If you are about to talk to us about a fence, a tree or a boundary, it helps to bring the documents you already have. You do not need a complete file. Five things, and a short account of what has happened, can help us understand the issues and the options open to you.
The questions a fence matter can turn on
Three questions run through most of this ground: where the boundary runs, what counts as a sufficient fence for those two properties, and who pays for what. The Dividing Fences Act 1991 (NSW) sets out how adjoining owners share the cost of fencing work and how a notice to fencing work is used, and NCAT is the tribunal that deals with applications about dividing fences.
Five things worth bringing
The title documents or a survey, if you have them. Anything showing the boundary as registered. If you have never had a survey, say so; that is useful information in itself.
Clear, dated photographs. The fence, the tree, the wall, the encroachment. Keep the originals as they came off the camera or the phone and bring those, rather than copies pasted into a document, and note when each was taken.
Any quotes. What the work would cost, from whoever quoted it, including work you have already paid for.
Every letter, note or message. Anything either of you has put in writing, including messages you wish you had not sent. Correspondence may be relevant evidence, so it is better read early than produced late.
A short timeline. Half a page. When the work was done or the problem started, when you first raised it, what was said, what happened next.
Before anything that cannot be undone
Serving a notice, cutting anything back, or sending a reply written while you are angry are all hard to undo. Where you can, take advice before a step like that.
Some things cannot wait, and they are the ones to tell us first. Any deadline you have been given, any date already set by a tribunal or a court, and anything that looks dangerous — a tree or a retaining wall that could come down, for instance. Waiting for a reply from us, or from your neighbour, is not a reason to let a deadline pass: if one is close, say so when you first make contact.
Where it goes from here
Our guide on how to raise a fence problem with your neighbour covers the conversation itself, and mediation in a neighbour dispute sets out which free routes are open and which are not. The page on dividing fences explains what the law asks of each owner. The preparation above is worth the same whether a matter is settled in a conversation or ends in an application.
General information, not legal advice. It does not take into account your circumstances, your title or your contract. If you want advice about your own matter, tell us what is happening next door.