FenceChat is operated by ROHAJO Pty Ltd t/a FenceChat (ABN 94 699 691 640). We hold filtered and unfiltered copies of messages sent to our users. Those records are sometimes wanted in family law and other proceedings. This page explains how to ask for them properly, and how we decide what to release. Nothing here is legal advice.

Send requests here

Email legal@fencechat.com, or serve the documents on ROHAJO Pty Ltd t/a FenceChat at that address. Please use that address rather than support, so nothing sits in a queue while a return date passes. Notices from the eSafety Commissioner and other regulators go to the same address.

We acknowledge every request within 1 business day with a reference number and the date we will respond by. The acknowledgement does not confirm or deny that anyone has an account with us.

Use our correct legal name. We are ROHAJO Pty Ltd t/a FenceChat. A document addressed to “FenceChat Pty Ltd” is addressed to a company that does not exist, and we will have to come back to you about it.

Emergencies

If someone’s life or health is at serious and immediate risk, call 000 first. Police can then email legal@fencechat.com with EMERGENCY at the start of the subject line.

We are a small team and do not run a 24-hour desk. We act on an emergency request as soon as we see it. Before we act, we call the police station back on its published number, never a number given to us in the request. Often the safest step is for us to contact the user ourselves, or to confirm that they have been reached, rather than to disclose their details. Where disclosure is lawful and needed, we give only what the emergency requires.

What we need before we hand anything over

Outside a genuine emergency (see above), we do not release a user’s records on a phone call or an email request, however urgent it is said to be. We need a court-issued subpoena, a notice to produce, a warrant, or another order or law that requires or authorises us to produce them.

• Say who the account belongs to. The FenceChat address (for example name@fencechat.com), the person’s own email address, or their mobile number. We cannot search on a description.
• Give a date range. “All records” with no period will usually be too broad, and we may ask the court to narrow it.
• Say which records. Messages, delivery records, account details, or something else. See the list below.
• Serve it properly and allow time. Include conduct money where the rules require it. We aim to finish checking a request within 2 business days of receiving it, and we tell you then if we think the document is defective, rather than sitting on it.

Police and other agencies. As a telecommunications provider we are bound by Part 13 of the Telecommunications Act 1997 (Cth), which limits when we can disclose message content or a user’s personal details. A letter or email request on its own is not enough for message content: we will ask for a warrant or a court subpoena. For account details that are not message content, an authorisation under the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 (Cth) can be used.

We check that requests are genuine before we act on them, including by contacting the issuing firm or the court registry on a number we look up ourselves. That is not a comment on you. Our users are often in dispute with someone who would very much like a copy of their archive, and a forged request is a real risk we have to plan for.

What we can produce

• Messages sent to the user through FenceChat, in both forms: the message exactly as it arrived, and the filtered version the user was shown.
• The date and time each message was received, and which channel it came through.
• Basic account information: when the account was opened, its plan, and its status.

Why both versions. FenceChat removes hostile content before a message reaches the user, so the version the user read is not the version the sender wrote. The unfiltered original is the evidentiary record. Producing only the filtered version would misrepresent what was sent, so we produce both, clearly labelled, unless an order says otherwise.

What we will not simply hand over

The user’s private notes and case journal

On some plans a user can add private notes to a message and keep a dated journal of events. Those are the user’s own record. They are not messages, and they are not part of what we produce when we are asked for someone’s messages.

We do not include them by default and we never volunteer them. If a subpoena specifically and validly asks for them, we do not simply withhold them, because a subpoena is a court order. We tell the user, unless the order forbids it, so they can object or apply to have the subpoena set aside, and we raise the objection with the court ourselves, because notes usually describe other people, including children, who are not parties to the case. The court decides. The limits on publishing accounts of family law proceedings also apply to anything produced.

To be straight about the limits of that: a court can order production of anything within the scope of a valid order, and we will comply with an order that survives objection. We will not pretend otherwise. Note also that a user’s own notes can be sought from the user directly. Our position does not make them privileged.

Other people’s information

An archive contains material written by people who are not parties, and often about children. Where a request would sweep that in, we will say so and may ask the court to narrow it.

Anything we do not have

We do not hold the contents of text messages from numbers a user has not added as a contact: those are never filtered, stored or archived. We cannot produce what was never kept.

We tell the user, unless we are not allowed to

Our default is to tell the affected user promptly that their records have been requested, what has been asked for, and by when, so that they can get their own advice and object if they wish.

We will not tell them where the law or the order forbids it, where we have been told in writing that notice would prejudice an investigation, or where we have a reasonable basis to believe telling them would put someone at risk. We record the decision either way.

Checking that an export is genuine

Every message we store is fingerprinted, and each fingerprint is locked to the one before it. If a message is changed, removed or moved, the fingerprints stop matching.

Every export saves a second, smaller file holding that list of fingerprints, signed by us. Upload it at fencechat.com/verify.html and the page answers in one line: genuine and complete, or not. The check runs in your own browser. Nothing is sent to us, and it does not depend on FenceChat still being around.

If the other side has produced a FenceChat export, that is how you check it.

One limit to be clear about: messages are fingerprinted when they are sealed into the archive, usually within about five minutes of arriving and always before an export is made. So the check shows nothing has changed since sealing, not since the exact moment a message arrived.

We can also give a certified copy of an account holder’s records with a certificate signed by the director as custodian of the records, naming the account, the dates covered and how many records there are. If the record is contested, the director can give the same statement as a sworn affidavit. The account holder, or their lawyer with their written authority, can ask at legal@fencechat.com. The fee is set out below.

Costs

All amounts are in Australian dollars and include GST. We provide records electronically only. We do not post or courier paper copies.

• A user’s own records: free. Account holders can export their Archive from their Dashboard at any time, on a plan that includes export, and anyone can ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about them at no charge (see our Privacy Policy). A lawyer acting for the account holder should ask their client first, because it costs nothing and is faster than a subpoena.
• Certified copy with a custodian’s certificate: $110, one flat fee for any period. If a court needs a sworn affidavit by the director instead of the certificate, it is $85 extra.
• Subpoenas and notices to produce where FenceChat is not a party: $120 to process, $165 an hour after the first hour for searching and preparing records, and any external legal costs at cost. We send a written estimate before we start, and we never delay complying with a valid order because a fee has not been paid. Where costs are not agreed, the court decides.
• Police and other government agencies: no charge. For unusually large or complex requests we may ask to recover our actual cost only, as the Telecommunications Act allows.

We waive the fees for certified copies and affidavits where the account holder is experiencing family violence, holds a concession card, has legal aid, or has been referred by a family violence service, and in police-initiated protection order matters. We can reduce or waive any fee for hardship. Just ask.

Preserving records

When we receive a request we place a hold on the account straight away, before we decide whether the request is valid. While a hold is in place, nothing can delete those records: not our scheduled deletion, and not the user closing their account. If you need records preserved while you prepare an application, write to us and say so.

Yearly report

Each July, starting in 2027, we will publish how many requests we received in the previous year, by type, and how we dealt with them. The numbers are grouped in ranges and never identify anyone. Where the law does not allow us to report a kind of request, we leave it out.