Fencing in Kearneys Spring

New boundary fence lines on Kearneys Spring infill blocks

There are three legitimate ways to establish where a boundary runs. The title plan tells you the dimensions and bearings, which is enough on a regular lot where you can identify the corners. Existing survey pegs, if they are still in the ground and can be found, mark the corners directly. And a licensed surveyor will set it out definitively where the plan and the ground do not agree, where the pegs are gone, or where a new lot has been created and the line has never been fenced. Fencing contractors do not perform boundary surveys and neither does this site; what happens is that the line gets confirmed before set-out rather than assumed from a hedge, a driveway edge or where the previous owner reckoned it was.

That distinction matters more here than in an established street. On an infill lot the line may be new, in which case there is no old fence to follow and no worn path where one used to be. Building even slightly over a boundary creates a problem that survives every future sale of both properties, and moving a completed fence costs more than the fence did. Where a line is genuinely unclear the sensible sequence is surveyor first, fence second, and the small cost of that certainty is a fraction of what a misplaced run costs to fix.

The shared-cost position also shifts on a new lot. A fence built entirely on your own land is your own work and your own cost, and nobody has to agree to it. A fence on the boundary is a dividing fence, which brings in the Queensland cost-sharing framework: adjoining owners generally contribute equally to a sufficient fence, measured against a modest standard rather than whatever you would prefer. On a newly created lot the neighbour may be a developer, a builder or an owner who has not moved in yet, and the notice-to-contribute process goes to whoever is the registered owner regardless of whether the house is finished. Establishing which of those situations you are in is the first question, because it determines who else needs to be part of the conversation.

Practically, the build on these blocks is usually straightforward once the line is settled. Newer lots tend to have clear access, and the mix of 1980s to 2000s brick housing alongside recent infill means most runs are level or close to it. What does come up is the interface between old and new: a recently created lot often abuts a property whose existing fence is decades old and not quite on the line, and deciding whether to tie into it, replace it or run a new fence beside it is a decision made at the measure with both owners' positions in view. Front boundaries near the Ruthven Street retail strip are also specified differently from internal streets, because traffic and headlights are a real consideration there.