When a council can enter your property and your rights

Enforcement officers must carry warrant cards, which list their powers and responsibilities.

Enforcement officers have the power to enter and inspect private property, at any reasonable time, for the purpose of checking for non-compliance. If an officer exercises their power to enter your land and undertake an inspection, you must allow them to do their inspection tasks. It is an offence to obstruct an enforcement officer.

As part of these inspections, enforcement officers have the right to take:

• samples of soil, water, air or organic matter (including vegetation or animal remains)
• samples of any substance where they have reasonable cause to believe that substance is a contaminant of any of these
• any relevant measurements or photographs, and to record their observations. This may include making audio or visual recordings of their inspection and/or field interviews.

Enforcement officers have the power to bring special assistance with them if needed, such as a scientist, surveyor or additional people for health and safety reasons.

When an enforcement officer enters your property, they must show you their warrant of appointment, which includes written authorisation for the council or the EPA to use their powers.

If they come on to a property and find no one there to show their warrant to, they are allowed to go ahead with their inspection. However, when they finish they must leave a written notice in a prominent place (for example, in the letterbox or on the front door) giving the time and date of the inspection and the name of the officer leading it. It is considered good practice to also include the purpose of the inspection on the notice. Often officers will leave this notice even when there was someone there to show their warrant to.

An enforcement officer can enter your property, except in the following circumstances.

• If they need to come into the house to complete their inspection then they have to get your permission and conduct the inspection at a time agreed with you.
• If they cannot get permission to enter a house, they may apply to the court for a search warrant to enable them to enter, but they will have to justify their reasons for doing so to the court. 
  • It is important to note this only applies to houses that are occupied as a residence. An enforcement officer may enter houses that are vacant or under construction as part of their normal inspection.
• If they have reasonable grounds to believe an offence has been committed, a search warrant or informed consent will be required to return to that property to gather any additional information.
• If they do get a search warrant, they must bring a police officer with them to supervise the search.
• If an enforcement officer enters your property, they must do so at a reasonable time.

You cannot prevent an enforcement officer from conducting an inspection of your property on health and safety grounds. Most enforcement officers receive comprehensive health and safety training and can manage themselves provided they are properly informed about hazards.

You have a responsibility to ensure the enforcement officers are informed of any health and safety hazards on your property. If you need to keep working while the officers are doing their inspection, you must work safely around them and not put them at risk.

If your site has significant hazards and you believe the officers need to receive a formal safety induction before their inspection, you should explain this to them and offer an induction. However, if there is an urgent issue that needs to be inspected immediately, enforcement officers have the right to skip these processes and go straight into the inspection.

Name, address and date of birth

If an enforcement officer reasonably suspects you have been involved in a breach of the RMA, then they have the power to require you to tell them your full legal name, your residential address and your date of birth. If they ask you for these details, you must provide them. It is an offence to refuse to provide this information.

Your client or employer

If you are an employee contractor working for someone else, an enforcement officer also has the power to require you to provide the name and address (and, if applicable, date of birth) of the person or company you are doing the work for. If you know these details, you must provide them. It is an offence to refuse provide this information if you know it.

You must tell the truth

You are not required to provide further information if you do not want to. You are entitled to refuse to answer any further questions. However, if you do choose to answer any further questions from an enforcement officer, you must answer them truthfully. It is an offence to deliberately deceive or mislead an enforcement officer.

Formal interviews

If you are suspected to be responsible for an offence, or if you are a witness to an incident being investigated, you may be asked to participate in a formal interview.

If you are invited to participate in a formal interview, you have the right to refuse. If you do choose to participate, you should be aware of the following:

• the purpose of an evidential interview is to discover the truth about a case or incident under investigation
• as described above, you must provide your name, address and date of birth, the same information about your employer and/or client (if known), and you must tell the truth
• the council does not have the power to arrest or detain you. You are entitled to end the interview and leave at any time
• you have the right to have your lawyer present if you wish
• you have the right to pause the interview to speak to your lawyer or take legal advice
• formal interviews are usually recorded in an audio/visual format. You have the right to receive a copy of the recording and any transcript.