Compliance & Standards
Which rules actually apply to this fence, and whether what is proposed will satisfy them.
Why people bring this to somebody outside
Fencing sits across more sets of rules than most people expect. A boundary fence between two properties is governed by one piece of legislation, a barrier around a residential pool by another, a balustrade or a barrier on a building by the Building Code, and a port or utility perimeter by whatever the operator, the insurer and the auditor between them require. They overlap, and the answer changes with the situation.
What I do is work out which of those apply to your job, tell you plainly what that means in practice, and review the proposed design or the contractor's specification against them before it is built rather than after an inspector has been.
Where the question is really a legal one - who has to pay, what notice has to be served, who is liable - that is a lawyer's job and I will say so. I can tell you what the fence has to be and what it ought to cost, which in a boundary matter is usually the part that is actually in dispute.
Panel fencing on a rendered plinth. What the rules require depends on what is behind it, not on what it looks like.
What this covers
Fencing Act advice
What the legislation means for the standard of fence and the sharing of cost, in practical terms.
Boundary fence guidance
What is reasonable to propose to a neighbour, and what a reasonable contribution looks like.
Building Code compliance
Where a fence, barrier or balustrade becomes building work with requirements attached.
Pool fencing compliance
Reviewing a proposed or existing pool barrier against the requirements that apply to it.
Maritime and security fencing specifications
Perimeter specifications written to satisfy an operator, an insurer or an auditor.
Council and client specification reviews
Reading an organisation's own standard back to them and finding what it does not cover.
Who this is for
- Property owners in a boundary fence disagreement with a neighbour
- Councils and consultants reviewing or writing a fencing standard
- Ports, utilities and secure sites with an auditable perimeter requirement
- Developers and builders who need a barrier signed off first time
What you get
- A written note of which requirements apply and why
- A marked-up review of the proposed design or specification
- A referral to a lawyer where the question is genuinely a legal one
Costed and agreed before I start, never after. A phone call about a straightforward question is usually free.
Often taken together with
Dispute Resolution
An impartial assessment, in writing, from somebody with no stake in how it turns out.
Read more →Independent Fencing Advice
A straight answer from somebody who is not quoting the work.
Read more →Consulting for Councils & Large Organisations
Standards, documentation and peer review for organisations that buy fencing repeatedly rather than once.
Read more →Paid for the advice, not for the work that follows
I am a certified fencer and I also own a fencing contracting business. That is stated up front rather than buried, because it is the first thing anybody sensible wants to know about an independent adviser.
The rule is simple and it does not bend. If I am advising you, my contracting company is not tendering for your job. You can have my advice or you can have my crew, and you cannot have both on the same project, because the moment you could the advice stops being worth anything. If you would rather have the fence built than the question answered, I will say so and point you elsewhere.
It works the same way in a dispute. I give the same finding whichever party is paying for the assessment, and if your position is the weaker one you will hear that from me first.
The contracting business is Custom Fencing Ltd, which is where the experience behind all of this comes from - and it is disclosed here so that you can check it rather than discover it.
FCANZ Certified Fencer. The Fencing Contractors Association of New Zealand assesses fencers against a practical standard that has to be maintained rather than earned once. The reason it matters here: the advice comes from somebody who still has to go out and build to the standard he is describing.
Tell me what you are trying to work out
Most people get in touch because they have a decision to make and nobody independent to check it with - a tender that does not add up, a fence line that keeps failing, a dispute that has stopped moving, or a property they are about to buy. Describe the situation and I will tell you honestly whether it needs me, and what it would take.
021 614 100- nick@customfenceconsulting.co.nz
- 130 Edinburgh Street, Waikouaiti 9510, Otago
- Monday to Friday, 7am - 5.30pm
Based at Waikouaiti in East Otago and working throughout New Zealand. Site work anywhere in the country; desk work - a tender review, a specification, an opinion on a set of photographs - can start the day you send it.