The boundary survey notice
When neighbours fall out over where the line is, rather than over the state of the fence, the Fences Act 1968 has its own route. The Act's Division 3 of Part 3 sets out the process that must be followed when the common boundary is not agreed, and it runs on two things: a boundary notice, and a licensed surveyor engaged to define the common boundary.
The notice starts it. An owner of land may give the owner next door notice of an intention to have a licensed surveyor define the common boundary. The Act's boundary process runs between two owners, the notifying owner and the adjoining owner, and much of it is counted in days.
A boundary survey notice needs a fencing notice beside it: a notifying owner must not give one unless a fencing notice for the two properties has already passed between the owners and they disagree about where the common boundary lies, or the notifying owner gives a fencing notice at the same time (s 28(3)). So the ordinary documents matter too. A Fencing Notice is a formal document that outlines a proposal to repair, replace, or build a new fence. You need your neighbour's consent or to have followed the right legal process before any work starts. If you do not, your neighbour is not legally obliged to pay anything. Get quotes for the work and send them to your neighbour along with the notice: if things end up in court, the notice is required. And the notice is what keeps a dispute inside the Act at all: without a Fencing Notice, any dispute is settled under contract law and not the Fences Act, which makes it a lot harder to resolve.
Fences Regulations 2024 (Vic), authorised version · Fences Act 1968 (Vic), authorised version · Dispute Settlement Centre of Victoria, Fencing in Victoria
The days to respond
The first period is 30 days. Your neighbour has 30 days to respond from the day they receive a Fencing Notice. The boundary survey notice works the same way: within 30 days of being given it, the adjoining owner may agree in writing to the position it sets out for the common boundary.
Three endings are possible, and they lead to different places.
- Nothing comes back. If a neighbour does not respond to a Fencing Notice within 30 days, the fencing works can begin without their agreement. Under the fencing notice itself, where nothing comes back within 30 days of the notice, the owner who gave it may go ahead with the works it set out, and can then take the contribution question to the Magistrates' Court.
- A reply that disagrees. Where a reply arrives within the 30 days but does not accept every matter the notice covers, the works cannot go ahead without the adjoining owner's agreement.
- A reply that agrees. A reply that agrees to the works proposed creates an agreement that the Fences Act can enforce, the Act's fencing notice agreement.
Dispute Settlement Centre of Victoria, Fencing in Victoria · Fences Act 1968 (Vic), authorised version · Fences Regulations 2024 (Vic), authorised version
Engaging a licensed surveyor
Where the notice is not agreed, the second period opens. If, after 30 days from the day the boundary survey notice was given, the adjoining owner has neither agreed where the common boundary lies nor had their own licensed surveyor define it, the notifying owner may have it defined by a licensed surveyor they engage (s 30(1)). A notifying owner who intends to do that must engage the surveyor within 21 days after the day the 30 day period expires, and the surveyor's job is to define the common boundary.
The surveyor in the Act is a licensed surveyor, and that word is doing real work. The Surveyors Registration Board of Victoria puts the entitlement plainly: a land or property boundary survey in this state is a job for a Licensed Surveyor, and for nobody else. The Board also keeps the register that shows who currently holds that licence, and the guide Checking a surveyor is licensed takes the register apart, status by status.
While the boundary is being defined, the Act also holds back the court clock. That is the next section.
Fences Act 1968 (Vic), authorised version · Surveyors Registration Board of Victoria, Check if a surveyor is registered
The clock paused
A boundary survey notice stops one clock. The Act suspends the 30 day period it otherwise sets under sections 17, 18, 19(a) and 20 from the moment the notice is given, and the suspension lasts until one of two things happens. Either the owners put their agreement in writing, accepting the position the notice gives for the common boundary or any other position they choose, or a licensed surveyor defines the common boundary under section 29 or 30.
In plain terms: the boundary question goes first, and the fencing complaint clock waits while it is answered. The moment the line is agreed in writing or defined on the ground, the ordinary periods run again.
It is also the point where the dispute can still go to court. If you still cannot agree after 30 days from the date you served your neighbour with a Fencing notice, you can go to the Magistrates' Court so a magistrate can make a decision, using the court's Complaint (fencing dispute) Form 5A. Either owner may seek the help of the Dispute Settlement Centre of Victoria with a dispute about proposed fencing works.
