Private rights

Some landowners are unsure whether tracks on their property maps are legal paper roads. And many paper roads are so much a part of the surrounding farmland that they've never been considered a public thoroughfare. A council order to remove an obstruction on a once-secluded part of the farm can be hard to take.

For landowners with a paper-road problem, one of the first steps is to find out the status of the road (formed or unformed) depicted on the cadastral map of your property. It may not be a paper road at all. If it does prove a paper road, and you're concerned about public access, you should discuss the matter with the council.

Locked gates, fences and other obstructions across your paper road need to come down if the public want access. A good number of paper roads don't lead to anywhere of interest and others are too rough. If your paper road falls into either category, its unlikely eager drivers or walkers will want to use it.

Going with the flow

There's also room for negotiation. It may be possible to alter the traffic flow so that people don't come through the main part of your property. Most will be heading for a beach or river, so you could provide another access point along a well-formed route.

The same laws apply to paper roads as for city streets. Intentional damage to your property is a criminal offence. Failing to leave stockgates as they're found or not keeping a dog on a leash - and other negligent behaviour - is covered by the Trespass Act. Even so, it won't pay to let your prize ram roam free on the paper road.

If you have ongoing problems with users of a paper road, then you should refer them to your local council or, in extreme cases, the police.

Licence to occupy

Purchasing or "stopping" a paper road is complicated. It may take months for you to acquire the most basic paper road - and that's assuming there are no objections to the stoppage. (See Stopping a paper road for the process involved.)

If you want to have some control over a paper road that doesn't border your property, then you can apply to your local council for a "licence to occupy". The licence will allow you to graze the paper road, but it doesn't allow you to block public access. If the paper road borders your property then a "licence to occupy" isn't useful. You should already be able to graze the land it intersects.

We found licences to occupy varied.

• South Taranaki District Council gives out "fencing permits" rather than licences to occupy
• Waikato District Council charges a $100 application fee
• Franklin District Council states that a licence to occupy allows you to "exclude access to the public" - which seems more like exclusive use to us.

If you're going to apply for a licence to occupy, make sure you ask your council exactly what it covers.

Case study - the landowner

Beaven Booth (pictured right) owns a Wairarapa vineyard - which is in a region with 610km of paper roads.

Beaven's property is bounded by two formed roads. Some maps depict an extension linking the two roads through the centre of the vineyard. Every so often a confused motorist turns up looking for a sealed shortcut through to the road at the back of Beaven's property.

The extension on the map doesn't follow any visible path but Beaven's concerned that it may be a paper road with full public access. The last thing he wants is people traipsing through the heart of his property: "Public thoroughfare might help spread the grapevine disease phylloxera, which we don't have yet. But our main concern is the loss of tranquillity."

Beaven says that there is little he can do if it is a paper road: "I would probably put a gate across the access point and padlock it shut until the council ordered me to open it."