Fencing MelbourneBay 5 of 6

Entering next door to do the work

Under section 33 of Victoria’s Fences Act 1968, an owner doing fencing works, and any subsidiary works, under the Act may go onto the land next door at any reasonable time to do them, and an employee or agent of the owner may use that right too. The right is tied to works done under the Act, so it starts with how the works were agreed or ordered.

General information, not legal advice. Read on 9 October 2026 from the Fences Act 1968 (Authorised Version No. 072, incorporating amendments as at 29 March 2021). The Dispute Settlement Centre of Victoria’s fencing page is the government’s own plain-language guide.

The section itself

Section 33(1). An owner doing fencing works, and any subsidiary works, under the Act may go onto the land next door at any reasonable time to do them.

Section 33(2). So that there is no doubt, the owner’s employee or agent may use that right too.

Fences Act 1968, section 33, in plain words

Three limits are built into those words. The right belongs to an owner carrying out works under the Act. It is for the purpose of carrying out those works, nothing else. And it is at a reasonable time; section 33 does not spell out what a reasonable time is.

First, how the works were authorised

Section 12(1) says an owner must not undertake fencing works or subsidiary works unless they are carried out in one of four ways:

  1. (a)under a fencing notice agreement, the agreement owners reach after a fencing notice has been given;
  2. (b)under an order of the Magistrates’ Court;
  3. (c)otherwise in accordance with the Act; or
  4. (d)under another agreement between the owners of the adjoining lands.

If an owner carries out works that fit none of those four, section 12(2) lets the owner next door ask the Magistrates’ Court, by filing a complaint, for a section 30C order. The government’s fencing page says the same thing from the neighbour’s side:

“You need to have your neighbour’s consent or to have followed the right legal process before any work starts. If you don’t, your neighbour is not legally obliged to pay anything.”

How a fencing notice works, and its 30 days, are on the government’s Fencing Notice page. Urgent repairs to a damaged or destroyed fence have their own rules, set out on the government’s fencing page.

What “the works” can include

Section 33 covers fencing works and any subsidiary works, and section 3 of the Act defines both. Each list is whole here, in order.

Fencing works

  1. (a)building, replacing, repairing, demolishing, removing or maintaining all or part of a dividing fence;
  2. (b)planting, replanting, repairing or maintaining a hedge or similar vegetative barrier that is all or part of a dividing fence;
  3. (c)cleaning, deepening, enlarging, repairing or altering a ditch or embankment that is all or part of a dividing fence.

Subsidiary works

  1. (a)designing a dividing fence;
  2. (b)preparing or clearing land for fencing works;
  3. (c)surveying and marking the common boundary, or another proposed fence line, for fencing works;
  4. (d)getting an approval that the fencing works need;
  5. (e)putting up temporary barriers to serve as the dividing fence until the fencing works, or the land preparation in (b), are finished.

The Fences Regulations’ notes add a condition about that last item: using temporary fences and barriers until fencing works are done is subsidiary work, and needs the adjoining owner’s agreement in the way the fencing notice form describes, unless it counts as urgent fencing works.

Who may go in

The owner, or the owner’s employee or agent. Section 33 names no one else.

When the Court sets the times

If the owners are in the Magistrates’ Court, an order under section 30C can fix when the works are done, including particular dates and times at which the person doing them may enter land to carry them out, and how the works are to be performed. An order can also tell a party to stop an activity or conduct that, in the Court’s opinion, unreasonably damages or may unreasonably damage a dividing fence. Bay 3, fencing orders, lists everything an order can cover.

Before anyone goes next door

Victoria Legal Aid’s advice, under its heading on fences between houses:

“Discuss the work that needs to be done with your neighbour first. If you can make decisions together and agree to share any expenses, get this agreement in writing.”

Four questions, each answered by a section above:

  • Are the works authorised in one of section 12’s four ways?
  • Are they fencing works or subsidiary works as section 3 defines them?
  • Is the person going in the owner, or the owner’s employee or agent?
  • Is it a reasonable time, or the time a court order sets?

In short

Section 33 gives an owner doing authorised fencing works a right to go next door to do them, at a reasonable time, personally or through an employee or agent. Works done outside section 12’s four routes can end in a complaint from the neighbour. If the line itself is in doubt, Bay 4, the boundary survey procedure, comes first; Bay 1 says who counts as the owner on each side.