Maintenance: Fences
Strata Titles Act (plan number less than 20,000)
Fences are common property. This is spelt out under Section 5 part 5(a).
Section 5: Boundaries
(5) Subject to any explicit statement to the contrary in a strata plan, the following principles apply to the definition of a unit by strata plan—
(a) where a boundary is defined by reference to a wall or fence—the boundary is the inner surface of the wall or fence;
Section 3: Interpretation
(1) In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears: fence includes a gate
What does this mean?
The strata corporation owns the fences between units along with the boundary fences.
Community Titles Act
Strata Division – one lot above another
Section 19 (4) Subject to any explicit statement to the contrary in a strata plan, the following principles apply to the definition of a lot by strata plan:
(a) where a boundary is defined by reference to a wall or fence—the boundary is the inner surface of the wall or fence
What does this mean?
Fences on community titled Strata Divisions are treated the same as a Strata Titled group. The corporation owns the fences between units and fences on the external boundary of the group.
For regular lot by lot Community Corporations the Fences Act applies. That is, each lot owner shares the ownership of the fence on the lot boundaries. If the boundary is shared with the corporation’s common driveway then the lot owner and corporation share ownership. Costs are usually shared 50/50.