Queenstown Lakes Mayor Vanessa van Uden said 77 of the 168 cabins at the site were held under private licences.
The remaining 91 are managed by the council, which bought them from the original owners in 2002-03.
The site is marked for development, including the proposed Queenstown Convention Centre.
Ms van Uden said the ground lease on the remaining private cabins would expire on September 30, regardless of when, or if, the planned development occurs.
Owners have until then to indicate to the council whether they intend to remove their cabins, demolish them, pay the council for removal, or give them to the council and enter into shorter-term tenancies.
To date, 22 owners had still to finalise their decision and council representatives were in ''open discussions'' with 13 of those.
However, nine ''have not made any contact with the council or its representatives''.
''None of these nine are owner-occupiers [residents at Lakeview]. The cabins are either rented or vacant,'' Ms van Uden said.
''The cabins have a ground lease that expires on September 30, 2015. Regardless of what happens on that site and when it happens ... the lease is terminated, they will be finished.
''October 1 will be [council] takeover date. There's a handful that have said they want to take them away [and] there's a handful who still refuse to respond.
''We will have to take ... legal action [if they have not responded by September 30].
''In the end, I don't want to be doing that at all. We're trying to provide a reasonable alternative for these people and bending over backwards to make it work for as many as we possibly can.
''As time creeps on ... we are actually really working hard with these people to try and make the best [of it] that we can.''
Ms van Uden said the majority of the owners - 46 in total - had chosen to give their cabins back to the council and 19 of those had executed the transfer contact.
Under that arrangement, the tenants could enter into shorter-term leases and rent the cabins back from the council, provided they were habitable.
The rental estimates for the cabins ranged from $200 to $400 per week, compared with a survey of occupiers/tenants which indicated a current rate of $195 to $450 per week.
Nine owners intended to remove their cabins, Ms van Uden said.
