The new Public Spaces Unattended Property laws repeal and replace the outdated Impounding Act 1993 to create stronger incentives for people to take responsibility for their property in public – such as stock animals, vehicles, shopping trolleys, bikes and kayaks.

Owners and others responsible must attend to their things within reasonable, timeframes or face regulatory action.

Key benefits of the PSUP laws for councils and other public land authorities include:

• stronger regulatory and enforcement powers to deal with property left unattended in public
• higher penalties for offences
• greater ability to recover regulatory costs from those responsible
• greater flexibility to temporarily store or care for unattended items and animals
• reduced costs for compliance and storage
• easier way to work with other authorities across jurisdictional boundaries
• better way to deal with stock animals in emergencies

Guidelines have been prepared to support councils and other public land authorities to undertake their functions under the Act.

For further information on the new laws please refer to the below documents and read our Frequently asked questions.