Covenant surveys are carried out to protect portions of land within a property for conservation, environmental, historical, cultural and other purposes. There areas of land being covenanted still remain with the landowner and held within the Record of Title for that property. The most common type of covenants used are land covenants.

Registering a land covenant on a Record of Title provides certain protective restrictions to the landowner and future owners to the use of that area of land. A covenant is a promise which creates a legal obligation by someone to do, or not to do, something in respect of that area of land. The extent of the covenant may require a survey to be undertaken and shown on a survey plan.

Another type of covenant commonly used are known as “open space” covenants. These are primarily used by the Queen Elizabeth II (QEII) National Trust to protect special areas of biodiversity and habitat of environmentally significant land, such as native bush, wetlands or coastlines that is maintained in partnership with the landowner under perpetuity safeguards for current and future generations.

For further information regarding QEII “open space” covenants, please contact their main office, or the local Regional Representative of the QEII National Trust, to discuss your proposal www.qeiinationaltrust.org.nz

Note: There are many benefits with QEII “open space” covenants, such as contributions towards surveying and fencing costs. A further benefit relates to many territorial authorities not applying rates to these “open space” covenants.

Recent surveys of “open space” covenants undertaken by Survey Gisborne Limited are:

• Longbush QEII Reserve, Gisborne
• Te Hoe Whaling Station, Mahia Peninsula
• Waitere Station, northern Hawkes Bay

Generally, these surveys involve surveying out significant areas of land from a property and vesting them with the territorial authority or the Crown. Once surveyed, these reserved areas are taken out the Record of Title for that property. Public access to these reserved areas is also allowed.

Recent surveys of reserves undertaken by Survey Gisborne Limited are:

• Te Tapuwae o Rongokako Marine Reserve
• Young Nick’s Head / Te Kuri a Paoa Historic Reserve
• Waiotahi Estuary

For more information on covenant and reserve surveys, please contact the team at Survey Gisborne Limited to discuss further. Our professional team of surveyors can assist in preparing a survey plan that can be used for any proposals and registration requirements.

A survey was undertaken by Survey Gisborne Limited to define the extent of the Te Tapuwae o Rongokako Marine Reserve on behalf of the Department of Conservation.

Part of the survey was to prepare a survey plan that would allow the marine reserve to be gazetted.