Club Licence

A Club Licence allows the sale and supply of alcohol for consumption on the club premises to members of the club, their guests and members of other clubs with arranged reciprocal visiting rights.

You can apply for the licence yourself, or have a consultant or lawyer make the application on your behalf.

Your new licence will initially be issued for only one year but can then generally be renewed at three yearly intervals.

Under the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 there are criteria that your club must meet to be issued a new or renewed licence. Additional information and documents are required to be provided as part of the application.

Application for a New or Renewal of Club Licence

After lodging your application, you will be contacted by the Licensing Inspector, the Police and/or Medical Officer of Health to discuss your application. If these agencies have concerns about your application they may oppose it.

The hours of trade for licensed premises are limited by the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act and Local Alcohol Policy (LAP). The District Plan or a Resource Consent may also dictate the hours you may operate.

For licensed club premises the trading hours sought also determine the licence fees payable. There are two types of fees; application fee and annual fee .

The time it takes to process alcohol licence applications is heavily dependent upon the quality of the information supplied as part of the application, the advertising of the application, and the receipt of external reports from the Police or Medical Officer of Health. It will take approximately 5 weeks or more to process the application. If an application receives an objection or is opposed, the process will take longer, as a hearing will usually be required to be held.

The holder of a club licence must do everything practicable to ensure that there is, at all times, a secretary of the club, and that the Secretary of the Licensing Committee is notified within 10 working days of the appointment of any new secretary.

All proceeds from the sale of alcohol belong to the club. No person may consume any alcohol not sold or supplied on the premises whilst the premises are open for the sale and supply of alcohol.