Most Ashgrove homeowners have never had their boundaries formally marked, and the fence has simply been treated as the line for as long as anyone can remember. That works until it does not. A boundary survey settles the question properly. A registered cadastral surveyor searches the title and original survey records, re-establishes the corners of your lot, and marks them on the ground so you can see exactly where your land starts and stops.
Ashgrove throws up more of these questions than most suburbs, and the reasons are built into how the place developed. The original estates were cut up between the wars on generous blocks, and many of those blocks have since been split again into rear lots and battle-axes, so a boundary can run down the middle of a shared driveway or along an access handle that nobody has thought about in thirty years. The ground is anything but flat, falling from the ridges down into the gullies, which means retaining walls, stairs and carports have been built hard against the line for decades to make the sites work. And with so much of the suburb under character protection, houses are raised, extended and renovated rather than replaced, so the same old boundary keeps getting relied on for one job after another.
Buying is where an assumption costs the most, because once you settle the problem belongs to you. A boundary survey during your due diligence period confirms the true size and shape of the block and shows whether the fences reflect it. It also picks up encroachments and easements that would be far harder to deal with after the contract goes unconditional. Ashgrove carries more drainage easements than most suburbs, since stormwater from the higher streets has to find its way down through backyards toward Enoggera Creek, and an easement across the rear of a block can rule out the pool or the extension a buyer had in mind. If your plans depend on a certain frontage, a side setback or usable rear yard, confirm the real dimensions before you sign rather than at design stage.
Disagreements over a fence tend to run on opinion rather than fact, and they can sit unresolved for years. A boundary survey replaces the guesswork with a marked line both parties can stand and look at. Because the work is independent and carried out by a registered surveyor, it is not your version or your neighbour’s version, which usually takes the heat out of the conversation. It also gives you something concrete to rely on if the matter goes further, whether that is a fencing notice under the Neighbourhood Disputes Act or an application to QCAT. In our experience most disputes settle once the pegs are in the ground.
An encroachment is any structure sitting over a boundary, whether that is a neighbour’s shed, garage or retaining wall crossing onto your land, or something of yours crossing onto theirs. It matters most when you go to sell or build, because it can stall a contract or force a redesign late in the process. A boundary survey shows precisely where structures sit in relation to the line, which is the first step toward resolving it through an agreement, an easement or a relocation. On the Ashgrove slopes the recurring one is a retaining wall built to hold up a higher property while sitting on the land below it. Sheds and garages tucked into the low side of a block run a close second, along with the odd fence that was rebuilt a metre off the line because the old one followed a hedge.
A number of Ashgrove properties back onto Enoggera Creek or onto council parkland, and those rear boundaries are rarely as simple as the fence suggests. Where a boundary was originally defined against a watercourse, its position needs to be re-established from the survey records rather than assumed from where the water or the vegetation sits today. The same applies where a lot adjoins a park or drainage reserve, since fences in those situations have often been placed for convenience rather than accuracy, sometimes well inside the boundary and sometimes well outside it. If you are planning work near the rear of a block like this, or you are being asked to move a fence, get the line established first.
Setbacks, site cover, pool fencing and boundary walls are all measured from the boundary, so if the boundary is wrong the design is wrong with it. On the sloping Ashgrove blocks you will usually want a detail and contour survey alongside the boundary work, because your building designer or architect needs the levels, the existing structures and the fall across the site before they can set floor heights or work out what fits underneath the house. It is far cheaper to move a line on a drawing than to move a footing.
Ashgrove also sees steady rear lot activity where the original blocks are large enough to split. If that is the direction you are heading, a subdivision survey starts from the same re-established boundary, and the work carries through to the construction set out and Form 12 once you are building.
Survey My Block is a Registered Consulting Cadastral Surveyor Organisation with the Surveyors Board of Queensland, and we cover Ashgrove and the surrounding suburbs including Bardon, Paddington, Red Hill, Enoggera, Alderley, Newmarket, Grange and The Gap. A boundary survey with us includes a search of the title and survey records, field work to re-establish and mark your corners, and a plan showing the boundary against the fences and structures already on site. If you would like to know where you stand before your next decision on the property, get in touch and we will let you know what is involved for your block. We can also provide identification surveys, detail and contour surveys, 3D scanning for complex or tight sites, and set out certification and Form 12s in Ashgrove as required.
In Queensland, a survey of existing property boundaries is commonly called an identification survey. A registered cadastral surveyor examines survey records and physical evidence to identify, re-establish and, where appropriate, mark your property boundaries. An identification survey confirms existing boundaries, it does not create or alter property interests.
We recommend a boundary survey before installing or replacing a fence, constructing a retaining wall, building an extension, or carrying out other work close to a property boundary. It is also useful when purchasing or developing property, investigating a possible encroachment, or resolving uncertainty between neighbours.
Not necessarily. Fences, retaining walls and other improvements are sometimes built away from the true boundary, and the boundary cannot be reliably located by measuring from the kerb. GPS apps, Queensland Globe and online property maps are also not authoritative sources for locating boundaries on the ground. A cadastral survey is required to establish the boundary accurately
The surveyor will review the relevant title and survey information, undertake field measurements and reinstate the surveyed boundaries. Depending on the scope and site conditions, boundary corners may be marked or re-marked, and the survey plan may show relevant fences, retaining walls, buildings and encroachments in relation to the boundary.
A boundary survey provides independent professional evidence showing where the boundary is located and how nearby fences, walls or structures relate to it. However, the survey itself does not determine who is responsible for an encroachment or compel someone to relocate a structure. Where an affected improvement or encroachment is identified, the surveyor may be required to notify the affected landholder, and unresolved disputes may require negotiation, mediation or legal advice.
