Abatement Notices
Originally Published in Nelson Marlborough Farming May 2011
I have over the years I have became involved with people who have had the misfortune to have abatement notices served on them. An abatement notice is a legal document requiring a person to cease,or prohibiting that person from commencing any thing that contravenes the RMA, any regulations, a rule in a plan, or a resource consent, or stopping something that is noxious, dangerous, offensive, or objectionable .
In a rural situation the sort of thing that councils might use these for is illegal effluent discharges, illegal taking of water, modifying waterways without consent, and an multitude of other alleged breaches of the ever expanding rule book.
Its is very easy for a council to issue an abatement notice, an enforcement officer simply fills in a prescribed form and serves it on you. After having this nasty bit of paper handed to you, in general you have two options, comply or appeal to the environment court.
The former might involve you doing something that in your opinion is unreasonable or unnecessary, the latter could incur not insubstantial legal costs, and you might still lose. It can be your classic rock and a hard place scenario.
But what ever you do, do not ignore an abatement notice, it doesn't matter how unfair or unreasonable you think it is, you need to address it promptly. If you you are going to fight it get legal advice. If you are going comply, do so within the specified time frame.
Failure to comply with an abatement notice can result in legal action (prosecution) being taken against you, if you lose this means you may have to pay a fine, you may have to pay for councils legal costs and you will still need to comply with what the consent notice originally required.
Under the Resource Management (Simplifying and Streamlining) Amendment Act 2009 the maximum fines for companies and individuals under the RMA were increased to $600,000 and $300,000 respectively, yet another reason to take the little piece of paper they hand you seriously.
This article is general in nature and should not be a substitute for specific advice from a suitable professional.
This article was prepared by John Cotton specialized in rural surveys.
