(1) In this Act,
unless the contrary intention appears, —
court means the Magistrates Court;
dividing fence means a fence that separates the
lands of different owners whether the fence is on the common boundary of
adjoining lands or on a line other than the common boundary;
lease includes an original or derivative lease or
an under-lease or an agreement for a lease;
owner , in relation to land, includes, subject to
subsection (2), every person who —
(a)
jointly or severally, whether at law or in equity —
(i)
is entitled to land for any estate of freehold in
possession; or
(ii)
is entitled to receive or is in receipt of or if the land
were let to a tenant would be entitled to receive the rents and profits of the
land, whether as beneficial owner, trustee, mortgagee in possession, or
otherwise;
or
(b) is
the holder of a lease of land the unexpired term of which is not less than 5
years at the time —
(i)
notice to fence is given by or to him pursuant to
section 8;
(ii)
he makes application to the court under section 11(1);
(iii)
a copy of an order made pursuant to section 11(2) is
given to him;
(iv)
notice is given by or to him pursuant to section 15,
but does not include any trustees or other persons
in whom land is vested as a public reserve, public park or for such other
public purposes as may be prescribed, or a person who has the care, control
and management of a public reserve, public park or land used for such other
public purposes as may be prescribed;
repair includes re-erect and re-align and
inflexions of the word repair include corresponding meanings;
section means section of this Act;
sufficient fence , in relation to a dividing fence
or a boundary fence referred to in section 16, means —
(a) any
fence prescribed by a local law as a sufficient fence for the part of the
local government district in which the dividing fence or boundary fence is, or
is to be, erected; or
(b) any
fence of the description and quality agreed upon by the parties concerned
which does not fail to comply with any local law referred to in paragraph (a),
or where no such local law or agreement is made,
means —
(c) any
substantial fence that is ordinarily capable of resisting the trespass of
cattle and sheep; or
(d) any
fence determined to be a sufficient fence by the court pursuant to this Act;
surveyor means a surveyor licensed under the
Licensed Surveyors Act 1909 .
(2) For a community
scheme under the Community Titles Act 2018 , the owner of land is to be
determined as follows —
(a) if
the by-laws of a community titles scheme under that Act determine who is to be
the owner for the purposes of this Act, the owner is to be determined
according to those by-laws;
(b) in
any other case —
(i)
if the land is a lot under that Act, the owner of the
land is the owner of the lot under that Act;
(ii)
if the land is common property under that Act, the owner
of the land is the community corporation for the community titles scheme to
which the common property belongs.
[Section 5 amended: No. 5 of 1969 s. 2; No. 14 of
1996 s. 4; No. 79 of 1996 s. 28; No. 59 of 2004 s. 141; No. 32 of 2018 s.
201.]