New Zealand does not have one summer exclusion for every working-day calculation. The published property agreement, the Legislation Act, court rules and the Resource Management Act exclude different date ranges.
Choose the range stated in the agreement, statute or rule that creates the period. An office closure by itself does not change a legal or contractual working-day definition.
The six settings produce six different dates
Count five working days after Thursday 18 December 2025. Keep the national calendar, exclude the start date and include the deadline date. Changing only Additional excluded periods produces these results when one option is selected:
| Other exclusion | Result | Summer dates excluded |
|---|---|---|
| None | Monday 29 December 2025 | None |
| Legislation Act definition | Monday 5 January 2026 | 25 December to 2 January |
| ADLS / TLANZ–REINZ | Wednesday 7 January 2026 | 24 December to 5 January |
| RMA | Thursday 15 January 2026 | 20 December to 10 January |
| High Court Rules working-day definition | Friday 16 January 2026 | 25 December to 15 January |
| ADLS LIM / TLANZ–REINZ | Monday 19 January 2026 | 24 December to 15 January |
All date ranges are inclusive. The first and last results are three weeks apart even though the trigger and period are identical.
Use these common settings to reproduce the table:
- Calculation type: Deadline
- Start date: 18 December 2025
- Direction: Forward
- Period: 5 working days
- Include the start date: off
- Include the end date: on
- Regional anniversary days: none
Open the court summer-exclusion calculation, then change Additional excluded periods to compare the other rows.
Match the setting to the governing source
| Calculator setting | Use it when |
|---|---|
| None | The governing definition adds no summer period. Weekends and holidays still apply. |
| ADLS / TLANZ–REINZ / NZS 391x (24 December – 5 January) | The governing property or construction contract uses this working-day definition. |
| ADLS agreement — LIM date (24 December – 15 January) | The published agreement's defined LIM date is being calculated. |
| Legislation Act definition (25 December – 2 January) | Legislation uses the general working-day definition in section 13 of the Legislation Act 2019. |
| High Court Rules summer exclusion (25 December – 15 January) | The applicable court-rule definition uses this summer period. |
| Resource Management Act definition (20 December – 10 January) | The Resource Management Act working-day definition applies. |
The setting applies a date range. It does not establish which source governs the period. Read the source first and use any separate Regional anniversary days selection required by its definition.
The ADLS agreement has a general window and a LIM window
The form commonly called the ADLS Agreement is now published by The Law Association of New Zealand and REINZ. The calculator retains "ADLS" in the label because that remains a familiar name for the form, while also naming the current publishers.
In the published Eleventh Edition 2022 (4) sample:
- the general working-day definition excludes 24 December to 5 January; and
- the definition extends to 15 January only for the defined LIM date.
A transaction involving a LIM does not place every condition, notice and settlement step on the longer exclusion. Check whether the date being calculated is the defined LIM date. Also check the signed edition and any amendments.
The sample separately excludes the anniversary day of the province where the property is situated. Choose that province with Regional anniversary days. The property settlement guide applies the general property setting and regional calendar to a ten-working-day example.
Court working days and court opening hours are different
The calculator's High Court Rules working-day definition setting applies the shared 25 December to 15 January summer exclusion found in the working-day definitions used by the High Court, District Court civil jurisdiction, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court. The full definitions are not identical, so the separate Regional anniversary days control may also be needed.
For example:
- High Court Rules r 1.3 excludes 25 December to 15 January but does not add a regional anniversary to that working-day definition.
- The Senior Courts Act definition used for Court of Appeal civil and Supreme Court rules also excludes the anniversary day of the province where the court is located.
- The Court of Appeal (Criminal) Rules use a definition without that regional anniversary.
Use Regional anniversary days only where the governing working-day definition requires it. The summer setting does not make that choice automatically.
High Court rule 3.2 addresses court holidays rather than the r 1.3 working-day definition. Its Christmas court-holiday period runs from 24 December to 3 January, and it also lists the anniversary day of the region in which the court is situated. Ministry of Justice notices about registry hours address court operations. Neither source should be substituted for the working-day definition that governs a deadline.
The RMA starts its exclusion on 20 December
The Resource Management Act definition excludes 20 December to 10 January. It does not exclude regional anniversaries. For a statutory RMA calculation, select Resource Management Act definition (20 December – 10 January) and leave Regional anniversary days empty.
The RMA working-day guide works through a 20-day example and explains how to handle periods that stop and resume during consent processing.
The statutory-style setting is the general legislative definition
Section 13 of the Legislation Act 2019 supplies a general working-day definition for legislation. Its summer exclusion is 25 December to 2 January.
The calculator calls this option Legislation Act definition because some Acts supply a different definition. The RMA is one example. Check the Act that creates the period before selecting the general setting, and leave Regional anniversary days empty unless the governing definition adds one.
Confirm the trigger and boundaries separately
No additional-exclusion setting establishes the date on which a period starts. Service, receipt, filing and a decision can each produce a different trigger date. A rule may also set a filing time or explain when electronic service is complete.
Once you have the trigger:
- select the summer definition from the governing source;
- add a region only if that source requires it;
- set the start and end boundaries from the wording; and
- check the result's assumptions and excluded dates.
For statutory wording such as "from", "after", "within" or "before", see the section 54 boundary guide.
Sources
Sources checked on 3 August 2026:
- TLANZ/REINZ Agreement for Sale and Purchase, Eleventh Edition 2022 (4) sample, for the two property-agreement windows and provincial anniversary
- The Law Association: ADLS members vote to rebrand, for the publisher's name change
- Legislation Act 2019, section 13, for the general statutory definition
- High Court Rules 2016, rules 1.3 and 3.2, for the High Court working-day definition and court holidays
- District Court Rules 2014, rules 1.4 and 2.1, for the District Court civil definitions
- Senior Courts Act 2016, section 4, for the Court of Appeal civil and Supreme Court definition
- Court of Appeal (Criminal) Rules 2001, rule 3, for the criminal appeal definition
- Resource Management Act 1991, section 2, for the RMA definition
- Ministry of Justice: court and tribunal hours, December 2025 and January 2026, for the distinction between operating hours and working-day rules
All six comparison results are covered by executable calculator tests.
