New self-containment rules and regulations

UPDATE: June 7, 2024
The Self-contained Motor Vehicles Legislation Act came into force on June 7, 2023. MBIE published the new Self-containment Regulations at the end of August 2023. As of December 7, 2023, you can, if you choose to, certify your vehicle under these regulations through an approved Certification Authority. You will need to pay the inspection fee on top of the government’s $120 levy.

Vehicles certified with an NZS 5465 blue warrant card before June 7, 2024, can continue to rely on these cards for freedom camping purposes up until June 7, 2025. However, vehicles certified from June 7, 2024, must be inspected under the government’s new system, and display a green warrant card if they want to be used for freedom camping purposes.

The NZMCA’s interim approach
The NZMCA plans on operating as a Certification Authority later this year, once the government amends an error with the self-containment regulations which affects most vehicles with cassette toilet tanks (approx. 90% of NZMCA members).

Therefore, until the government amends this error the NZMCA will continue inspecting its member's vehicles under NZS 5465 and issuing them with blue warrant cards with a note these cannot be used for freedom camping purposes. However, they can be used to continue accessing NZMCA Parks and attend NZMCA events that require a certified self-contained vehicle.

At this stage, we expect the government will correct this error by October 2024 and at that point we will begin inspecting vehicles under our new system. We will also train our 550 testing officers to become vehicle inspectors under the new system in the months leading up to October 2024, once the government confirms it will take all necessary steps to correct the error with the regulations.  

Further to this, about 10% of NZMCA members own vehicles with portable toilets that cannot be certified under the new regulations. We have developed a new parallel certification system (yellow warrant cards) to accommodate those members in our club – please read these 2-pages from Motor Caravanner magazine #365 explaining how this will work  (click here).

Further information

See here for the latest information from MBIE on the raft of changes to our freedom camping systems.

See here for the latest self-containment guidance documentation published by the new Regulator, PGDB.

The new legislation addresses vehicle-based camping only. It does not regulate the use of tents for camping. The Act does not affect freedom camping on public conservation land, or the decisions made by the Department of Conservation. DOC can, if deemed necessary, restrict freedom camping in specific areas to certified vehicles with a fixed toilet.