Fencing MelbourneBay 3 of 6
Fencing orders in the Magistrates’ Court
In Victoria a fencing order is made by the Magistrates’ Court, under section 30C of the Fences Act 1968, on a complaint filed under the Act; the government’s fencing page puts it plainly: “Only Magistrates in Victoria can decide on fencing matters.” Section 30C lists thirteen matters an order can cover, from where the fence goes and what makes it sufficient to who pays, when the work happens and when the workers may enter.
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), and the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria’s civil pages. The Dispute Settlement Centre of Victoria’s fencing page is the government’s own plain-language guide.
What the Court can order
Section 30C(1) says the Magistrates’ Court may make an order about any one or more of the following matters, on a complaint filed under the Act, if the case so requires. All thirteen, in the Act’s order:
| Section 30C(1) | The Court may make an order about |
|---|---|
| (a) | Where the line of the fencing works and any subsidiary works will run, whether or not it is on the common boundary. |
| (b) | Where the common boundary of the adjoining lands lies. |
| (c) | Whether a dividing fence is required at all, whether works should be done, and if so, what kind of works. |
| (d) | What kind of fence is a sufficient dividing fence for the adjoining lands. |
| (e) | Who should carry out the works and, where different people are to do them, which part each person does. |
| (f) | Whether a person is liable under the Act to contribute to the works. |
| (g) | How the cost is to be shared or re-shared, or how much each owner or long-term tenant must pay. |
| (h) | Any other work, including work on a retaining wall, needed so that the agreed or ordered fencing works can be carried out. |
| (i) | When the works are to be done, including particular dates and times at which the person doing them may enter land to do them, and how the works are to be performed. |
| (j) | Whether an owner is to compensate the owner next door for loss of occupation of land caused by where the fence is placed (including loss of an unrealised possessory right), and if so, how much. |
| (k) | That a party stop an activity or conduct which, in the Court’s opinion, unreasonably damages, or may unreasonably damage, a dividing fence. |
| (l) | That an owner may carry out the works without the agreement or knowledge of an adjoining owner or a long-term tenant. |
| (m) | Any other matter, direction or relief the Court considers appropriate. |
Four rules on how the Court decides
- (2)When ordering the line for the works or the line of the common boundary, the Court may require the boundary to be defined by a licensed surveyor. Bay 4 has the survey procedure the owners can use themselves.
- (3)When ordering contributions, the Court may take into account negligent or deliberate acts that have shortened the fence’s life.
- (4)Where one piece of land has more than one owner, those owners are jointly and severally liable to contribute for that land, unless the Court decides otherwise.
- (5)The Court may make an order even though the owner next door is absent, if that owner was never served with the complaint and cannot be found after reasonable inquiries, which section 5 says may include asking the people who occupy land next door or nearby, and the council.
How a dispute reaches the Court
The Act opens the way to the Court at several points. Several follow a fencing notice and its 30 days, a step the government’s Fencing Notice page explains. One stands on its own: under section 12(2), if an owner carries out works that are not done under a fencing notice agreement, an order of the Magistrates’ Court, another agreement between the owners, or otherwise in accordance with the Act, the owner next door may file a complaint seeking a section 30C order.
The Magistrates’ Court’s own civil page sets out the steps:
- Before you startThe Court says you should try to resolve the dispute before coming to court, and that the Dispute Settlement Centre of Victoria’s dispute resolution service may be able to help.
- Fill in Form 5AFor a fencing dispute, the complaint is the Complaint (fencing dispute), Form 5A, the form the Court gives for starting proceedings to settle a fencing dispute.
- File itFile the original complaint and two copies at the Magistrates’ Court nearest to where the matter arose or to the defendant’s address. With the complaint you must also file a completed overarching obligations certification (Form 4A) and proper basis certification (Form 4B), and pay a filing fee, which depends on the amount of money you are seeking. The complaint becomes valid for service once the court case number and the filing date are written on every copy, and it stays valid for 12 months from the date of filing.
- Serve itThere are legal rules about how documents must be given to the defendant, which is called service; the Court’s page on service of court documents explains them. To complete service, a copy of the complaint and two blank notice of defence forms (Form 8A) must be served on the defendant. The person who served them must complete an affidavit of service (Form 6A), witnessed and sworn or affirmed in front of an authorised person. You may also need to file the affidavit to prove service. The defendant then has 21 days from service to file a notice of defence.
Victoria Legal Aid is frank about the cost of this route: the Magistrates’ Court can hear the case, “but this can be expensive and take a long time.” The Fences Regulations’ notes add that either owner may ask the Dispute Settlement Centre of Victoria for help with a dispute about proposed fencing works.
Orders beside section 30C
Two neighbouring sections widen the picture. Section 30D lets a long-term tenant who files a complaint under section 18(a) seek orders on paragraphs (c) to (i) and (k) of the table. Section 30E lets a person whose land is already the subject of a complaint under the Act claim title by possession to the part of the land next door where the works are to be done, and the Court may order who is entitled to it. The Fences Regulations’ notes give the reason the line matters: unless that is impractical, a dividing fence has to sit on the common boundary; otherwise claims of adverse possession can arise under section 30E.
When an agreement or order is not followed
Section 30F covers an owner who does not keep to a fencing notice agreement, or to an order under the Act about the works, within the time it sets, or within 3 months after it was made if it sets no time. The owner next door may then either:
Do the works
Do the fencing works, and any subsidiary works, themselves. Section 30F(2) then sets out what they may recover from the first owner.
Recover the money
Recover from the first owner the amount the first owner was liable to pay them under the fencing notice agreement or order.
One limit runs the other way. Under section 30I, proceedings to recover a share of the cost on the ground that the works did not comply with the agreement or order cannot be brought unless the failure to comply with its conditions was substantial.
In short
A Victorian fencing order comes from the Magistrates’ Court, on a complaint filed under the Fences Act, and can settle the line, the fence, the work, the money, the timing and entry for the workers. The everyday right of entry is Bay 5, entering next door to do the work; the one route to the Court that begins with Crown land is in Bay 2.