Scenic Rim Retaining Wall Builders000
Who is responsible for a retaining wall on a boundary?

Regulation

Retaining walls aren't covered by the dividing fences legislation. Responsibility follows the benefit.
Regulation

Who is responsible for a retaining wall on a boundary?

The starting point

Queensland’s dividing fences legislation covers fences and trees, and says in so many words that a fence isn't a retaining wall. The Queensland Government’s own guide says the same. Retaining wall disputes are decided on common law, case by case, which is why you get a different answer from everybody you ask.

The general principle

Responsibility follows the benefit. That's the thread through all of it.

  • If you cut into your land and need to hold your neighbour’s soil at its natural level, the wall is usually yours
  • If you filled your land and need to hold the added soil, the wall is usually yours
  • A wall wholly inside one property usually sits with that owner, though who benefits from it can still change the answer
  • A wall straddling the boundary may be shared, depending on who it benefits

Before it gets expensive

If there's money or a neighbour in dispute, get legal advice. We build walls, we don't settle boundaries. What we can do is come out, measure the levels, and tell you factually which side the ground was cut or filled on, which is usually the thing the argument is actually about.

Sources

Keep reading

Questions

Not answered here? Call us on 0488 844 741.

The questions we get asked most

Retaining walls are not covered by Queensland's dividing fences legislation. That Act is about fences and trees, so retaining wall disputes are decided case by case on common law.

The thread through all of it is that responsibility follows the benefit. If you cut into your land, or you filled it, the wall is usually yours.

29 people have written about what it was like, and they all write about the same things.

The thing people tell us most is that they can’t believe it’s only the two of us. After that, it’s how fast Jake works, how clean he leaves the site, and the quality of the wall.

Reviews published on Google. Names as the reviewers gave them.

Why people trust us with this

Jake has more than 12 years in the industry, and he and Brittany started the business in 2023.

The line holds

Set out with string lines, then galvanised posts concreted with 32 MPa concrete from the plant. We use the right auger for the job: 450 mm on some walls, 300 mm on others. A boundary wall is looked at from both sides for decades.

The fence sits right on top of it

We don't build fences, but we leave the wall straight and the levels right, and we can put you in touch with a fencing contractor we trust.

Your neighbour hears it from you

We don't approach neighbours. We'd only need to go through their place if that's the only way in, and you'd know before we started.

Jake builds it

The person who quotes your wall is the person who builds it, on site from about 6:30, with no crew you've never met.

QBCC licence 15049372 (Jacob Spriggs)

Next

Tell us about the block

Six short questions, about two minutes. Brittany calls you back, then Jake comes out and measures the wall. Quotes are locked for 30 days, and the price only changes if you ask for extra work and approve it first.

A long timber look concrete sleeper wall with steps, running along a slope

Talk to us about your wall

Six short questions, about two minutes. Your details come first, so if anything cuts out halfway we can still call you back.

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