Protection works notices, handled — on either side of the fence.
When building work happens near a boundary, the Building Act 1993 requires the building owner to protect the neighbouring property — and gives the adjoining owner real rights, tight timeframes and recoverable costs. We have represented building owners and adjoining owners across Victoria, so we know how both sides think.
You've received a Form 7.
You have 14 days to respond — and silence counts as agreement. We assess the proposal, protect your position, and lodge your Form 8. Under section 97, your reasonable assessment costs are generally paid by the building owner — not by you.
You need to serve notices.
A defective Form 7 package invites disagreement, delay and cost. We prepare and serve compliant notice packages, manage responses across multiple adjoining owners, and keep your program intact when a neighbour digs in.
Offload the notices.
Running a project for an owner? We prepare and manage the Form 7 process to your construction program — fixed fee per job, you stay the client's point of contact. And if you're the RBS, refer either party to us and keep your determination role clean.
How protection works actually run.
Protection work required
The relevant building surveyor determines the proposed building work requires protection of the adjoining property.
Form 7 served
The building owner serves a Protection Work Notice (Form 7) with drawings and details on each adjoining owner and the RBS (s.84).
14 days to respond
The adjoining owner responds by Form 8 — agree, disagree, or request more information. No response within 14 days = deemed agreement (s.85).
Agreement or determination
Disagreement goes to the RBS, who examines the proposal and issues a Form 9 determination. Appeals go to the Building Appeals Board within 14 days.
Before work starts
Insurance covering the adjoining property must be in place (s.93) and a full condition survey recorded (s.94). The owner pays the adjoining owner's assessment costs (s.97).
Framework: Part 7, Building Act 1993 (Vic) and regulations 113–114, Building Regulations 2018. Victoria only — other states run different regimes. This page is general information, not advice on a specific matter.
Form 7 and Form 8, without the mystery.
Form 7 — Protection Work Notice (regulation 113). Served by the building owner on each adjoining owner and the RBS. It must include enough detail — drawings, specifications, timing — to show how the building work affects the neighbouring property and how the protection work will protect it. A thin Form 7 package is the single most common cause of disputes; we prepare these as complete, servable packages.
Form 8 — Protection Work Response Notice (regulation 114). The adjoining owner's reply, due within 14 days: agree, disagree, or request further information. Adjoining owners can prepare a completed draft in the flow below — and should have it reviewed before serving, particularly before agreeing.
Current prescribed forms are also available from your relevant building surveyor or council. Copies of a Form 8 must go to both the building owner and the RBS.
Tell us who you are — we'll take it from there.
Upload everything you have: the Form 7, architectural drawings, engineering, correspondence. Adjoining owners — don't worry if it seems incomplete; what's missing from a package is often the most important finding.
Developers and their consultants can include CAD files (DXF/DWG) — exact geometry makes our measurement analysis faster and sharper than working from PDFs alone.
Every assessment produces a measurement dashboard you review and confirm — so the analysis is checked against your knowledge of the site before anything is served or lodged. We quote each job as a fixed fee before starting, and for adjoining owners those costs are generally recoverable from the building owner under section 97.
Upload your protection works package.
Form 7, drawings, engineering — PDFs, DXF/DWG, photos, zips, up to 1GB per file. Files upload directly to secure storage and are deleted when the job closes.
Questions we’re asked most.
If you have a question that’s not here, call us — we answer honestly, whether or not it leads to work.
- You have 14 days from service to respond with a Form 8: agree, disagree, or request further information. Doing nothing means you are taken to have AGREED to the proposal — so the worst response is silence. Before agreeing, it's worth having the proposal assessed: once protection works start, your leverage to change them largely ends. We assess the package and lodge the Form 8 for you, and the building owner generally pays those assessment costs.
Got a site, a permit, or a refusal on your desk?
An obligation-free conversation is the fastest way to see if we can help. We respond within 24 hours — usually much sooner.