Leasing a warehouse, yard or commercial site in NSW usually raises one awkward question early on: can we put a fence up? Sometimes it is for security, sometimes to contain stock or vehicles, sometimes just because the business next door keeps using your driveway.
Either way, fencing a leased property is not as simple as picking a contractor. You need to think about lease permissions, planning rules, who owns the boundary, and a few safety basics that councils and certifiers care about. Run through these before you price a fence.
1. Start with your lease
In most commercial leases, a fence counts as an alteration or improvement to the premises. That usually means:
- you need the landlord's written consent
- the landlord may want the work done by a licensed contractor to a set standard
- the lease may require you to remove it at the end (the "make-good" clause), even though you paid for it.
Retail shop leases can carry extra rules under the Retail Leases Act 1994, but plenty of industrial and commercial leases come down to whatever the contract says, so read those clauses carefully. If the fence is important to how you will run the site, get it agreed in writing before you sign.
2. Is your fence exempt, complying, or does it need a DA?
In NSW a lot of fencing can go up as exempt development with no approval, or as complying development through a certificate, but only if you meet the standards in the statewide planning policy. For commercial and industrial zones, complying-development fences need to meet the Commercial and Industrial Alterations Code.
The no-approval path can fall away even on business or industrial land where there is:
- a heritage item on the lot or along the boundary
- a road boundary or setback area involved
- a foreshore or flood-control lot, which catches people out on industrial land near waterways.
So your mate's fence in the next suburb might have been exempt while yours is not. Check rather than assume. The NSW Planning Portal is the place to start.
3. The key exempt standards for business and industrial zones
If you are aiming for exempt development in a business or industrial zone, the standards set some clear limits. For example:
- fence height generally must not exceed 3 metres, or 1.2 metres for masonry
- if the lot adjoins a residential zone, the part of the fence above 1.8 metres must be at least 75 percent transparent
- along a road boundary or setback, the part above 1.2 metres must be at least 75 percent transparent
- gates must not open outwards
- on bushfire-prone land, fencing must be non-combustible or hardwood
- barbed wire and electric fencing are not allowed as exempt development in business and industrial zones.
This is often where chainwire fits well on a leased site, because its open mesh naturally meets those transparency rules in a lot of situations.
4. Boundary fences when you are only the tenant
This is where it gets messy. In NSW, the Dividing Fences Act 1991 is written around adjoining owners, not tenants. In plain terms, the landlord usually has the legal standing to deal with a true boundary fence dispute or cost sharing with the neighbour. But your lease might push the practical cost back onto you through maintenance or outgoings clauses, which is common, and another reason to get the wording clear.
If the property is strata
In a strata complex, fences can be common property, and that changes everything. The owners corporation has a duty to maintain and repair common property under NSW strata law, and there are specific provisions dealing with dividing fences. You may need owners corporation approval before anything is touched, even if you and the landlord are both happy.
5. Safety and access rules that get overlooked
A fence affects how people and vehicles move around a site, not just the boundary. Common issues we see:
- gates swinging out over a footpath or driveway (often not allowed anyway)
- fencing that blocks sight lines at a driveway exit
- poor gate placement that creates a pinch point for forklifts, trucks or staff parking
- sharp edges, trip hazards or unstable panels that become a workplace risk.
Under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011, duties can apply to whoever manages or controls a workplace and its fixtures, and more than one party can hold a duty at once: landlord, tenant and contractor. You do not need to turn it into a legal project, just design the fence around how people actually use the site, because they will.
6. A quick checklist before you install
- Lease check. Do you need landlord consent, and is there a make-good clause?
- Boundary check. Is it a true boundary fence, an internal fence, or strata common property?
- Planning check. Is it exempt, complying, or likely to need a DA on height, materials or location?
- Neighbour check. Will transparency rules apply next to a residential zone or a road boundary?
- Services and easements. Any underground services, drainage lines, access easements or fire trails to keep clear?
- Security spec. Height, mesh size, posts, gates, access control, and whether anything like barbed wire will trigger approval.
Where chainwire usually makes sense on a leased site
When you are leasing, you generally want fencing that is secure but not a planning headache, practical for deliveries, straightforward to repair if it gets hit, and easy to modify later if the lease or layout changes. Chainwire ticks those boxes because it is strong, visible, and typically counts as transparent where the rules require it.
Every site is a bit different once you add zoning, frontage roads, strata rules and flood overlays, so if you tell us what you are leasing and where, we can help map out a practical fence plan and the likely approval path. Have a look at our fencing services to see what suits.
This article is general information, not legal advice. If your lease or site has tricky conditions, heritage, strata disputes or boundary arguments, get proper advice alongside your fencing quote.