Trespass notices in New Zealand, what they mean and how to issue one

Last updated 4 July 2026. A bill changing trespass law is before Parliament, see the note below. This is general information, not legal advice.

Just been handed a notice? Start at what it means for you. Want to trespass someone from your property or business? Jump to how to issue one properly.

The two kinds of warning

The Trespass Act 1980 creates two different warnings and people mix them up constantly. A warning to leave is the on-the-spot one, the occupier of a place, or someone with their authority, tells you to go, and staying becomes an offence. A warning to stay off is what everyone calls a trespass notice, given orally or in writing, and it makes returning to that place within the next two years an offence. An occupier can issue a stay-off warning preemptively to someone who has never set foot on the property, but only where they reasonably suspect that person is likely to trespass.

If you have been trespassed

Here is what the notice actually does, and does not do:

• It bans you from the specific place named in it, for two years from the warning. That period is fixed by the Act, not chosen by the owner.
• It is not a conviction, a charge or a criminal record. The offence only occurs if you wilfully go back within the two years.
• It must be given to you individually. The Act does not allow group notices.
• Refusing to take the piece of paper does not undo it. Once the warning is communicated to you, it counts.

If you are found trespassing on private land, the occupier or a police officer can require your name and place of abode, and your firearms licence number if you are carrying a firearm. That is the full list. They cannot demand photo ID, your date of birth or a photograph. Refusing, or giving false details, is an offence with a fine of up to $500, and only a police officer, after a caution, can arrest you for continued refusal. Our guide to when you must give police your name covers the wider rules.

The Act also contains defences worth knowing. It is a defence if you stayed or returned for your own protection or someone else’s, or because of an emergency involving property, and a notice lapses in practice if the person who gave it is no longer the occupier.

Challenging a trespass notice

From a private owner or business, there is usually little to challenge. Occupiers do not need a good reason to withdraw their invitation, and the practical move is a polite letter asking them to reconsider or shorten the ban.

Public bodies are a different story. WINZ offices, councils, hospitals and schools exercise public power, and they must act fairly and reasonably when they trespass someone. The Ombudsman has upheld complaints where a council trespassed a person without warning or any opportunity to comment, and where a school board trespassed a student the same way, and has criticised automatic two-year bans as disproportionate. The courts have gone further, in Police v Heke in 2011 the Nelson District Court held a blanket notice banning one man from nearly every park in Nelson unreasonable and unlawful.

So if a government agency, council or school has trespassed you, complain in writing first, ask what process was followed and how you can respond, then escalate to the Ombudsman, which is free. If WINZ is involved, your benefit entitlements continue, being trespassed changes how you access the office, not what you are entitled to, and our guide to challenging Work and Income decisions covers the money side.

What police will and will not do

The police’s own trespass instructions are clearer than most guides about the limits of their role, and they contradict what many people assume.

• Police do not serve trespass notices for property owners as a routine service. Owners and businesses deliver their own.
• The exceptions are narrow, private premises not open to the public, where the occupier fears the person, cannot be present, faces a crowd situation, or the notice is linked to an offence, and police prefer written authority from the occupier before acting.
• For shops and other premises open to the public, police are told not to get involved in issuing notices except in those same narrow cases.
• When police do serve one, they may photograph the person to prove service, and the notice is logged as an alert in the police national database.
• The instructions state that blanket trespass notices covering multiple properties are “almost always held to be illegal”, and tell staff not to serve or promote them without legal advice.

Trespassing someone from your property

Most owners and businesses never need police at all. Done properly, it is a five-minute job:

1. For someone on the property now, tell them clearly to leave. If they refuse, that is already an offence and you can call police.
2. For a lasting ban, give a warning to stay off, orally or in writing. Written is better evidence. The police publish a trespass notice form you can use, covering the person’s name, the place, the date and who is giving the warning.
3. One person per notice. The Act requires the warning be given to the individual concerned, so a flat of five needs five notices.
4. Deliver it personally or by tracked courier. The Act still mentions registered post, which no longer exists, so personal delivery or a courier with tracking is the practical route. If they refuse to take it, tell them what it is, the warning still counts once communicated.
5. Keep a copy and a record of when, where and how it was given, and who saw it happen. If it is ever breached, that record is your evidence.

