Lodge your appeal or application

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Lodge your appeal or application

To lodge an appeal or application in the Environment Court you or your representative must fill in the prescribed form and sign and date the form, and then file the documents at your nearest Environment Court office. 

  1. Find the form you need:
    Find out more about forms and fees
  2. Include all the details required on the prescribed form.
  3. Include the required documents with your notice of appeal; for example a copy of the decision that you are appealing, and any submissions you made during the Council process.  
    You will need to provide the court with the signed original and one copy of the form and all attachments. 
  4. File your application at your nearest Environment Court office.

Time

For resource consents you need to lodge your notice of appeal and attachments with the Environment Court within 15 working days of receiving the decision. 

For plan changes you need to lodge the notice of appeal and attachments with the Environment Court within 30 working days of receiving the decision.

If your notice of appeal is lodged after the closing date, you must apply to the Environment Court for a waiver of the time limit. 

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Serve your documents

You need to deliver a copy of the appeal documents to:

  • in all cases the Authority / Council which made the decision you are appealing (on the same date on which you lodge the appeal with the Environment Court)
  • in the case of resource consent appeals all the other people who made submissions, within five working days of lodgement with the Environment Court
  • in the case of resource consent appeals, the applicant, within five working days of lodgement with the Environment Court
  • in the case of plan appeals all other people who made a submission on the provision or matter to which the appeal relates, within five working days of lodgement with the Environment Court

Documents can be served by hand, courier, post or email. 

Within 10 working days of lodging the appeal with the Environment Court you must write to the Court and say the name, address and date of service for each person served.

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Fee

You must lodge the form and pay the correct filing fee. 

Find out more about filing fees

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Checklist

The Environment Court will consider these 5 factors when it receives the appeal:

  1. Time – ensure the appeal documents are filed with the Court within the specified timeframe, or an application for waiver of time accompanies the appeal
  2. Order – ensure that you have used the correct form, you have signed and dated the form and provided contact details
    - ensure all the attachments are included 
    - ensure you have clearly indicated the grounds of your appeal and identified what relief you seek
  3. Service – ensure you have provided a copy of your appeal documents to the consent authority, applicant and all submitters on time.  Advise the Court in writing of the name and address of the people on whom you have served your appeal documents and the date on which they were served
  4. Fee – ensure you have paid the correct filing fee
  5. 1 + 1 – ensure you have provided the Court with an original and one copy of the form and all attachments

The proceedings will not go ahead until you have done all of these things.  After that the matter will be referred to an Environment Judge for their initial consideration.

More information

The Practice Note 2023 is a guide to practice in the Environment Court. All parties taking part in Environment Court proceedings should be aware of its contents.

Read the Practice Note 

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