Fencing — Who's Responsible?

Fencing is another area where townhouses are completely different from apartments. Most apartment buildings have no fences at all. Townhouse schemes have fences everywhere — boundary fences with neighbours, fences between lots, fences around courtyards, fences on common property. Each type follows different rules.

What we're talking about

The fencing question in a townhouse scheme generally involves three different kinds of fence:

• External boundary fences — between the scheme and the neighbour next door, or between the scheme and the street
• Internal common property fences — running through the scheme between common areas, or marking off common gardens
• Fences between or around lots — the most variable, including fences around courtyards

Typical position

Grey areas and common disputes

External fence shared with a neighbour outside the scheme

The fence between your scheme and the next-door property is a "dividing fence" under the Dividing Fences Act 1991. When the fence needs repair or replacement:

• Both owners (your owners corporation and the next-door neighbour) usually share the cost
• The OC must get appropriate authorisation from owners before contributing
• If the neighbour won't cooperate, there's a formal Fencing Notice process under the Act, and ultimately the matter can be heard by NCAT
• Your strata manager should handle the correspondence — owners shouldn't be negotiating directly with the neighbour as the OC is the legal owner of the strata land

Fences between two lots within the same scheme

This is the trickiest category. The fence sits on or near the boundary between two lots. Depending on how the strata plan is drawn:

• The fence may sit entirely on common property (OC's responsibility)
• It may sit exactly on the lot boundary (one of the more disputed scenarios)
• It may sit inside one lot (that owner's responsibility, even though the fence benefits the other)

If the plan shows the fence on common property between the two lots, it's the OC's. If the plan shows it inside a lot, it's that owner's. Honest answer: it can be genuinely unclear in older plans and may need legal advice if there's a dispute and a real repair cost.

Painting, height changes and replacing materials

Even when a fence is "yours" to maintain, you usually can't change it without OC approval. Painting a common fence a different colour, raising its height, or replacing palings with colorbond can all affect common property or the scheme's appearance, and may need a by-law.

Damage caused by a vehicle, tree or activity

If a fence was damaged by a specific cause — a vehicle, a contractor, a tree from one lot — the cost can shift to the party responsible regardless of which side of the fence they're on.

Decorative additions and lattice

Lattice work, screens and trellis attached to a common fence by a lot owner can be a sore point. They're usually not approved, often not removable cleanly, and tend to fail over time. If you want to add screening for privacy, ask for OC approval and consider a free-standing internal structure that doesn't attach to the common fence.