A Teviot Valley resident keen to build a shed on their property has run into more problems than just consent and supply issues.

The owner of 1190 Teviot Rd has discovered a part of the land he planned to build the shed on was not in fact his, it is owned by the Central Otago District Council (CODC).

The issue was discussed at this week’s Teviot Valley Community Board meeting, in a bid to rectify the situation.

A builder was called to the site in 2023 to begin the associated consents when he noticed the proposed site for the new shed appeared to encroach the legal road.

The property is a lifestyle block that consists of two parcels of land.

A surveyor has since been to the property to identify the true legal boundaries, which has confirmed the proposed shed site, and some existing outbuildings, gardens, hedging and a fence, all encroach onto the legal road.

A plan of the encroachment, to the left of the hedge, and the true legal boundaries, are shown. IMAGE: Supplied

After the encroachment was identified, the property owner contacted CODC to discuss stopping the parcel of legal road between the hedge and his legal boundary.

However, CODC team leader statutory property Linda Stronach said due to the formation of the road, if council had agreed to stop the area of road that he is occupying it would have left a legal road that was only about 3m wide, and “not much at the actual formed road”.

The formed road follows a straight line through an area of the road, which zigzags. 

As a result, the northern span of the formed road has been constructed more to the east of the legal road, and in part over 1205 Teviot Road. 

In comparison, the southern span of the formed road has been constructed more to the west and in part, over 1190 Teviot Rd. 

This means the formed road encroaches onto three parcels of private property. 

Linda said when the road was formed it didn’t follow the survey.

“You would have to go back to the 1870s to find out what the purpose of that was.”

Both owners at 1190 and 1205 Teviot Rd have been working with CODC to rectify the situation.

Teviot Valley Community Board members, earlier this week, agreed to legalise the road as formed between rapids 1190 and 1205 Teviot Rd, and to stop two parcels of unformed legal road, as shown in figure 5 (the Legalisation Plan), in accordance with the provisions of the Public Works Act 1981, subject to a range of conditions.

Conditions include the owners of 1190 and 1205 Teviot Road paying $15,000 and $1985 plus GST (if any), respectively, as the net value of the stopping and legalisation of the western side of Teviot Rd.