Finding out who owns properties in the Queenstown Lakes district just got harder.
The Queenstown Lakes District Council has removed the names of property owners and their postal addresses from its website to protect the public's privacy.
However, the piece of legislation cited by the council as grounds for the change is interpreted differently by other councils.
The Dunedin City and Waitaki District councils publish property ownership details online, but the Clutha and Central Otago district councils and Otago Regional Council are in step with Queenstown Lakes.
Until recently, the QLDC online public rating information database included property owners' names and postal addresses.
But council communications manager Michele Poole said following a recent update to the system, the public could no longer access any ownership details online, only general rating information about each property, which was what the law required.
People could make an over-the-counter or email request for ownership details on a specific property and the QLDC would check their request met Privacy Act principles before releasing the information.
Ms Poole said all councils had to comply not only with the Privacy Act, but Section 28(2) of the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002, which required copies of the rating information database available for public inspection to not include the ratepayer's name or any address other than the property's street address.
''When we reviewed the information we were providing online, we found that QLDC had not been complying in this regard. While we hadn't received any complaints, we have changed our systems and procedures so that we comply and our process is now consistent with other councils.''
However, Dunedin City Council acting information solutions manager Rob Garrett cited a different part of the Local Government (Rating) Act as the basis for publishing the information.
He referred the Otago Daily Times to section 28A(3), which says the rating information database made available to the public for inspection must include the name of the owner of the rating unit and their postal address.
According to section 28A(7) of the Act, 28A overrides section 28, on which the QLDC had relied.
Asked for clarification of the QLDC's position, Ms Poole said ''our interpretation is based on legal advice'' and that she could not comment on how the DCC might be interpreting the legislation.
Both councils noted property owners were legally entitled to ask for their names and mailing addresses to be withheld completely from the public rating information database.
Local Government New Zealand principal policy adviser Mike Reid said it was not unusual for legislation to be ambiguous and his interpretation of the Act was that it was up to each council's discretion how much rating information it published in an online format.
''We have no problem with either council interpreting it the way that they feel is appropriate to them.
''It wouldn't be the first example where councils may take the same legislation and interpret it slightly differently because often the legislation is written quite generally.''
The most important thing was that councils were thinking about the legislation when making decisions, he said.
''When you get competing clauses, councils will take legal advice on how to interpret that and lawyers don't always end up in the same place, unfortunately. But from our perspective, that's kind of life I suppose.''
Office of the Privacy Commissioner communications adviser Charles Mabbett shared Mr Reid's view that while councils were obligated to make property ownership details available to the public, ''how they do so is up to them''.
Land Information New Zealand maintains and stores New Zealand's title and survey records, including ownership information, and provides public access to the files and copies on request at a cost of $15 per record.