Fences Act 1968 (Vic), authorised version · Fences Regulations 2024 (Vic), authorised version · Victoria Legal Aid, Fences and trees
Sharing the cost
The boundary survey is usually a shared cost. Subject to one exception in section 30A(2), the notifying owner and the adjoining owner each carry an equal share of the reasonable cost of the surveyor's engagement under section 29(1)(c) or section 30(1).
The same equal split is the Act's general position on the fence itself. Where the adjoining lands have no dividing fence, the Act makes the owners on each side share the cost equally, for the fencing works and subsidiary works needed to reach a sufficient dividing fence; the same rule applies where an existing fence needs work to be sufficient. Victoria Legal Aid states the everyday version: you and your neighbour have equal responsibility for the dividing fence between your properties, and you are legally required to contribute to a fence that is sufficient for the purpose it is needed. If your neighbour wants a more expensive fence, they will usually have to pay the difference in cost between a sufficient dividing fence and the higher standard.
Urgent work is the exception to the notice-first rule. The examples the Act gives of urgent circumstances are a falling tree or branch, fire, and flood. An owner who does the work and then wants a contribution gives an urgent fencing notice, and where there is no answer within 30 days of that notice, the owner who gave it can ask the Magistrates' Court for an order under the Act's section 30C.
Fences Act 1968 (Vic), authorised version · Victoria Legal Aid, Fences and trees
The timeline
The Act sets these steps across several sections, and they read as one sequence with the fencing clock running beside them. Every date below is the Act's own.
| Step | What the Act sets | Where it is read |
|---|---|---|
| The notice. | An owner may give the adjoining owner notice of an intention to have a licensed surveyor define the common boundary. | Section 28, Fences Act 1968 |
| The response. | Within 30 days of being given the notice, the adjoining owner may agree in writing to the position it sets out for the common boundary. | Section 29, Fences Act 1968 |
| The surveyor. | If the notifying owner intends to have the common boundary defined, they must engage a licensed surveyor within 21 days after the 30 day period ends. | Section 30, Fences Act 1968 |
| The pause. | Once a boundary survey notice is given, the 30 day period under sections 17, 18, 19(a) and 20 is suspended until the owners agree in writing on the common boundary or a licensed surveyor defines it. | Section 30B, Fences Act 1968 |
The court the sequence runs to is the Magistrates' Court. It can hear civil disputes up to the value of $100,000, and if a dispute is worth more than that the matter is heard in a higher court. A fencing complaint is filed on the court's Form 5A. Once a complaint is served, the defendant has 21 days to file a notice of defence. The court itself says to try to resolve a dispute before coming to it, and points to the Dispute Settlement Centre of Victoria. The Act also provides for the ordinary case where an owner cannot be found: where an owner was never served and cannot be traced once reasonable inquiries have been made, the court may still order the fencing works to go ahead.
Magistrates' Court of Victoria, Starting a civil matter · Fences Act 1968 (Vic), authorised version · Fences Regulations 2024 (Vic), authorised version
Changing a line
Disputing a fence is one thing; moving the boundary is another, and the second is much heavier. Land Use Victoria's position is that changing property or title boundaries can be very complex, and that you will need a Licensed Surveyor and, in most instances, a lawyer.
The Act can move the works, within limits. The Magistrates' Court can decide where the works go: it may order the line for fencing works and subsidiary works, whether that line follows the common boundary or not. On a complaint under the Act, where the case requires it, the court may also make an order about where the common boundary between the two properties lies (s 30C(1)(b)). And where an owner in that fencing case files a complaint of their own claiming title by possession to part of the neighbouring land on which the works are to be done, the court may decide who is entitled to that title (s 30E). The Act's note adds that a person claiming title by possession may ask the Registrar for an order vesting the land in them, under the Transfer of Land Act 1958.
Two situations sit outside the Act altogether. It does not apply to unalienated Crown lands, except as section 30H provides, and it is silent between adjoining lots under one owners corporation where that corporation's own rules already deal with fencing contributions between them. An owner carrying out fencing works under the Act does have a right of access over the adjoining land, at any reasonable time, for the works, and an employee or agent of the owner may exercise it.
Before any of that, there is the cheaper path: talk to the neighbour. Victoria Legal Aid says the Magistrates' Court can hear the case if it still cannot be resolved, but that this can be expensive and take a long time.
Land Use Victoria, Property and land titles information · Fences Act 1968 (Vic), authorised version · Victoria Legal Aid, Fences and trees · Magistrates' Court of Victoria, Starting a civil matter
See also The fence, the title, or the survey and Checking a surveyor is licensed.