Dividing fences in SA: who pays, and what notice is needed?

Published 28 October 2026

Who pays for a dividing fence in SA

A dividing fence is a fence between the land of two adjoining owners (s 4). The Act presumes both owners benefit equally from it (s 12(6)), so each normally pays half the cost of an adequate fence: one that matches the general standard of good fencing in the area and suits the owner being asked to contribute (s 12(8)(a)). The cost can include a survey, any work needed to make the fencing possible, and a reasonable allowance for an owner’s own labour (s 4(1)).

If you want something better than adequate, your neighbour’s share is half the minimum cost of an adequate fence (s 12(7)). The Law Handbook describes a 1.8 m Colorbond fence where 1.5 m galvanised iron is normal: a court may allow it and order the neighbour to pay half the cost of the adequate fence. Where homes adjoin rural blocks of more than 0.8 ha, the adequate fence is the cheaper of the two standards.

If you and your neighbour agree on the work and the cost, you don’t have to use the notice procedure, but the Law Handbook recommends a signed written agreement covering the work, the materials, the quotes accepted and how the cost is shared.

Timber fence prices in Adelaide

Checked 28 October 2026. Calabria Fencing’s 2026 Adelaide guide (published 10 April 2026) doesn’t break timber fencing down by style. Yakka Labour’s guide (published 1 October 2026) includes GST and gives an Adelaide row. Colorbond, the most common Adelaide fence, is priced separately by both.

By our arithmetic, a 20 m timber fence at Calabria Fencing’s published $150 – $250+ per metre would be $3,000 – $5,000 or more (20 × $150 and 20 × $250), or $1,500 – $2,500 or more for each neighbour when the cost is split equally.

The notice of intention: Form 1 or Form 2

Use Form 1 for a new fence and Form 2 for replacement, repair or maintenance of an existing one (s 5). The forms are set out in the Act. The notice must state:

• the length and position of the fence
• the type of fence
• an estimate of the cost
• the amount you want your neighbour to contribute
• the name and address of the contractor or other person who will do the work

Because the notice names the contractor and the estimated cost, get the quote before you serve it. Sign the notice and serve it personally or by registered post (s 19).

30 days to object, then the fence can go up

Your neighbour can object within 30 days of being served, by serving a cross-notice (Form 3) with their objections and any counter-proposals, and they don’t have to give reasons (s 6). You then have 30 days to object to their counter-proposals.

You can start once 30 days have passed without a cross-notice, or once you’ve agreed, or once the court has decided (s 8). Don’t start early: in Jackson and Jackson v Takacs, a small claim the Law Handbook describes, owners who built without waiting the 30 days recovered nothing, even though their neighbour never served a cross-notice.

If the owner who served the notice doesn’t start, or stops, for more than 28 days after agreement, the neighbour may do the work and recover the agreed amount (s 8(3)). Unless another time is agreed or ordered, the work must be finished within 4 months (s 8(6)).

Urgent fence repairs and storm damage

If a dividing fence is damaged and urgently needs repair, either owner can do the work without notice and recover the lesser of half the cost, or the amount the neighbour would have paid towards a replacement (s 16(1)). The Law Handbook’s case is a storm-damaged fence that lets animals escape. It suggests giving whatever notice you can, and using fencing similar to what was there.

Whoever damages or destroys a fence through a wrongful act or negligence pays for the repair (s 16(2)).

Fence height and approval in SA

Under Schedule 4 clause 4(1)(d) of the PDI (General) Regulations 2017, a fence no higher than 2.1 m, measured from the lower of the two adjoining finished ground levels, needs no approval, except:

• in a flood overlay, or another overlay the regulations identify
• road-boundary fences, and fences in front of the building line, in the Historic Area Overlay
• a fence more than 1 m high within 6 m of a corner where two road boundaries meet, unless there’s a 4 m × 4 m corner cut-off
• masonry or part-masonry fences more than 1 m high
• pool safety fences, for pools approved on or after 1 July 1993
• a brush fence closer than 3 m to an existing or proposed home (a Class 1 or 2 building), though repairs that don’t enlarge it are allowed
• at a State heritage place, where no Schedule 4 exemption applies (regulation 3C(3))

Privacy screening attached to a fence counts as part of the fence (clause 4(13)(c)). Where a fence sits on a retaining wall, the Law Handbook says approval is needed if the wall and fence together are more than 2.1 m high, measured from the lower side of the wall. Pool fencing is specialist work with its own licence category, outside the fencing quoted here.

Who builds a dividing fence, and old posts

Fencing, except post and wire, is building work under SA’s Building Work Contractors Act, so a business that builds or repairs fences for others needs a licence that covers fencing, which Consumer and Business Services licenses as its own category. See how to check a builder’s licence in SA.

Old treated-pine posts may be CCA-treated. EPA SA says CCA posts must go to an EPA-authorised landfill and can’t be burnt or buried on site.

Questions about dividing fences