You most probably use your farm in a variety of ways, some of which would not always be expected with rural land, for example, a road-front retail shop for selling excess produce, your own airstrip for fertiliser application purposes, or a dirt bike park to indulge in your favourite hobby. But did you know that even if you are the second or even third generation to use your land in this way, you are not necessarily entitled to keep doing so.

Just being the owner of land doesn't give you the right to use that land in every way your heart may desire. Modern property law is said to be based on the assumption that the landowner holds their land for the public good. With what is considered to be the public good constantly changing and evolving, rules about how landowners may use their land are continually being introduced or changed. But as rules change you do not necessarily have to stop doing things that do not comply with the new rules. You just have to be savvy about what you can, and can't, do. 

You may well have the right to continue doing what you have always done
Even though District or Regional Plan rules may have changed since you first started a particular use of your land, it is possible that you may have existing use rights to continue that use even if it contravenes the current rules. The existing use rights rules are contained in the Resource Management Act and are an exception to the general rule that landowners may not carry out any activities on their land that breach the relevant planning rules unless they have resource consent to do so. The specific existing use rights rules applying in any particular situation will depend on what the activity is, where the activity is undertaken, and whether the activity contravenes rules under the District Plan or the Regional Plan or both. To rely on the existing use rights rules for a particular activity, the landowner must be able to prove that the relevant conditions of the rules applying to that activity are met.

For example, you may have a road-front retail shop at your farm gate which you first started 15 years ago but is now contrary to current District Plan rules. You may have existing use rights to continue to operate that shop, if you can prove the relevant conditions are met. These may be that:
»» The retail shop was lawfully established before the relevant rule came in,
ie: it did not breach previous planning rules.
This may require a bit of investigation of what those previous rules were, going back to when the activity first started
»» The effects of the retail shop are the same or similar in character, intensity, and scale to those which existed before the new rule came in. For example, you haven't enlarged it, its opening hours are the same, it doesn't generate more traffic, and
»» You haven't discontinued use of the retail shop for a continuous period of 12 months. For example, that you have routinely opened the shop during summer every year since you first opened the shop 15 years ago.

To have your chance to prove to the council that you have existing use rights, you don’t have to sit around waiting for someone (such as a new neighbour) to complain about what you are doing. Instead, for certainty, and if you think you have sufficient evidence to satisfy the council that your use of the land complies with the relevant conditions of ‘existing use rights’, you can apply to the council for an ‘existing use certificate’. And even if you do not meet the criteria for existing use rights, all hope is not lost as you may well be able to get resource consent for the activity.