Dividing fence condition report app
A dividing fence report is usually ordered when neighbours disagree about whether a fence needs replacing and who should pay. Each state’s dividing fences legislation lets one neighbour serve notice on the other, and a clear, neutral record of the fence’s condition — panel by panel, post by post — is often what settles it before a tribunal does. SurveyThanks captures the fence in bays so the report can say exactly where it has failed.
Built for homeowners running teams of roughly 3–50 inspectors.
Sample Fence condition report
An illustrative excerpt. The site, readings and findings are fictional; the layout is yours to set.
Fence condition report
Dividing fence — between 10 and 12 Illustrative Street
- Fence type
- Timber paling, 1.8 m, approx. 25 years old
- Length
- 32 m, 13 bays
- Inspected
- 2 November 2026
| Bay | Condition | Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Bays 1–4 | Sound posts, weathered palings | Assessment: Serviceable |
| Bay 7 | Post rotted at ground level, fence leaning 15° | Assessment: Failed |
| Bays 8–10 | Rails split, palings detaching | Assessment: Failed |
| Bay 13 | Gate post loose | Assessment: Repair |
Fields captured on site
Your firm builds the form in-app, so these are a starting point rather than a fixed schema. Every field is captured on the device, with or without signal, and lands in the fence condition report where your template puts it.
Fence
- Properties either side
- Fence material and height
- Approximate age
- Total length and number of bays
Per bay
- Bay number
- Post condition
- Rails and palings / sheets condition
- Lean (degrees)
- Photo
Outcome
- Repair or replace recommendation
- Sufficient dividing fence (Y / N)
- Cause of damage, where apparent
Standards the report works to
- Dividing Fences Act 1991 (NSW)Fencing notices and sufficient dividing fences
- The framework under which neighbours share the cost of a sufficient dividing fence in NSW.
- Neighbourhood Disputes (Dividing Fences and Trees) Act 2011 (Qld)Dividing fences
- The Queensland equivalent, including the notice to contribute.
Load the standards you hold into your reference library and the drafted prose is written against them rather than against a general model.
How the fence condition report gets built
Capture it once, offline
Your firm builds the dividing fence condition report form in-app — 25 field types, nesting repeatable groups, compound AND/OR visibility rules, reusable modules and calculated fields. Field capture works with no signal: jobs, forms, photos, notes and audio all queue in an idempotent outbox that only clears once the server confirms receipt.
Link it to your rooms and external areas
Enter rooms and external areas once, as a register. Every one of your defects, photos and timber pest findings then points at a stored row rather than a name somebody typed — and the links survive a disconnected device.
Render your own template
The fence condition report renders into the Word template you already use — your letterhead, your section order, your clause library — with conditionals, loops over repeats, composable sub-templates and photo grids.
Reviewed before it leaves
You write the review framework: a checklist of what a fence condition report must contain, plus the prose standards you would mark a junior against. Link it to a report template and it runs every time that template renders. Each finding comes back graded info, minor or major, quoting the sentence at fault, and a person accepts or dismisses every one.
Because the structured submission behind the report is held too, the review is a comparison rather than a proofread: The summary says no major defects were found; the form carries a major structural defect on the rear wall.
Checks a residential property framework usually carries
- The standard’s required wording, limitations and exclusions are all present
- Every area is either reported on or listed as not accessed, with a reason
- Each defect in the summary appears in the body at the same severity
- Timber pest findings carry the risk statement the standard requires
Questions
- Can we report on a fence bay by bay?
- Yes. Each bay is a repeatable section, so the report can list every bay or summarise runs of bays in the same condition.
- Can the same report serve both neighbours?
- The report describes the fence, not either party’s position, and can be shared with both as a file or a password-protected link.
- Can we add the cost estimate to the report?
- Number fields and calculated totals can carry the replacement length and an estimate, rendered as a table in your template.
What this is not
Worth knowing before you book a demo, so neither of us wastes the half hour.
- Not field-service dispatch. No timesheets, no parts, no inventory. Scheduling exists to get an inspector to a site.
- No signature capture. If your deliverable has to carry a signed sign-off on the artefact itself, this is not the tool yet.
- Field capture is what works offline — jobs, forms, photos, notes and audio. Reports, chat, scheduling and the inbox need a connection.
- No client portal. Reports go out as a file or a password-protected link.
Other residential property work we cover
- Mould inspectionsMould assessment report
- New-build handover inspectionsPCI defect report
- Owner-builder defect inspectionsDefect schedule
- Pre-auction inspectionsCondition summary report
- Pre-purchase building inspectionsBuilding inspection report
- Pre-settlement inspectionsSettlement checklist report
- Property photography ordersPhoto floorplan package
- Rental entry condition reportsEntry condition report
Other disciplines
Rebuild your fence condition report in SurveyThanks
Bring the Word template you already send clients. If you are coming off another field-forms tool, a filled report can be uploaded, read field by field, and re-rendered into your template.