Abatement Notice
An abatement notice may be served on any person by an enforcement officer. The notice requires the person to stop or prevent them from commencing anything that is likely to be against the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA), any regulations, a rule in any plan, or an existing resource consent, or is noxious, dangerous, offensive, or objectionable.
An abatement notice can also require something to be done (such as apply for a resource consent) in order to comply with the Resource Management Act, any regulations, a rule in any plan, or an existing resource consent and is also necessary to avoid, remedy, or mitigate any actual or likely adverse effect on the environment.
Additional information regarding abatement notices is provided under the topics below:
Section 322 Scope of abatement notice
(1) An abatement notice may be served on any person by an enforcement officer—
(a) Requiring that person to cease, or prohibiting that person from commencing, anything done or to be done by or on behalf of that person that, in the opinion of the enforcement officer,—
(i) Contravenes or is likely to contravene this Act, any regulations, a rule in a plan, or a resource consent; or
(ii) Is or is likely to be noxious, dangerous, offensive, or objectionable to such an extent that it has or is likely to have an adverse effect on the environment:
(b) Requiring that person to do something that, in the opinion of the enforcement officer, is necessary to ensure compliance by or on behalf of that person with this Act, any regulations, a rule in a plan or a proposed plan, or a resource consent, and also necessary to avoid, remedy, or mitigate any actual or likely adverse effect on the environment—
(i) Caused by or on behalf of the person; or
(ii) Relating to any land of which the person is the owner or occupier:
(c) Requiring that person, being—
(i) An occupier of any land; or
(ii) A person carrying out any activity in, on, under, or over a water body or the water within the coastal marine area,—
who is contravening section 16 (which relates to unreasonable noise) to adopt the best practicable option of ensuring that the emission of noise from that land or water does not exceed a reasonable level.
(2) Where any person is under a duty not to contravene a rule in a proposed plan under sections 9, 12(3), 14(2), or 15(2), an abatement notice may be issued to require a person—
(a) To cease, or prohibit that person from commencing, anything done or to be done by or on behalf of that person that, in the opinion of the enforcement officer, contravenes or is likely to contravene a rule in a proposed plan; or
(b) To do something that, in the opinion of the enforcement officer, is necessary in order to ensure compliance by or on behalf of that person with a rule in a proposed plan.
(3) An abatement notice may be made subject to such conditions as the enforcement officer serving it thinks fit.
(4) An abatement notice shall not be served unless the enforcement officer has reasonable grounds for believing that any of the circumstances in subsection (1) or subsection (2) exist.
If person A who owns a farm in the rural area of the Wakatipu basin to use a silo for storing grain, but they choose not to apply for resource consent, then they could be served with an abatement notice requiring them to obtain a resource consent from the Queenstown Lakes District Council.
Example B
If person B wants to build a house on their rural property near Dunedin, and if they start building without resource consent, they could be served with an abatement notice.
Example C
Recently I read in the news of a family within the Rotorua District Council boundaries who was living in a motor home on their property, which already had a dwelling. The Rotorua District Council deemed a resource consent to be necessary and requested that they apply for one. When no application was received the family received an abatement notice.
