Fence laws in Mobile, Alabama
What the Mobile municipal code says about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line. Where Mobile sets no rule of its own, the Alabama rule is shown in its place and marked as such.
Fence laws in Mobile, Alabama, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- Mobile says a yard has to be unoccupied and unobstructed from three feet above ground upward, then prints a table of everything allowed there anyway, with a column for which yards, a column for how far it may reach and a column for how far back it has to stay from the property line. The figure is 0 feet, for minimum setback from a property line listed for a fence.
- How tall
- Mobile writes its front yard limit around what a fence does rather than what it is, and the answer turns on the yard, whether the fence blocks sight, and what the lot behind faces. The figure is 3 feet, for sight-obstructing fence in a required front yard.
- Permits
- The development standards do not set up a general fence permit, and the only application the fence section names is for the dangerous material case, and the answer turns on what the fence is made of and where the site is.
- Pool barriers
- Mobile sets no statewide pool barrier rule. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Spite fences
- Mobile has no spite fence statute. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Measured from what
- Mobile never says what a fence height is measured from. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Corner lots
- On a corner building site in any district that requires a front yard, nothing may stand in the sight triangle that creates a material impediment to visibility between three and eight feet above the street grade at the intersection. The figure is 8 feet, for top of the band kept clear above the street grade at the intersection.
- Retaining walls
- Mobile leaves retaining walls to the Alabama Residential Building Code adopted by the Home Builders Licensure Board, which is a published edition of the International Residential Code. It reaches one and two family homes only.
- Materials
- Mobile does not name a permitted material and does not ban a dangerous one outright either, and the answer turns on the district and whether the Director approves it. The figure is 6 feet, for privacy fence around outside storage in a business or CW district.
- Livestock
- Alabama says what a fence has to be to count as a lawful fence. The figure is 5 feet, for height of a lawful fence.
Who owns the fence between two properties in Mobile?
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Mobile answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Mobile says a yard has to be unoccupied and unobstructed from three feet above ground upward, then prints a table of everything allowed there anyway, with a column for which yards, a column for how far it may reach and a column for how far back it has to stay from the property line. A deck gets five feet into the rear or side yard. A covered deck gets thirty inches. A projecting bay window gets five feet and has to meet the building code separation. The fence row is one of the loosest in the table: fences, walls, poles, posts and other customary yard accessories, ornaments and furniture are permitted in any yard, with no restriction on the encroachment and a blank in the setback column. So a fence may sit on the boundary in Mobile, and the only limits on it are the height rules and the sight triangle.
Fences, walls, poles, posts and other customary yard accessories, ornaments and furniture
0 ftminimum setback from a property line listed for a fence
Also on fences on the property line in Mobile
- set in state lawBoth neighbors share the cost of a fence on the line in Alabama. Section 35-7-3 says a fence between improved land is built and repaired at the joint cost of the occupants, and it calls that kind of fence a partition fence. A person who later ties into a neighbor's fence and uses it as a line fence owes a share of what it cost, based on the shape the fence was in when it was joined. Ala. Code 35-7-3Alabama · Statute
- set in state lawAn owner who will not pay a share can be sued for it after ten days notice. Section 35-7-7 sets out that step: notice goes to the joint owner asking for help to build, repair or keep up the shared fence, and after ten days the owner who refuses can be taken to any court that hears such a case. The court or the jury decides whether the work was needed and what it was worth. The section also stops one owner from spending carelessly on the fence and billing the others. Ala. Code 35-7-7Alabama · Statute
How tall can a fence be in Mobile?
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Mobile answers this, but the answer changes depending on the yard, whether the fence blocks sight, and what the lot behind faces.
Mobile writes its front yard limit around what a fence does rather than what it is. No fence or wall that obstructs sight may be erected or altered in a required front yard above three feet, so the three foot cap lands on a solid board fence and leaves an open picket, a split rail or a wrought iron fence alone. Beyond the required front yard the ceiling is eight feet for anything, unless the site is in a historic district, where the Design Review Guidelines take over instead. A corner site gets a third rule aimed at the neighbor behind it: where the site to the rear faces the intersecting or side street, a sight-obstructing fence in the required side yard is held to three feet as well, so the back neighbor keeps a view out to the street that the corner lot would otherwise wall off.
