legal interpretation of a road being 'public' or private 'road'

[phillip30]

Hi All,

would appreciate any thoughts on a legal interpretation of the following.

my house comes off a slip lane that is on council road reserve, there is no historical literature on this road, I was told it was originally a path that was widened to allow the home owners to access their property by vehicle. i have been told by council roading team this is deemed private that is the owners have a shared responsibility to maintain this road. However I have talked to neighbors and no one appears aware of this, there is nothing on titles, or for that matter any documentation for it. Is it possible that a road install ed council on road reserve with no agreement can be deemed private?

thanks

[John the builder]

This is a legal question. Might be best directed to a land surveyor?

my tuppence public land = public road

[RollingCloud]

This is difficult to answer unless I have a plan to look at. However if land in question has a lot number i.e. Lot 2 DP (or similar depending on how old it is and where it is in NZ) 11111 then it will be not a road in context of a public road. There are also Local Purpose reserves that say LP Reserve (Road). This does not make it a road, it will be treated as a LP Reserve under the Reserves Act 1977. It could also possibly be a Survey Office Plan Lot so it would say SO 111111. SO's are usually created to take private land as road, although can also be used for other land transactions, but when they become part of that road although the SO record remains at LINZ it is amalgamated into the road and so shown on GIS mapping being part of the road (not separate boundary).
Public Roads do not have Lot numbers. The Council's mapping GIS system should delineate where the road is. If it is a Lot then it still may not have a title. All depends on when it was created and how. Too many variations to make a simple call. If possible, DM me and I can confirm for you.

[phillip30]

thanks John and Rolling Cloud,

I will Pm you RollingCloud. my concern is there does not appear to be any documentation around it, yet it is implied that the owners have a 'maintenance responsibility'