Short version: it is not decided by whose back door the fence is nearest. It is decided by the registered strata plan. Find the fence on the plan and you have your answer in about a minute — then check the by-laws, which can move it.
| Where the fence sits | Whose repair it is |
|---|---|
| On the outer boundary of the parcel, adjoining a neighbouring property | Owners corporation. It is a dividing fence, and the cost conversation is with the neighbour next door — not with the lot owner. |
| Drawn as a thick line on the strata plan | Owners corporation. A thick line marks a structural boundary; the lot stops at the inner surface, so the structure itself is common property. |
| Between two lots, drawn as a thin line, dotted line or no line | The two lot owners, half each. It is not common property, so it is an ordinary dividing fence between neighbours, and they share the cost equally. |
| Between a lot and common property, drawn as a thin line, dotted line or no line | The lot owner and the owners corporation, half each. Again not common property, so the cost is shared — here with the owners corporation as the neighbour. |
| Wholly inside one lot’s courtyard, not on any boundary | That lot owner. A structure within the lot that is not shown as common property is the owner’s to maintain. |
One qualifier before anyone acts on that: an exclusive-use by-law over the courtyard, or a common property memorandum your scheme has adopted, can put maintenance on the owner even where the fence is common property. Check the by-laws before concluding the owners corporation pays.
The owners corporation must properly maintain and keep in a state of good and serviceable repair the common property, and renew or replace fixtures comprised in it. The duty is strict — it does not depend on the committee agreeing the repair is worthwhile, or on the money being convenient this year. Which is why the whole question collapses into a narrower one: is this fence common property?
And that is answered by the plan, not by usage. Under the Registrar General’s requirements a boundary defined by a structure is drawn with a thick line, and the lot boundary is the inner surface of that structure — which is precisely what leaves the structure itself on the common-property side of the line. A thin line, a dotted line or no line at all means the boundary is not defined by the fence, so the fence is not common property: if it runs along the boundary it is a dividing fence shared with whoever is on the other side, and if it stands wholly inside a courtyard it belongs to that lot. Who uses the courtyard, who installed the fence, and who is most annoyed by it do not come into it.
The neighbour case works differently again. Where the fence divides the scheme from the property next door, the owners corporation is taken to be the owner of the land for the purposes of the Dividing Fences Act 1991. That changes who is even in the conversation: it runs between the owners corporation and the adjoining owner, typically sharing the cost, and the individual lot owner is not a party to it — however much it is their back door.
Where a fence runs along a boundary but is not common property — between two lots, or between a lot and common property, drawn with a thin line, a dotted line or no line — it is treated as an ordinary dividing fence, and the Dividing Fences Act 1991 sets the rules. That Act does not reach a fence that is common property; those stay with the owners corporation under s 106.
Three things follow in practice. The split is half each for a sufficient fence, not whatever fence one side would like — a taller, more expensive or better-looking fence is the extra cost of whoever wants it. Where one owner damaged the fence, the repair is generally theirs alone. And where the other side is common property, the “neighbour” is the owners corporation, so the lot owner deals with the committee — which should record its share as an owners corporation expense like any other.
Neither side should commission the work and send the other a bill. Agree the work and the split first; if you cannot, the Act has a notice procedure, and NCAT can decide what fence is sufficient and who pays.
The memorandum prescribed for s 107 is unusually direct about fences. On the owners corporation’s side it lists common wall fencing, shown as a thick line on the strata plan and dividing fences on a boundary of the strata parcel that adjoin neighbouring land. On the lot owner’s side it lists structures within the cubic space of a balcony or courtyard and not shown as common property on the strata plan — the same thick-line test, written from the other direction.
Two cautions. The memorandum binds only a scheme that has actually adopted it by by-law; and it repeatedly defers to plans registered before 1 July 1974, where older boundary conventions can apply. If your plan is that old, the plan governs and the shortcuts above may not.
An upgrade is a different section entirely. Improving or altering common property needs a special resolution first, and the resolution must say who carries the ongoing maintenance afterwards — the part committees forget, and the part that decides who pays the next time it needs work.
The maintenance page of the user guide covers how to run the request itself — urgency, quotes, and the reasons the Act requires before anything is deferred or rejected.
Current as at 27 September 2026. Strata surfaces statutory rules as guidance, but it is record-keeping software, not legal advice, and no page here accounts for the particulars of your scheme. Check the Act, your registered strata plan and your by-laws, and get advice before acting on anything with money or a dispute attached.