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Fencing Adelaide

South Australia’s fencing law, counted in days

A reader’s guide to South Australia’s fencing law, published by Dotto

Thirty days, then the fence

A fencing notice starts a count of thirty days, and a neighbour who serves nothing back in that time is taken to agree. Start the work before the count ends, without the other owner’s agreement, and the Act will not let you recover their share.

General information about South Australia’s fencing law, not legal advice about your fence.

  1. The notice A notice in Form 1 or Form 2 starts the Act's machinery. Form 1 must state six things (s 5(2)).
  2. Their 30 days The Magistrates Court, to which a fencing dispute may be taken (s 12)Thirty days from service. No objection served in them, and the Act deems agreement (s 7).
  3. Your 30 days, from C C+1C+30 The Magistrates Court, to which a fencing dispute may be taken (s 12)From C, the day a cross-notice is served: the proponent's thirty days to object to a counter-proposal (s 6(3)).
  4. 28 days to start E+1 Twenty-eight days from the day the proponent may proceed, and the last two days of the thirty are drawn empty: miss the twenty-eight, or any longer period the parties agree or the court fixes, and the adjoining owner may start (s 8(3)).
  5. 2 days to enter W At least two days before the work day W: notice in writing before the land is entered, except in an emergency (s 18(2)).
  6. Four monthsa different scale Four months, or another period agreed or ordered. Past it the part of the agreement still to be performed lapses (s 8(5), (6)).
  7. No count Damaged or destroyed, with an urgent need to repair or restore: the work may be done without notice, and no count runs (s 16(1)).

Every row of the count opens a guide. Each row is a section of the Fences Act 1975 (SA), named on the row, and the columns are days, read left to right; a hatched cell is drawn empty on purpose.

  1. 0 The noticeWhat the notice must say Six cells for the six things the form must state (s 5(2))

    Six things on the form: length and position, nature, a cost estimate, the amount sought, any compensation, the contractor (s 5(2)).
    Fences Act 1975 (SA), s 5(2)

  2. 30 Their 30 daysAnswering a notice Thirty lit days, from service to the end of the count (s 8(1)(a))

    Thirty days from the day the notice is served. Silence at the end of them is agreement (s 7).
    Fences Act 1975 (SA), s 8(1)(a)

  3. 30 Your 30 days, from CAnswering a notice Thirty lit days, counted from C, the day a cross-notice is served (s 6(3))

    From C, the day a cross-notice is served: the proponent's thirty days to object to a counter-proposal (s 6(3)).
    Fences Act 1975 (SA), s 6(3)

  4. The Magistrates Court, to which a fencing dispute may be taken (s 12)

    A difference about fencing work may be taken to the Magistrates Court, the court the Act names (s 12).
    Fences Act 1975 (SA), s 12

  5. 28 28 days to startStarting, and stalling Twenty-eight lit days, and two cells drawn empty (s 8(3))

    Twenty-eight days to begin, or any longer period the parties agree or the court fixes, counted from the day the proponent may proceed; two cells are drawn empty beside them (s 8(3)).
    Fences Act 1975 (SA), s 8(3)

  6. 2 2 days to enterStarting, and stalling Two lit cells before the work day W (s 18(2))

    At least two days before the work day W: notice in writing before the land is entered, except in an emergency (s 18(2)).
    Fences Act 1975 (SA), s 18(2)

  7. 4 Four monthsStarting, and stalling Four month bars, on their own scale (s 8(6))

    Four months, unless another period is agreed or ordered, after which the unperformed part of the agreement lapses (s 8(5), (6)).
    Fences Act 1975 (SA), s 8(6)

  8. none No countAfter a storm One marked day, and no count lit beside it (s 16(1))

    Damaged or destroyed, with an urgent need to repair or restore: the work may be done without notice, and no count runs (s 16(1)).
    Fences Act 1975 (SA), s 16(1)

  • CC, the day a cross-notice is served. The adjoining owner may serve it within thirty days after the notice was served (s 6(1)), and the proponent's own thirty days run from C (s 6(3)).
  • EE, the day the proponent becomes entitled to proceed. The twenty-eight days to start are counted from it (s 8(1), (3)).
  • WW, the day the land is entered for the fencing work. The notice in writing is served at least two days before it (s 18(2)).

Read the count

There is no general legal obligation in South Australia to fence land, or to repair a fence that is already there. The Act steps in when one owner wants fencing work and wants the other to contribute, and it gives a procedure for resolving the difference.

  1. 0

    A notice is how one owner asks the other to share the cost of a fence. The Act gives the owner who proposes to erect a fence a notice of intention, and it must be in Form 1 in the Schedule, with six things stated on it. For work on a fence that is already there, the notice is Form 2 instead.

    What the notice must say
  2. 30

    Thirty days run from the day the notice is served. In that time the adjoining owner may serve a cross-notice back, and if no cross-notice arrives, the Act deems them to have agreed to the proposal.

    The Law Handbook puts the same rule plainly, and adds what the silence costs: the neighbour is then normally bound by the terms of the notice, including the amount of money each must pay.

    Answering a notice
  3. 30

    A cross-notice can carry counter-proposals, and the proponent then has thirty days of their own to object in writing. Counted from the day the cross-notice is served, it is the second thirty-day count on this page.

    Answering a notice
  4. 28

    If the proponent has not started the work within twenty-eight days of becoming entitled to proceed, or within any longer period the parties agree or the court fixes, the adjoining owner may step in and do the work.

    The Law Handbook states the same twenty-eight days, and says what the adjoining owner can then recover: the amount due under the original agreement.

    Starting, and stalling
  5. 2

    The Act allows entry for fencing work, but, except in an emergency, notice in writing must be served at least two days before the land is entered.

    Starting, and stalling
  6. 4

    Four months is the period the Act prescribes where nothing else is agreed or ordered, and the part of the agreement still to be performed lapses past it.

    Starting, and stalling
  7. none

    A fence that has been damaged or destroyed, where there is an urgent need to repair or restore it, is a case the Act lets an owner act on without notice to the other. The money is settled afterwards on the Act's own terms, which the storm guide sets out.

    The Law Handbook states the same exception in one line: where a repair is urgent, either owner may go ahead without first notifying the other.

    After a storm

What the Act leaves out

Section 20 of the Fences Act 1975 (SA) applies the Act to land of the Crown, an instrumentality or agency of the Crown, or a council, and then takes three cases back out of it: land that comprises, or is comprised in, a single parcel larger than one hectare; land in a public road or a road reserve; and land exempted by regulation. The Governor may exempt specified land, or land of a class, by regulation.

Under its heading for Crown land and councils, the Law Handbook lists four classes of Crown or council land the Act does not apply to, and two of them are read the same way in the Act's own subsections: a single parcel of more than one hectare, land in a public road or a road reserve, land held by the Crown or a council for controlling access to a road or a proposed road from land that abuts the road, and land used by the Crown or a council solely or principally for drainage.