Anyone you authorise, a duty manager, a security guard, a family member, can give the warning on your behalf. Staff instructions and a simple template behind the counter turn a stressful confrontation into a process.

Breaching a trespass notice

Wilfully returning within the two years, or refusing to leave after a warning, carries a fine of up to $1,000 or up to three months’ imprisonment. If the person is on the property right now, call 111. To report a breach after the fact, use 105 or the police online form. Prosecutions can be brought by police or by the occupier.

One firearms footnote, there is no separate aggravated offence of armed trespass in the Act, but if someone convicted of a trespass offence was carrying a weapon at the time, the court can disqualify them from holding a firearms licence and ban them from carrying weapons for up to two years, and breaching that order is itself an offence. Hunters asked to leave farmland should take the warning seriously for exactly that reason.

Tenants, flatmates and landlords

Trespass law follows occupation, not ownership. A tenant is the occupier of their home, which produces three rules people get wrong:

• A landlord cannot trespass their own tenant from the rental. Ending a tenancy happens under tenancy law, not the Trespass Act, see our eviction guide.
• The tenant, as occupier, is the one who can trespass unwanted visitors from the property, including the landlord’s friends or previous occupants.
• A tenant cannot use a trespass notice to block the landlord’s lawful entry rights, the Act expressly preserves rights of entry under other laws, so inspections and repairs under the Residential Tenancies Act continue. Our tenant rights guide covers what those entry rights actually are.

Shops, chains and schools

Shops. A store can trespass anyone, shoplifting suspicion, abuse of staff, or no reason at all. Under current law, though, the ban covers that store. One notice purporting to cover every branch of a chain nationwide is the blanket notice police describe as almost always illegal, valid only where the same occupier controls every listed site and has grounds for each. This is precisely what the bill before Parliament would change for large retailers, which is why the current answer and next year’s answer may differ.

Schools. The board is the occupier and can trespass people, including parents, but parents have an implied licence to come onto school grounds for ordinary purposes, and the Ombudsman expects fair process, a warning, a chance to respond, and a ban proportionate to the problem. A parent trespassed without any of that has a genuine complaint, first to the board, then to the Ombudsman.

Common questions

How long does a trespass notice last

Two years from the warning, fixed by the Trespass Act. The bill currently before Parliament would extend this to three years for specified retail premises, but that is not law yet.

Do I have to give my name when trespassed

If you are found trespassing on private land, yes, your name and place of abode when the occupier or police demand it, with a fine of up to $500 for refusing or lying. Nobody can demand photo ID, your date of birth or a photograph, and only police can arrest for refusal, after a caution.

Can I refuse to accept a trespass notice

You can refuse the paper, but it changes nothing. The warning takes effect once it is communicated to you, whether or not you take or sign anything.

Can I be trespassed from a whole supermarket chain

Generally not under current law. Police instructions describe blanket notices covering multiple properties as almost always illegal, and a court struck down a notice covering nearly all of Nelson’s parks on exactly that basis. The retail crime bill before Parliament would allow chain-wide bans for large retailers if it passes.

Can WINZ or a government office trespass me

Yes, but as a public body it must act fairly, warn you, hear your side and keep the response proportionate, and the Ombudsman has upheld complaints where agencies skipped those steps. Your entitlements continue either way, the notice affects how you access the office, not what you are owed.

Is a trespass notice a criminal record

No. The notice itself is not a charge or conviction and appears on no criminal record. Only breaching it, going back within two years, is an offence that can lead to a conviction.

Where to get free help

If the dispute behind the notice is really about noise, boundaries or behaviour between neighbours, our neighbour disputes guide covers the tools that fix the underlying problem.

Have you been trespassed, or had to trespass someone from your business? How was it handled, and did it stick? Share your experience in the comments.