No Fence or wall that obstructs sight shall be erected or altered in any required Front Yard to exceed a height of three (3) feet.
The answer turns on the yard, whether the fence blocks sight, and what the lot behind faces.
- a solid fence in the front yard
- Three feet. 3 ft
- an open fence in the front yard
- The three foot rule does not reach it.
- past the required front yard
- Eight feet. 8 ft
- a corner site with a rear neighbor facing the side street
- Three feet in the required side yard.
Also on fence height in Mobile
- no rule, documents checkedAlabama sets no limit on how tall a fence at a house can be. City and county zoning sets it. The one height in state fence law is in Section 3-4-1, which says a lawful fence has to be at least five feet high, and that number is a floor for holding livestock rather than a cap on a yard fence. Ala. Code 3-4-1Alabama · Statute
Do I need a permit for a fence in Mobile?
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Mobile answers this, but the answer changes depending on what the fence is made of and where the site is.
The development standards do not set up a general fence permit, and the only application the fence section names is for the dangerous material case. A fence of barbed wire, electrified wire or other dangerous material takes the Director’s approval, and only in the eight districts where such a fence may be permitted at all. Elsewhere the application will not be approved, and the remaining route is a variance from the Board of Zoning Adjustment. Two other approvals touch a fence without being about fences. A site in one of Mobile’s historic districts follows the Design Review Guidelines rather than the eight foot ceiling, which puts the decision with the historic review body. And a utility placed in a yard may not create a line of sight hazard as determined by the City of Mobile Traffic Engineer, which is the same visibility question decided by a third officer.
Applications for Fences composed of electrified fences, barbed wire or other dangerous materials, will not be approved in any other district, unless a Variance is approved by the Board of Zoning Adjustment.
The answer turns on what the fence is made of and where the site is.
- an ordinary fence
- No permit named in this article.
- a barbed or electric fence
- The Director decides.
- a refusal
- A variance from the Board of Zoning Adjustment.
- a historic district
- The Design Review Guidelines govern.
Also on permits in Mobile
- set in state lawAlabama does not write its own house building code. Section 34-14A-82 says the Alabama Residential Building Code is built from a published edition of the International Residential Code and the International Energy Conservation Code, and the Home Builders Licensure Board is what adopts it. The rule that lets a fence skip a permit is inside that adopted code. Alabama does not post that code text, so the wording is not quoted here. Ala. Code 34-14A-82(b)Alabama · Statute
Pool fence requirements in Mobile
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Mobile law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
Alabama names no pool fence height in a law or in a statewide health rule. The Department of Public Health runs pool permits and inspections through county health departments rather than through one statewide chapter. The height that does apply comes from the Alabama Residential Building Code, which the state builds out of the International Residential Code. The International Code Council sells that text and Alabama does not post it, so no number is quoted here.
This one is Alabama law, not Mobile law. All Alabama findings
Documents read before writing that:
- Ala. Code 34-14A-82Alabama Legislature
- ADPH public swimming pool programAlabama Department of Public Health
Spite fence laws in Mobile
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Mobile law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
Alabama has no spite fence law. Nothing in the Code of Alabama limits a fence put up to annoy a neighbor, and no height turns a fence into one. Title 35, Chapter 7 covers only who pays for a fence on the line, and Title 3, Chapter 4 covers fences for livestock. That leaves a general nuisance lawsuit or a city ordinance.
This one is Alabama law, not Mobile law. All Alabama findings
Documents read before writing that:
- Ala. Code 35-7-1Alabama Legislature
- Ala. Code 3-4-1Alabama Legislature
How fence height is measured in Mobile
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Mobile law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
Alabama never says what a fence height is measured from. Section 3-4-1 requires a fence to be at least five feet high and stops there. The five feet could start at bare dirt, at a graded yard, or at the low side of a slope, and the law does not pick one. The city zoning article does not fill the gap. Sections 11-52-70 and 11-52-71 let a city say what kind of structures may go up in each district, and neither one uses the word height. So the town writes both the number and the surface it starts from.
