Neighbour build their garage right up the fence line

Hello people


I'm building in Elara marsden park (developer is Stockland). Neighbous is still contructing but just realized the their garage is right up in the fence line. I've already heard this issue in other states but not in Sydney.

Question is: Is it legal. Or can i still have a word on it before they finish building.

Anyhow, is anyone have the same issue. How did you go. I was hoping to put a straight line fence in my property.

Hope to hear some feedback

If they are already building then most likely you can't have a say, as I would assume they have all the permits they need.

Its very common here. Every house does it. Not a big deal, and saves you a little on fence costing.

Personally, I'm not fond of it and I think that you shouldn't be allowed to build on the boundary line. The problem is with land so expensive now in major city areas and the developers are making the lots so small its the only way people can get a three bedroom house on the block of land.

Depends on the rules of your estate, does the estate allow build to boundary?

If so and they have obtained council approval without dispute then there is not much you can do unfortunately

See if your council has the ability to view building approvals online and check that they have approval to build to the boundary and go from there.


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Thanks people. I really appreciate your reply. Let me check with developer and council first. If it's legal then I think i just have to let go of my dream seamless fence ..

i got some interesting question if you guys don't mind. Usually the utility like gas telephone are located at the side of the garage. If that's the case, It will already be in my lot . Can they do that? Also they're garage looks like there's a bit of design which the front bricks have four inches longer than the garage wall.. It looks like i got some 4 inches bricks in my lot... is that still legal..

reason why i am so concerned is I already have a minimum setback at that side. I think just enough to fit my bin. Putting anything there will just make that side unusable for me ...

How is it different from having a fence there from that perspective?

If it wasn’t allowed in the estate covenant then they would have had to apply to council and then get your permission (at least that is what happens where we are in regional Victoria).

We have a block around the corner from our house which has a 1m minimum setback on each side and so do the blocks either side.

Years ago in a different estate we had neighbors that applied to council and then had to get us to sign off on having their garage as the boundary. The wife only told us they wanted permission to build a parapet wall and didn’t mention the fact the wall would also form the boundary. We stupidly trusted her and signed without reading and ended up with an ugly wall in our front garden as their setback was also 5m ahead of our setback. At least a fence would’ve partially hidden it.

We are build to boundary in our estate and our garage wall bricks are 200mm from the fence line and gutter is 150mm from the fence line. All of your entire building needs to be contained within your boundary.

Thanks bestspecials. Looks like your neighbour still have room to fence it. Did they? 😊

We haven't started building yet, but our plans show the whole house within the block. I have seen other build to boundary where the fence is already up prior to the build. Their house should be contained within their block (meaning that their guttering needs to be inside their property too).

Thanks everyone for all your inputs. I believe it is a very minor issue and i can accommodate it wherever it goes.

But today i went on to my lot again and found a slab had been poured. We are very excited!
For some weird reason, I start measuring our frontage though i already know it should be 15 meters. To my surprise and dismay, it is 14.8 frontage. It was short of 200mm. I measured the lot beside me and my 200mm was added to my neighbor.

Now this is something I'll go straight to my solicitor. Man, how can this big developer got this thing wrong!... Now all the documents that we have and bank contracts is obviously a hell of headache.

I just cant handle this headache anymore and want to throw this all back to them.

Anyone had same issue. Your experience will be greatly appreciated... (sorry for asking more.. i should start a new topic for this..)

Btw. This is different side of neighbour already. And im sure it is not the neighbour fault. For sure it is developer or builder.

Have a look at your contract. My contract had a clause in it that said the boundaries may not be exactly as described and there was compensation if the total area of the block fell outside certain parameters. In my case it was +/- 5%.

My block was exactly correct so the issue didn't come up.

Out of curiosity did you measure yourself from the boundary pegs? What does your survey say? It may be that the pegs are not in the right spot. If that is the case you may need to get it surveyed again and re-pegged.

+/- 5% seems ridiculously high. On a 400 sqm block that could be about a metre off the width, or almost two metres off the length!

That's what I though when I noticed it in the contract. Luckily for me it didn't come up. In my case my lot is bordered by retaining walls on each side and they are all in exactly the right position. I only mentioned it because that clause was in my contract and thought OP should check for something similar.

The exact clause was as follows

"(c) if the area of the subdivision Lot on the final Subdivision Plan is varied in that it:
(i) exceeds the are of the land described in the contract by not more that 5%: or
(ii) is less than the are of the Land as described in this Contract by not more that 5%;
THEN the parties must complete Settlement, the Buyer may not Object by reason of the variation, and neither party will have any Claim or recourse against the other by reason of the variation."

Whether or not this is a legally valid clause or not is another question.

As I said in my case the Lot was the exact size specified in the contract.

I've measured it based on the cut from gutter where the division of each and every lot. All the fences of different builders in the street are based on that gutter cut as well. That's were I found the issue.

I agree.. I'll check my contract as well. my lot is 15 x 30 (450 sqm.). I don't think it's right for any owner to loose 22 sqm just like that ... but it's a good point for me to check as well...

This is not an issue and very common in many estates in NSW.

It’s called Zero Lot. We see these in contracts all the time for Stockland Elara in Marsden Park and Willowdale as well.

Essentially there is an easement on your block (usually around 0.9 metre) for next door neighbour to build right on the fence line and likewise on your block your next door neighbour also has a 0.9 metre easement that benefits you so you can build on their fence line.

Common site these days for small blocks or estates in Elara, Riverstone, Schofields and Box Hill. Just allows you to make the most of the space of your land to build that dream home you want to live in.


Kind Regards,

Bruce

"Building an Eden Brae Waldorf 50 in North Kellyville"
Blog: http://waldorf50.blogspot.com.au

A Mobile Solicitor at Wong & Horta Lawyers
Website: http://www.whlawyers.com.au