Accessing your land

Easement agreements

We will seek an easement on your land when we are planning a new line route over your land or if we are undertaking upgrade work on your property that goes beyond the level of changes that we can make under the Electricity Act. An easement is a property interest registered on the certificate of title for the property.

New Lines
Whenever we build a new line, we will negotiate an easement with you as a landowner for towers or lines planned on or over your property. The compensation or purchase price of the easement will be based on the market value of the land required and will be undertaken by a registered valuer.

Existing Lines
For existing lines, if we undertake any upgrade work that results in any ‘injurious affect’ to your land, we will negotiate an easement from you just as we do for new lines. If the upgrade work does not injuriously affect your land, you may still wish to talk to us about an easement agreement. Compensation for this sort of easement would be based on the difference between the value of property assessed before and after registration of the easement.

Injurious affection is the permanent loss of value to land.

Check out our standard template for the Land Management Agreement.

If you would like to talk to us about a Land Management Agreement then contact us for more information.

Statutory Rights

While we would prefer to have agreements with all our landowners, our rights to enter land and work and maintain most of our lines originate from the Electricity Act 1992.
There are other statutes which impact on our relationship too:

• The Electricity (Hazards from Trees) Regulations 2003
• New Zealand Electrical Code of Practice for Electrical safe Distances (NZECP34/2001)
• Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992