Fences near you

This is the part Australians most often get wrong, and it is the part that decides who pays. A dividing fence on the common boundary is not yours to replace unilaterally at your neighbour's expense. Each state has its own Act and its own written notice, and serving that notice properly is what converts a conversation into a shared liability.

In New South Wales, dividing fence disputes run under the Dividing Fences Act 1991 and are decided by the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal. NCAT requires you to serve your neighbour a Fencing Notice at least one month before applying, and to attach that notice to the application. NCAT can then order what the fence should be made of, how high it should be, where and when it should be built, and how the costs of the fencing work should be divided between you and your neighbour.

In Victoria, the guidance published by the state is that fencing costs are shared equally between neighbours, subject to who wants what: whether the fence needs repair or replacement, whether one party wants a more expensive material, and whether anyone damaged it deliberately or negligently. A Fencing Notice gives your neighbour 30 days to respond from the day they receive it, and it should set out the boundary line the works follow, the type of works, the contractor, a cost estimate and how much each of you should contribute. Only Magistrates in Victoria can decide fencing matters. In Queensland, dividing fences fall under the Neighbourhood Disputes (Dividing Fences and Trees) Act 2011, and the state publishes the notices to use: Form 2, the Notice to contribute for fencing work, and a separate notice for urgent fencing work. Two periods run from the day that notice is given, and they are not the same one. If you have not agreed within one month, either of you can go to a Dispute Resolution Centre for free mediation or apply to QCAT; but any application to QCAT has to be made within two months of the notice. Miss the second and you have lost the tribunal, not just the argument. QCAT can then decide which of two or more fences on a boundary is the dividing fence, what type of fence is to be built and who pays what share. Check your own state's process before you order materials, because the notice comes first.

Treat a pool barrier as its own project. Under the National Construction Code, a swimming pool with a depth of water more than 300 millimetres associated with a Class 1 building must have safety barriers installed in accordance with AS 1926.1 and AS 1926.2, with barriers that are continuous and sturdy, restrict child access, and have self-closing, self-latching gates. That is a performance standard a paling fence built to keep a dog in will not accidentally satisfy.

New South Wales adds registration. All swimming pool and spa owners must register their pool or spa on the Swimming Pool Register, the Swimming Pools Act 1992 covers pools capable of holding water deeper than 30 centimetres, and fencing must comply with AS 1926 in the version that matches when the pool was built. The state's published figures are a minimum barrier height of 1.2 metres, or 1.8 metres where a boundary fence forms part of the barrier, a maximum gap of 100 millimetres at the bottom, no vertical gaps over 100 millimetres, and horizontal climbable bars spaced at least 900 millimetres apart. The non-climbable zone is described as a 900 millimetre arc from the top of the fence extending 300 millimetres into the pool area, and it must be kept clear of trees, shrubs, toys, ladders and chairs. A CPR sign must be in good condition and readable from 3 metres away. When you sell, the contract needs the registration certificate plus a compliance certificate, a non-compliance certificate or a recent occupation certificate; when you lease, a non-compliance certificate is not enough.

Queensland runs a single standard, MP 3.4 Swimming pool barriers, which calls up the Australian Standard, and the state's own checklist points to a barrier height of at least 1200 millimetres and to shielding or removing climbable objects within 900 millimetres of the barrier, with gates that are self-closing and self-latching from all points listed as a common failure. All residential pools and outdoor spas in Queensland must be registered with the QBCC, and unregistered pools can attract a fine. Queensland is also explicit about who pays when a dividing fence doubles as a pool barrier: if you need fencing work done so your pool fence complies, you pay the full cost, and where both neighbours have pools needing the same work, they share it equally. That is the opposite of the ordinary dividing fence rule, and it surprises people.

Height is not a matter of taste, and the limits change with the zone and the material. The exempt development provisions published on the NSW Planning Portal give a useful picture of how Australian planning rules think about fences, though you must confirm the rules for your own state, council and address.

The seasons are the reverse of the northern hemisphere, so winter falls in June, July and August and summer in December, January and February. That inverts the usual planning advice: the wet, soft ground that makes post holes miserable and concrete slow to cure arrives in the middle of the year in the south, not at the start of it.

In the southern states, autumn and spring are the comfortable windows for fencing. Digging into a saturated winter yard means mud through the house, deeper wheel ruts and a contractor working shorter days. In the tropical north the year splits into a wet season and a dry season instead, and fencing is realistically scheduled in the dry, because the wet brings both access problems and the storms that flatten half-finished runs.

Bushfire prone land has its own calendar. Get fencing that must be non-combustible or hardwood finished, and the litter along the fence line cleared, well before your district's fire season starts rather than during it.

Fencing is licensed work in its own right in some states. New South Wales requires a contractor licence for residential building or trade work including fencing above the value threshold set under the Home Building Act 1989, and describes the fencing category as putting up fences and gates within or on residential property boundary lines, regardless of the materials used, with related categories such as carpentry, glazing, metal fabrication, bricklaying and stonemasonry also permitted to do fencing in their own materials. Unlicensed contracting carries substantial penalties for both individuals and companies. In Queensland, a QBCC licence is required for building work above the commission's value threshold, and the structural landscaping trade class expressly covers preparing, fabricating and erecting fences. Look the licence up on the regulator's own register and check the class actually covers fencing.

Underneath the licensing sit the Australian Consumer Law guarantees the ACCC enforces: service providers must carry out all services using an acceptable level of care and skill, services and any resulting products must be fit for any stated purpose, and services must be supplied within a reasonable time if there is no agreed time frame. Telling the contractor in writing that the fence must satisfy your pool barrier obligations, or must be non-combustible because the block is bushfire prone, makes that purpose stated rather than assumed.

LokalMatch is where the search starts. You describe the fencing job once, with the run length, the slope, the material you have in mind and whether it is a boundary fence or a pool barrier, and matched local fence contractors get in touch with you directly. Those businesses pay for the requests they receive. LokalMatch does not build fences, does not set or quote prices, and does not vet, rank or recommend any business, so serving the right notice on your neighbour and checking licences and insurance stays with you.