Sydney Fencing Issue- Can’t find neighbour

Hi,

I have to get fencing done for my under construction property in sydney in about 2 months time.
I tried everything I could to locate contact details of my neighbor who owns an empty land next door.

I talked to fair trading, legal aid, lawaccess, community legal center but people on phone don’t know what should I do in this scenario.

Council refused to provide contact details due to privacy laws.

I then followed all steps from this link:
Finding neighbor

and applied to NCAT for fencing order and received an email from tribunal admin lady saying I have to provide other party’s contact details in my application so that tribunal can send them hearing notice without which my application will be declined.

I tried explaining her that the whole point of approaching tribunal for a fencing order is because I am unable to find neighbor’s contact details.

After arguing with her for 30 minutes I managed to get hearing scheduled. But she is confident that tribunal member is going to decline my application because no notice has been served to other party.

My question is:

What would be my next step if tribunal member rejects my application because no notice is served to other party? How can I legally claim 50% fencing share.

I only have 2 months left to sort it out. After that I will have to do fencing on my own cost when property is ready for rent.

I got the name of owner using paid title search. Tried google, whitepages etc to find contact number but no use.

 

Do a search and see if they own other property?

 

You're not much of a cyber stalker but then again they may not have a digital footprint eg they're not on Farcebook, LinkedIn, Instakilogram, tinder, grindr etc.

Try pipl.com

If all else fails, contact council, they send out rates notices to the owner.

 

How can I do that? Is there a free/paid service that tells all properties owned by a name?

 

Approaching council was my first step but they refused to provide contact details citing privacy laws.

I couldn’t find them on internet. This person is a ghost.

 

Is there no fence at all?
Some states allow you to do the fence and later claim the cost of the fence against your neighbour at a later date. This often happens in new estates where land is sold/built at different times and the first person to build puts up the first fences and claims back against the other owners when they build.
In WA this caused so much angst and fighting (first person upgraded fence and wanted 50% of upgraded fence when all they are entitled to is a basic fence etc etc) that many land developers include fencing in the cost of the land and they put up the fence when construction of each house is finished.
Personally for my developments I put in new fences 80% of the time and I pay 100% as the current fence still meets fencing laws but is butt ugly, asbestos and/or needs to be replaced to do retaining.

 

You can do paid searches with land titles office and or rp data

 

No fencing.

afaik in nsw you are required to serve a formal fencing proposal and arrive to a mutually agreed conclusion. If you go ahead and install fence without their consent ( or fail to serve notice like in my case) they are entitled to have your fence removed at your cost and start over with serving proposal.

 

Have you read the dividing fences act?

 

No but I read this:

In NSW (and check in other states because it is probably similar) whatever you do DO NOT go ahead and build or replace a boundary fence without having a signed agreement with the owner of the adjoining property, if you do they will probably have no obligation to contribute to the cost and could possibly obtain permission to have the structure removed and replaced, with you footing the bill for the removal and half the cost of the replacement.

source:
Neighbors from hell

 

Why not read the law that impacts what you want to do?

 

Why would you do that, it may contain something slightly relevant?

 

Install a letter box on the neighbours property as a gift. Serve notice. Done.

 

If this is a new estate then I would also contact the sales rep/developer and ask them to contact the owner and provide your details to them for them to call you and begin the discussion.

There also may be provision in your land contract that the sales rep/developer can provide contact information for such purposes as fencing. I have previously bought into an estate where I signed that my contact information could be given to neighbours on their request for the purpose of fencing/building matters.

If the land is a resale from original owners then contact the listing agent and ask them to call the new owners for you.

 

Yes, agreed. Serve notice to the neighbour at the letter box of the vacant land. At least this will satisfy council's requirements to get the ball rolling.

 

The Law Assist site is pretty good, and I would agree you need to do more searching for the neighbour's contact details. Have you done a title search at all to get the owners name?

I would try the council again ... a different person may be more helpful. I actually thought the council *had* to provide the neighbour's details for fencing matters, but it seems that is not the case.