Noticesfor the street

Demolition company next door: the neighbours’ side

Demolition next door

When a building comes down beside you, the noise, the dust, the trucks and the closed footpath land on your side of the fence. This guide, published by Dotto, reads the hoarding from the street: what councils and state regulators ask of a site, and who to contact when something goes wrong.

Rules vary by state and by council. Where this guide quotes a rule, it says whose rule it is. Most examples come from two councils that publish detailed construction rules online, the City of Sydney and the City of Melbourne.

A street elevation of a demolition site behind a hoarding A drawing of a street. On the left is a neighbouring house with a crack marked on its wall (1). In the middle is a plywood hoarding with a cut viewing window, two pasted notices (2 and 6) and, behind it, a half-demolished wall with a cloud of dust being sprayed with water (3). In front runs the footpath with a walking arrow (4). On the right a street tree stands inside a dashed protection circle (5), beside a second house. 1 2 3 4 5 6
  1. 1Your wall, before the work: a record of the condition of property next to a site.
  2. 2The hours on the board: construction hours by state and council.
  3. 3The dust: what a site is expected to do, and who takes a report.
  4. 4The footpath: hoardings, works zones and closures.
  5. 5The street tree: protection zones and neighbours’ trees.
  6. 6The contact notice: who to call about noise, dust, damage or safety.

Six notices for the street

Each notice is a short guide drawn from the official pages of state regulators and councils. Each one lists its sources at the foot of the page.

Reading the hoarding

What the board should tell you

A hoarding is also a noticeboard. In the City of Melbourne, when work needs notification, the builder must put notices outside the site where the public can see them. The council’s code lists what they carry: the name of the project; when, by date and time, vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians will be affected; the dates, times and durations of any out-of-hours work; and the project supervisor and traffic management provider by name, each with a telephone number answered at all hours.

The same code says a builder must have a complaints-handling process, and that people who complain must receive a response within 72 hours. It also asks for written notice at least five days before works start to the occupiers of homes, businesses and local organisations that the work will affect.

The City of Sydney puts it more briefly: clear contact information should be placed where people can find it around the outside of a construction site, and staff should be available to respond to the community while noisy work is under way.

Other councils set their own requirements, so the notice in your street may say more or less than this. Raising a concern about a site covers what to do when the board is silent.

An illustration of the items the City of Melbourne’s code lists for a public site notice. The blanks are deliberate: a real notice carries a real name and number.

Rules vary by council

Two councils, two clocks

Construction hours show how far the rules move from one council to the next.

  • City of SydneyThe council asks sites in the city centre to keep potentially noisy work to 7 am to 7 pm Monday to Friday and 7 am to 5 pm Saturday. Elsewhere in its area it asks for work from 7.30 am to 5.30 pm Monday to Friday and 7.30 am to 3.30 pm Saturday, and no work on Sundays or public holidays anywhere.
  • City of MelbourneUnder its Activities Local Law 2024, building works are limited to 7 am to 7 pm Monday to Friday and 8 am to 3 pm on Saturday. Anything outside those hours needs an out-of-hours permit.

Five state government pages publish standard or recommended hours as well. Noise and working hours sets them side by side.

About this guide

A guide published by Dotto for people who live or work beside a demolition. It covers the street’s side of the hoarding: records of property, noise, dust, footpaths, trees and complaints.

It does not cover approval to demolish, asbestos, safety rules for the people doing the work, disconnecting services or demolition waste. The state regulators and councils that set those rules publish them on their own sites.

Even so, on asbestos, the Asbestos and Silica Safety and Eradication Agency’s advice for householders says it is “not recommended that you handle or remove asbestos yourself”, and in some places the law goes further: in the Australian Capital Territory any removal needs a licensed removalist, unless it is part of minor routine maintenance or other minor work, and in Queensland a home owner must be trained before taking out more than 10 square metres of non-friable material, and only a removalist holding a Class A licence may remove friable material. The agency adds that getting a professional to do the job is easier, safer and often cheaper. It also says that all asbestos waste must go to a landfill licensed to accept it, and that putting asbestos in a household rubbish bin can bring a fine.