Easements on school land and school land records
If someone needs to put infrastructure on your school, or you need to put infrastructure on a neighbour's property, you need an easement. You also need to understand your land records, as these will help you make decisions about school property.
What an easement is
An easement is a legal agreement that gives one party the right to use another party's land for a specific purpose. They’re usually permanent.
Easement requests could include things like:
- a council wanting to put drainage pipes across school grounds
- an electricity supplier who wants to put a transformer on the corner of a school
- a council who wants to put a footpath across school grounds
- a school that wants to connect to a council sewage line on someone else's land.
How to manage easement requests
We’ll help your school with:
- requests from someone for an easement on your school’s land
- easements on neighbouring land that your school needs.
You should always talk to your property advisor about any easement requests first. In most cases we’ll manage the easement process for you.
School land is usually owned by the Crown. Only Toitu te Whenua | Land Information New Zealand (LINZ), with our permission, can agree to the granting or acquisition of an easement.
If your school needs an easement
Your school must get consent from us for an easement first.
Don’t negotiate directly with a neighbour – we’ll negotiate the arrangement on your behalf and make sure any agreements are recorded on the appropriate land title.
If you receive an easement request from another party
We’ll consult with you to make sure the easement won’t have a negative impact on the school.
If we lease the land in question, we’ll need to get landowner approval for the easement.
Easement costs
We’ll discuss the costs related to an easement with you before work begins.
The party who wants the easement normally pays for it. If your school needs the easement, you’ll have to pay for it, and budget for the costs involved when planning.
Costs may include:
- accredited supplier fees
- surveyor fees
- valuer fees
- compensation costs
- any costs incurred by the party granting the easement.
Easements over Crown-owned land must be negotiated and prepared by a LINZ-accredited supplier, and agreed by LINZ. There are legal restrictions on what the Crown can agree to, and a different process to easements agreed between private parties. This can mean higher costs and longer delivery timeframes.
Compensation for easements
An easement often reduces the value and usability of the land it’s on.
The party that wants the easement will need to pay compensation to the other party for that reduction in value and usability. You’ll need to budget for this.
Compensation will be assessed by our LINZ-accredited supplier. The other party can get their own valuation done too.
When the loss of value is to Crown-owned property, the compensation is paid to the Crown, not to the school.
School land records
Accurate land records will help you:
- understand the school’s legal boundaries
- identify any restrictions or obligations, and
- support your planning and property decisions.
School land is usually owned by the Crown. In some cases, your board or another landowner owns the land. If another landowner owns the land, we may lease it for education purposes.
This can include land transferred under a Treaty settlement and leased back for education purposes.
You can search for and order land records through Toitu te Whenua | Land Information New Zealand’s Land Record Search. It lets you view or order PDF copies of titles, survey plans, and other digital land records.
If you’re still unsure who owns the land, where the legal boundary is, or whether there are any legal interests or land covenants registered on the title, contact your property advisor for advice.