Understanding the atomic and electronic structures of materials is crucial for enhancing the properties that will underpin the next generation of devices. Many materials exhibit anomalous properties that cannot be easily explained. This is particularly true for monoclinic-fergusonite bismuth vanadate (mf-BiVO4), a material of significant interest in contemporary materials science. mf-BiVO4 is an effective photocatalytic water splitter due to its favourable band gap, affordability, abundance, low toxicity, and high stability. Although mf-BiVO4 has been extensively studied for its photocatalytic properties, recent studies on a bulk ceramic sample revealed polar domains, which is unexpected given its crystal structure is described in the centrosymmetric and nonpolar space group I2/b. Other studies of mf-BiVO4 have reported an anomalous photovoltaic (APV) effect and flexoelectricity in mf-BiVO4, both of which are unusual for centrosymmetric crystals. This has prompted us to undertake a comprehensive investigation of the structure of mf-BiVO4. This paper describes the temperature dependence of both the short-range local and long-range average structures studied using synchrotron X-ray and neutron scattering techniques. Using a combination of NPDF and variable temperature measurements, we have demonstrated that at room temperature, mf-BiVO4 displays local-scale dipoles, and that the formation of these dipoles is critically dependent on the lattice volume and strain. At room temperature, the unit cell volume is sufficiently large that the Bi3+ is locally displaced for polar properties to be observed. Upon cooling, the unit cell volume shrinks, and the Bi3+ displacements become static, dissipating the local dipoles. This behaviour in BiVO4 is akin to the emphanisis reported in PbTe, whereby lattice expansion influences the localised noncentrosymmetric displacements of the lone pair bearing cation. Heating mf-BiVO4 above the phase transition to the tetragonal scheelite phase completely disorders the structure and the dipoles.