This one is Alabama law, not Mobile law. All Alabama findings
Documents read before writing that:
- Ala. Code 3-4-1Alabama Legislature
- Ala. Code 11-52-70Alabama Legislature
Also on how height is measured in Mobile
- no rule, documents checkedMobile is careful about where a yard starts and quiet about where a fence starts. A yard has to be unoccupied and unobstructed from three feet above the general ground level of the building site upward, which fixes the datum for the obstruction rule at the lot rather than the street. The corner rule switches to the street grade at the intersection, so the road governs there. Neither sentence is about fence height, and the fence subsection that sets three feet and eight feet never says what either is read from. That leaves the usual gaps open. A berm is not addressed. A fence on a retaining wall is not addressed, even though the table lists retaining walls as their own encroachment with no restriction in any yard. A fence stepping down a slope is not addressed. The only fence measurement given without a datum is the one that matters most. Section 64-3-5.B.1Mobile · Zoning code
Fence rules for corner lots in Mobile
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Mobile answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
On a corner building site in any district that requires a front yard, nothing may stand in the sight triangle that creates a material impediment to visibility between three and eight feet above the street grade at the intersection. The list of what is caught runs past the usual fence and hedge to include a dumpster, which is a Mobile specific addition and a sensible one on a commercial corner. Two things are worth noting about the shape. The triangle is drawn by the intersecting street lines and a straight line joining them at points equidistant from the corner, passing through the point where the front and side yard lines meet, so the depth of the triangle grows with the required yards rather than being a fixed twenty five feet. And the test is a material impediment to visibility rather than any object at all, which leaves a post or a pole alone while catching a wall.
no Fence, wall, Hedge, Structure, Dumpster or planting creating a material impediment to visibility between the heights of three (3) feet and eight (8) feet above the Street grade at the intersection
8 fttop of the band kept clear above the street grade at the intersection
Also on corner visibility in Mobile
- left to the townAlabama draws no clear view triangle at a corner. The city does that. Section 11-52-70 gives each city the power to say what kind of structures may go up in each district, and a corner clearance rule belongs there. Section 11-52-72 lists what a zoning ordinance is for, including easing traffic in the streets, and it names no corner and no triangle. The highways title has one rule about blocking a driver, section 23-1-274, and it covers outdoor advertising signs in business areas, not a fence on a house lot. Ala. Code 11-52-70Alabama · Zoning code
Retaining wall rules in Mobile
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Mobile does not set this. It leaves it to the Alabama Residential Building Code adopted by the Home Builders Licensure Board, which is a published edition of the International Residential Code.
Alabama writes no rule of its own for a wall that holds back earth. Section 34-14A-82 says the Alabama Residential Building Code is built from a published edition of the International Residential Code, and the Home Builders Licensure Board adopts it. The height at which a wall of that kind needs a permit, and how one has to be built, are inside that adopted code. Alabama does not post the code text, so the number is not quoted here.
This one is Alabama law, not Mobile law. All Alabama findings
The proposed Alabama Residential Building Code, and any subsequent amendment to the code, shall be based upon a published edition of the Alabama Energy and Residential Code as adopted and amended from the International Residential Code (IRC) and the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC).
The code hands this to the Alabama Residential Building Code adopted by the Home Builders Licensure Board, which is a published edition of the International Residential Code, which is not published in the code itself.
Fence materials allowed in Mobile
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Mobile answers this, but the answer changes depending on the district and whether the Director approves it.
Mobile does not name a permitted material and does not ban a dangerous one outright either. Electrified fences and fences of barbed wire or other dangerous material may be permitted in R-A, CW, B-3, B-5, I-1, I-2, ML and MH, and only when the Director approves them. An application anywhere else will not be approved unless the Board of Zoning Adjustment grants a variance, so the route exists and it runs through a hearing. Everything else about material is written for screening rather than for a house fence. Outside storage in a business or CW district takes a six foot privacy fence of wood, brick, masonry or whatever else the Director will accept, and where that area is already screened from the street and from any residential boundary the fence may be metal including wire or chain link, plastic, concrete, PVC panels and posts, or recycled or composite material.
