Most Coorparoo 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.

Coorparoo throws up more of these questions than most suburbs, and for a few reasons at once. Much of the housing sits on subdivisions laid out in the tram era, so the lots are long, narrow and often not quite square. Later rounds of subdivision added battle-axe blocks and rear lots behind the original houses, which means some boundaries run through the middle of a driveway or alongside a shared access handle. The ground also moves around, flat near Norman Creek and climbing steeply toward Camp Hill and Whites Hill, so retaining walls, stairs and carports have been built hard against the line for decades. Add a hundred years of fence replacements and the boundary on the ground can sit well away from the boundary on the title.

Buying a property in Coorparoo

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 are far harder to deal with after the contract goes unconditional, which matters in Coorparoo where drainage easements and shared access handles are common on the older subdivisions. If your plans for the property depend on a certain frontage or a particular setback, it is worth knowing the real dimensions before you sign rather than after.

Fence disputes with a neighbour

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.

Encroachments

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. Retaining walls are the common one in Coorparoo. On the sloping streets they were often built to hold up one property while sitting on the land of the other, and nobody thought much about it at the time.

Before you build, renovate or subdivide

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. A site survey conducted early means your building designer or architect is working from the real block rather than title dimensions and a tape measure off the fence, and it is far cheaper to move a line on a drawing than to move a footing. Coorparoo also carries a fair amount of low density residential and low medium density zoning, so there is steady duplex, townhouse and small lot activity through the suburb. Anything of that kind, such as a subdivision, needs accurate boundary and detail information from the outset, and the survey you commission at the start will carry through to the set out and the Form 12 later on.

What you get

Survey My Block is a Registered Consulting Cadastral Surveyor Organisation with the Surveyors Board of Queensland, and we cover Coorparoo and the surrounding suburbs including Camp Hill, Norman Park, Greenslopes, Holland Park and Stones Corner. 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 setout certification surveys, Form 12’s and detail and contour surveys in Coorparoo as required.