A survey about illegal freedom camping found that five to 50 per cent of fines are written off by councils.

Local authorities complain illegal freedom campers issued with infringement notices are skipping the country and they want more help from rental vehicle companies to recoup more than $1.5 millon in outstanding fines.

The Department of Internal Affairs surveyed councils after they raised concerns about difficulties collecting infringement fees.

The survey found seven councils and the Department of Conservation (DOC) had issued 15,800 $200 infringement notices since the introduction of freedom camping legislation in 2012.

Freedom camping infringement notices issued by local authorities and the Department of Conservation since 2012.

But only about half the $3m charged in fines had been paid, and the proportion of fines written off by councils ranged from five per cent to 50 per cent.

READ MORE:

* Councils may get cash to tackle freedom camping problem, says PM

* 60,000 international tourists give freedom camping a go

* Freedom campers stay longer and spend more than other tourists​

A further four councils in the survey – Wellington, Tauranga, Christchurch and Hurunui – had freedom camping bylaws, but had not imposed any fines.

On Wednesday, the Christchurch City Council confirmed it had not issued any infringement notices for illegal freedom camping, but on Thursday said it had issued three notices in New Brighton that morning.

The council's head of regulatory compliance, Tracey Weston, said staff and contracted freedom camping monitoring officers had focussed on educating campers to "make the right choices".

Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) regulatory manager Lee Webster said the educational approach did not work with a certain percentage of campers.

"Every time we deal with one influx of tourists, they will go and the following day we have new ones. Every day we are starting that whole process again. People choose to break the rules, despite all the signage, and try to get away with it. "

Since it began enforcing freedom camping restrictions four years ago, QLDC has issued almost 10,000 infringement notices and received $859,200 in fines.

Webster, said the council had referred 1225 unpaid fines to the District Court, but could only do that when it had a date of birth and a New Zealand address for the offender.

He wanted rental vehicle companies to help recoup money from tourists who skipped the country without paying.

Under terms of their hire contracts rental companies had the ability to charge clients' credit cards for unpaid infringements, he said, but instead they passed on offenders contact details and left councils to chase the money.

"They don't want to be seen as the bad guys, as the poacher turned gamekeeper, hiring out the vehicle and then charging them for infringements they have received.

"In some [countries] you cannot leave until you have paid those debts and that links into your passport. That's another option to consider, so that we as a country get the money owed to us."

This year the QLDC began clamping illegal freedom campers vehicles in a specific area of the central business district, hitting offenders with a $200 clamp fee on top of the $200 fine.

Webster said it was a good deterrent and only one vehicle had been clamped, but clamp use could be extended next summer, and it was something he would discuss with the tourism industry's Responsible Camping Forum.

Rental Vehicle Association chief executive Barry Kidd said speed camera and freedom camping infringements often did not come through until after visitors left the country, and they had the right to contest them. Having rental companies automatically charge the fines on client credit cards took away that right.

Kidd said his organisation wrote to the Minister of Local Government last year to see if a better solution could be found, because the current system was not working well for anyone.

As registered vehicle owners, rental companies had to complete a statutory declaration, certified by a Justice of the Peace, to shift legal liability for an offence to the person who was driving the vehicle at the time.

"One medium sized company said that over the summer period they had three people employed to manually process freedom camping infringement notices and speed camera fines . . . Anecdotally some of the larger companies were talking about piles of 50-plus a day."

Kidd said a lot of illegal freedom campers did not drive rental vehicles, something borne out by figures from DOC in the recent survey.

They showed although the majority of offenders were from overseas, only 57 of the 156 notices issued involved rental vehicles.

Tourism Industry Association chief executive Chris Roberts said he had discussions with the Government last year over the issue of gathering freedom camping fines.

"The government at that time accepted that rental vehicle companies didn't want to do this and didn't push for any change in that."

Owing to the high profile of illegal freedom camping over the summer, it would come up for discussion at the Responsible Camping Forum later this month, Roberts said.

Sign up to receive our new evening newsletter Two Minutes of Stuff - the news, but different.