them.
You need to:
- Tell your neighbour(s) about the electrical works you have planned.
- Give the Easement Form and Ownership Notice to your neighbour(s). Ask them to fill in the form so that we have their lawyer’s details.
- Return the form completed by your neighbour(s) to easements@powerco.co.nz
We’ll prepare the easement agreement(s) for you and your neighbour(s).
You need to:
- We’ll send the easement agreement to you and your lawyer named on the form, and to your neighbour(s) and their lawyer named on the form. *It usually takes us 10 working days from when you return the Easement Form and Ownership Notice to get the easement agreement to you.
- It’s up to you to pay your own legal fees as well as your neighbour’s legal fees.
Return the signed easement agreement(s). **
You need to:
- You or your lawyer/neighbour’s lawyer need to return us the signed easement agreement(s)
**It’s important you know that we can’t start your work until we have the signed easement agreement(s) returned to us.
Works start.
You need to:- Let us know if you have any questions about the electrical works, eg start date, completion date, payment terms, or anything else.
A caveat may be put on your land title. If your neighbour(s) signed an easement agreement, a caveat may be put on their land title too.
Once the works are completed
Once the equipment is installed on your land and/or your neighbour’s land, the area where our easement will go will need to be surveyed.
You need to:
- Get your surveyor to survey our equipment on your and/or your neighbour’s land
- Pay your surveyor’s fees for all the survey work
- Get your surveyor to send the draft survey plan to us
Talk to your surveyor or let us know if you have any questions about this part of the process.
If you are ready to, you can ask your surveyor to lodge the plan with LINZ for approval.
Email resourceconsents@powerco.co.nz and ask for a Completion Certificate for your work, if this is required.
Registering the easement
The easement can be registered.
You need to:
- Make a time to see your lawyer to sign a LINZ Authority and Instruction form and the Easement Instrument which lets them register the easement on your land title
- Pay your own legal fees and easement registration costs
- Pay your neighbour’s legal fees and easement registration costs if an easement is going to be put on their land title
Let us know if you have any questions about this part of the process.
We have successfully completed the easement and consent process with you.
It’s important to be safe around our assets on your land. Check out the health and safety info here.
What consents might we need?
- Resource consent – if the installation of the equipment breaches a rule in a District or Regional Plan, or other planning instrument under the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA)
- Archaeological authority – if the installation of the equipment involves earthworks in the vicinity of archaeological sites and is required under the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014
- Affected party, iwi and/or hapū consultation – may be required as part of obtaining resource consents or archaeological authorities and often includes cultural monitoring of earthworks
We’ll assess the work involved in your connection application and let you know if any of these are required. If a resource consent and/or archaeological authority is required these must be granted before we can start the work. In most cases you will be responsible for obtaining these including the associated costs, with our assistance as required.
Information on the resource consent and archaeological authority processes can be found on the Ministry for Environment and Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga websites, linked below.
Ministry for the Environment - consent process
Heritage New Zealand - works affecting an archaeological site
Easement FAQs
If Powerco is going to install equipment on (or near) your land, you’ll get an ownership notice. The ownership notice:
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tells you about the type of electrical works being arranged
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lists the Powerco equipment that will be installed on or near your land
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may have a list of electrical equipment on your land that we don’t own
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sets out your responsibilities for the Powerco equipment on your land. For instance, you’ll need to make sure the equipment is accessible to us at all times so we can maintain it (and get to it in an emergency) and make sure equipment is not removed, damaged or interfered with.
If your neighbour is asking you to give us an easement it’s usually because we need Powerco equipment to cross your land so we can supply your neighbour’s land with electricity.
An easement is a legal right for one person to use another person’s land for a particular purpose.
It gives us the right to install, operate, inspect, maintain and upgrade our equipment on land we don’t own. Easements are registered on the land title so we have the same rights even if the land is sold.
Often our equipment will cross more than one person’s land – that’s how we get electricity from A to B. When this happens, there’ll be more than one landowner who we need an easement from.
If there’s an easement for the Powerco equipment, it’s likely you can’t move or remove the equipment unless we agree.
If there’s no easement because the Powerco equipment was constructed before 1 January 1993, the Electricity Act 1992 applies. It allows owners and occupiers of private property to have works removed or relocated as long as they pay all costs.
There are a few things to consider before any removal or relocations can go ahead:
- You’ll need to pay all removal and relocation costs.
- The removal or relocation must be carried out by Powerco's contractors.
- Is there another suitable location for the equipment to go?
- Will the removal or relocation affect the supply of electricity to any other customers?
- Will an easement be required for the new location?
You can find out more about relocating existing assets here.
In most cases, Powerco equipment constructed before 1 January 1993 won’t have an easement. The equipment will be classified as 'existing works' under the Electricity Act which gives Powerco legal right to access and maintain the equipment.
Yes. There will either be an easement on your land, or the equipment is allowed to be there under the Electricity Act.
We use easements when we’re putting equipment (such as poles or transformers) on land we don’t own. Easements are registered on land titles, so they remain in place when ownership of land changes hands.
Some older Powerco equipment (constructed before 1 January 1993) won’t have an easement. That’s because they’re ‘existing works’ under the Electricity Act. Powerco can access and maintain ‘existing works’ under the Electricity Act.