Source: Radio New Zealand
An Auckland man has failed in his bid to stop Kāinga Ora removing him from his mother’s home because he claimed it was Māori land.
The case was decided on the papers by Kaiwhakawa (Judge) Te Kani Williams at the Māori Land Court of New Zealand, Taitokerau District.
Jonathan Albert filed an application in relation to a property in Beatrix Street, Avondale, in Auckland.
He had already had an application declined for an urgent injunction over the land, after the Tenancy Tribunal awarded Kāinga Ora vacant possession of the property.
In his second application, he sought a finding that the land was taonga tuku iho, deemed to be Crown land but actually recoverable Māori customary land.
He wanted the court to find that he was entitled to seek recovery of the land via an occupation licence.
His mother had previously rented the land from Kāinga Ora but died in October. The family had stayed in the property but Kāinga Ora wanted to terminate the tenancy, and had been awarded vacant possession by the Tenancy Tribunal.
Kaiwhakawa Williams said the certificate of title for the land identified the owner as Housing New Zealand and indicated that it was not Māori freehold land.
It became Crown-owned land in 1942 and was owned by the Crown until Housing New Zealand acquired it in 1981.
“At no time within that sequence of events is there any record that the land was anything other than either Crown land or general land owned by a Crown entity. There is no suggestion that the land has been held in a trustee capacity or that there were any fiduciary obligations in relation to any third parties,” the judge said.
“Importantly, there is no recorded interests in favour of Ellen Albert and therefore there can be no interest that could be vested in any kaitiaki trust that had been incorporated for Ellen Albert or any of her descendants… nothing has been filed by Jonathan that establishes that the land is held by the Crown in a fiduciary capacity for the benefit of Jonathan or his family.”
He said there were no grounds for the application to succeed and it should be dismissed.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