Electrified Fences or Fences composed of barbed wire or other dangerous materials may be permitted only in R-A, CW, B-3, B-5, I-1, I-2, ML and MH districts upon approval of the Director.
The answer turns on the district and whether the Director approves it.
- barbed or electric in one of the eight districts
- Allowed if the Director approves.
- barbed or electric anywhere else
- Refused, short of a variance.
- an ordinary house fence
- No material named or banned.
- outside storage screening
- Six feet, and the material depends on the view. 6 ft
Also on materials in Mobile
- set in state lawA battery charged fence in Alabama stands at least ten feet tall. State law defines that kind of fence as part of an alarm system and then gives a list of things it has to meet, and the ten feet is one of them. Ala. Code 11-80-17Alabama · Statute
Livestock and boundary fence law in Mobile
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Alabama answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Alabama says what a fence has to be to count as a lawful fence. Five feet high is the base rule. A rail fence needs rails no more than four inches apart from the ground up through every two feet. A paling fence needs palings no more than three inches apart. A fence built with a ditch needs the ditch four feet wide at the top, the fence five feet high measured from the bottom of the ditch, and three feet high from the top of the bank.
This one is Alabama law, not Mobile law. All Alabama findings
All inclosures and fences must be made at least five feet high, unless otherwise provided in this chapter. If the fence is made of rails, the rails must be not more than four inches apart from the ground to the height of every two feet. If the fence is made of palings, the palings must be not more than three inches apart.
5 ftheight of a lawful fence
Also on agricultural fencing in Mobile
- set in state lawThe animal owner keeps the animals in, not the neighbor. Alabama's stock law makes it an offense to let livestock run loose on another person's land or on public land, roads and streets, and it says no county in the state is open range. Section 3-5-3 then makes that owner pay for damage the animals do to crops, shade or fruit trees, shrubs and flowers. Ala. Code 3-5-2Alabama · Statute
Documents behind this page
10 documents, of which 1 was published by Mobile itself. Each was read on the date shown.
- Alabama LegislatureCode of Alabama 1975, Section 35-7-3, Expenses to Be Borne Proportionately by Adjoining Owners
- Alabama LegislatureCode of Alabama 1975, Section 35-7-7, Action to Recover Costs and Expenses
- City of MobileMobile Unified Development Code, Chapter 64, Article 3, Development Standards, as amended 28 September 2021
- Alabama LegislatureCode of Alabama 1975, Section 3-4-1, Requirements as to Construction of Lawful Fences - Generally
- Alabama LegislatureCode of Alabama 1975, Section 34-14A-82, Proposal, Adoption, and Implementation of Alabama Residential Building Code
- Alabama Department of Public HealthPublic Swimming Pools, Spas, and Interactive Water Features program page
- Alabama LegislatureCode of Alabama 1975, Section 35-7-1, Partition Fences Defined
- Alabama LegislatureCode of Alabama 1975, Section 11-52-70, Establishment, Etc., of Business, Industrial and Residential Districts
- Alabama LegislatureSenate Bill 13, 2021 Regular Session, Enrolled (Act 2021-380)
- Alabama LegislatureCode of Alabama, Title 3, Chapter 5, Stock Law
What this page does not cover
A city ordinance is not the only rule that reaches a fence. The zoning district a parcel sits in can change the height allowed on it, and so can an overlay district, a recorded easement, a fire hazard severity zone or a coastal zone. A homeowner association can be stricter than the city and nothing in the municipal code will say so. None of those appear here.
The rules above are the ones Mobile publishes, plus the Alabama rules that apply where the city sets none. Fence laws in Alabama has the state layer in full.
This is general information drawn from published government documents. It is not legal advice, ordinances are amended, and the date beside each finding is the date the document was read. How findings are made · What the terms mean