Recent changes to the law will make it easier to love your neighbour – or at least not fight with them over the back fence.
But they will also mean property owners who border parks or reserves can expect to foot big bills for fixing their fence because their local council is no longer obliged to chip in.
Neighbours commonly fall out over the condition, kind and cost of replacing fences but the Fences Amendment Bill 2014 updating the original 1968 act, which takes effect this week, should pre-empt some of those issues.
Key changes to fence laws include shifting the onus of liability for fences from the property's occupier to its owner and requiring adjoining owners to contribute equally to a "sufficient" dividing fence, a change that has exempted councils from responsibility.
"Previously councils were deemed as occupiers under section 3 of the old fences act. Now the law specifically excludes municipal councils," Tisher Liner FC Law partner Phillip Leaman said.
That may not prevent the councils from agreeing to contribute, but they no longer have a legal obligation to do so, he said.
Many of Melbourne's parks and reserves are owned by local municipalities.
The amended laws also set out new rules for notifying neighbours, determining boundaries and carrying out and paying for urgent fencing works.
They include guidelines about which side of the fence the rails and frames should be placed, a common cause of friction on both residential and commercial land.
Fence and boundary disputes were the single largest category of problem brought before the Dispute Settlement Centre of Victoria, which recorded 6489 fights over fences in 2013-14.
The number of disputes was down from a peak of 7743 in 2007-08, but fence disputes still accounted for nearly one-third of the total 19,777 calls referred to the centre.
"It's much clearer what the obligations of each party are to contribute to the fence," centre director Gina Ralston said.
"Ultimately we expect these changes will result in fewer fencing disputes across the state."
With Melbourne's population growing by about 2000 new arrivals a week, the city is expected to double in size to 8.5 million by 2060.
Most new residents end up in outer growth areas; places that were previously paddocks.
Citizens in Greater Geelong, Casey, Hume and Wyndham councils were more likely to argue over the placement, size or shape of pickets and palings, the centre's figures show.
Disputes were also more prevalent in Boroondara and tightly packed inner-city Yarra.
