Agents

Trustees, or the Māori Land Court, can appoint an agent to carry out specific tasks on behalf of the responsible trustee.

This could be anything from the agent carrying out all the duties of responsible trustees, except for making decisions, to very specific tasks such as negotiating a forestry block lease or taking the minutes of an owners’ meeting.

There are also situations where there is no trust structure in place and the Māori Land Court appoints an agent on behalf of the owners.  This may be, for instance, where a lessee has put forward a proposal to lease the land, but there is no one person or group of people who can legally sign the agreement.  In this type of situation, the Māori Trustee is often appointed as agent by the Māori Land Court to carry out the necessary tasks for the owners.