Māori land can be brought together or divided among its owners in several ways to be managed, developed, or used. This is referred to as ‘title improvement’.
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Before applying to change or divide your land, you must have the backing and agreement of the other owners and shareholders or trustees. You'll need to have a conversation with the other owners, shareholders, and trustees to discuss your plans. Your application must include proof that you have had those conversations and considered the effect of your proposed changes on other shareholders.
Partitions
A partition is the division of the land between its owners to create new titles or blocks. This changes the size, shape, and interest(s) or shareholding(s) in the partitioned land. A partition is dependent on:
- agreement from the owners or a demonstrated sufficient degree of support
- the value of the land and the shares (before partition)the value of the new blocks (after partition)
- access arrangements to each new block or blocks of land
- the distribution of interest(s) and share(s) or shareholding(s) in the new blocks of land.
You’ll need to engage a licensed surveyor to provide a survey plan of the new blocks to support your partition.
Amalgamation
An amalgamation merges Māori land blocks together to create a new block with common ownership. Much like a partition, an amalgamated block is dependent on:
- agreement or sufficient degree of support from the owners
- the value of each land block and the shares (before amalgamation)
- the value of the new land block (after amalgamation)
- access arrangements to the new land block, and
- new shareholding, based on the value of the pre-amalgamation shares, in the new land block.
The shares in the newly amalgamated block are determined by the value of the shares in each block before they are merged. This is why the value of each pre-amalgamation block is so important.
The benefits of an amalgamation are:
- the creation of one large block of land with common ownership
- it enables the land to be used and managed as one block rather than many
- no consent is needed under the Resource Management Act 1991, and
- there’s no requirement for land contributions for roads, reserves or public use or access.
Usual land use consents, such as building consents are still required following an amalgamation.
Aggregations
Unlike other forms of title improvement, an aggregation doesn't change the title to the land. Instead, it creates a common ownership list across one or more blocks of land without amalgamating or dividing those blocks.
Much like an amalgamation, the resulting shareholding is dependent on the:
- agreement or sufficient degree of support from the owners
- value of each block and shares (before aggregation), and
- new shareholding, based on the value of the pre-aggregation shares, in the new aggregation.
Shareholders in the aggregated list will become shareholders in all land blocks included in the aggregation, so the value of shares in each pre-aggregated block is important.
The benefits of an aggregation are:
- a common ownership list being across multiple blocks of land
- it preserves the original titles and blocks
- it enables the ownership to be managed as one list
- no consent is needed under the Resource Management Act 1991, and
- there’s no requirement for land contributions for roads, reserves or public use or access.
Usual land use consents, such as building consents are still required.
Subdivision
A private subdivision of whenua may be made, without lodging an application with the Māori Land Court, if:
- all the legal owners agree to the subdivision (where there is no trust)
- all the trustees agree to the subdivision (where the land is vested in trustees)
- the management committee of a Māori incorporation agrees (where the land is vested in a Māori incorporation)
- the new titles, issued by Land Information New Zealand (LINZ), have the same owners in each of the new titles, as before the subdivision, and
- the status of the new titles remains Māori freehold land.
The applicant is responsible for ensuring that any subdivision meets the requirements of the law and making payment of any costs associated with the subdivision, such as a new survey, titles, and resource consents.
Please provide us with copies of new titles and survey plans as soon as a private subdivision is completed so we can update our records to reflect the changes.
Alternatively, a subdivision can be created by partition order through the Māori Land Court.
Ngā raumei
Resources
Download printable versions of our title improvement resources.
