New South Wales Consolidated Acts

TIMBER MARKETING ACT 1977 - SECT 27

27 Entry, inspection, testing and seizure

(1) The Commission may authorise a person to carry out inspections and tests for the purposes of this Act and a person so authorised shall be provided by the Commission with a certificate of the person’s authority in the prescribed form.

(2) A person authorised under subsection (1), in exercising or performing in any place any power, authority, duty or function under this section, shall, if so required by a person apparently in charge of that place, produce the certificate of the person’s authority to that person.

(3) A person authorised under subsection (1) may, at any reasonable time:

(a) enter any premises where the person is of the opinion that:

(i) timber is sawn, hewn or otherwise processed,

(ii) timber is sold,

(iii) a preservative treatment is used,

(iv) timber is branded,

(v) timber is used in the manufacture of articles,

(vi) articles are sold, or

(vii) timber or articles are held or stored,

and inspect and test any timber, preservative or article and inspect any brand,

(b) enter any building site and inspect and test any timber on that building site,

(c) enter any building in the erection of which the person is of the opinion that timber is used and inspect and test any timber which is so used,

(d) require any person:

(i) in or on any premises referred to in paragraph (a),

(ii) on any building site, or

(iii) in any building referred to in paragraph (c),

to produce any accounts, records, books or other documents which relate to, or which the person authorised under subsection (1) believes on reasonable grounds relate to, the use or sale of timber or the manufacture or sale of articles, and

(e) take copies of, or extracts or notes from, any accounts, records, books or other documents referred to in paragraph (d).

(4) A person authorised under subsection (1) may, in exercising or performing in any place any power, authority, duty or function under this section, remove or cause to be removed for testing portions or samples of timber or preservative.

(5) If a test on timber removed under subsection (4) proves that that timber was not used or sold in contravention of this Act, the Commission shall:

(a) restore any article or building from which that timber was removed to the state in which that article or building existed immediately before the removal of that timber, or

(b) compensate the owner of the timber so removed for any loss or damage caused by the removal of that timber,

and, if a notice of seizure has been issued in respect of the timber, terminate the notice.