Notice templates · Victorian builders and owners
The formal notice can read like a legal threat. A clear cover letter keeps the neighbour on side before anyone digs.
Quick answer: In Victoria, if your building work could damage an adjoining property, for example excavating near its footings, the owner must serve a protection work notice on the adjoining owner. The neighbour has 14 days to respond, and no reply counts as agreement. The building surveyor decides whether protection work is needed. This cover letter goes with the formal notice and explains it in plain English.
Send it as soon as your building surveyor says protection work is needed, and before the permit stage holds up your start date. The 14 days run from when the neighbour receives the notice.
Deliver it by hand if you can and introduce yourself. Most neighbours agree when they understand the plan.
The notice itself is the prescribed protection work notice form. Your building surveyor can tell you which form to use and what plans and details go with it. Either owner can appeal the surveyor’s decision to the Building Appeals Board within 14 days. More on the Victorian notification rules page.
Change everything in [square brackets], delete anything that does not apply and check it against your own conditions before you print.
[Your business name or your name]
[Licence number if a builder] · [Phone] · [Email]
[Date]
Dear [neighbour’s name],
Building work next to your property at [neighbour’s address]
We are about to start [short description, eg a new two storey home with a basement] at [site address], next door to you.
Part of the work is close to your property. [Eg the basement excavation runs along our shared boundary, about [x] metres from your house.] Our building surveyor, [name], has decided that protection work is needed to keep your property safe while we build.
What is enclosed
What the protection work involves
[Eg temporary props and underpinning along the boundary wall, a dilapidation report with photos before work starts, and monitoring during excavation.]
What you need to do
You have 14 days from receiving the notice to agree, disagree or ask for more information. If we do not hear from you in that time, the law treats it as agreement. If you would like your own engineer to look over the plans, we will pay the reasonable cost.
Insurance
We will have insurance covering your property until 12 months after our work is finished.
I would be glad to meet on site and walk you through it. Please call me on [mobile] or email [email].
Kind regards,
[Name]
[Business name, or owner of [site address]]
Pin the site, set the distance and get every letterbox inside the circle as a walk list. With a job pass or yearly plan, print this notice for every address with your logo, in walk order.