Fence laws in Kissimmee, Florida
What the Kissimmee municipal code says about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line. Where Kissimmee sets no rule of its own, the Florida rule is shown in its place and marked as such.
Fence laws in Kissimmee, Florida, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- A Kissimmee side or rear yard fence may stand in the required yard, and the condition attached to that is orientation: the finished side faces away from the property the fence belongs to.
- How tall
- Six feet in a Kissimmee side or rear yard and three feet in a front yard, with two ways past the front figure, and the answer turns on the yard, how open the fence is, and whether the director has approved more. The figure is 3 feet, for solid fence or wall in a front yard.
- Permits
- Kissimmee opens its fence section with a single sentence and no exemptions attached to it: a building permit is required to erect any fence or wall inside the city limits.
- Pool barriers
- Florida requires a pool barrier at least four feet high, measured on the outside. The figure is 4 feet, for residential swimming pool barrier, measured on the outside.
- Spite fences
- Kissimmee has no spite fence statute. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Measured from what
- Florida answers the measuring question outright in its oldest fence section. The figure is 5 feet, for a general fence built with a ditch, measured from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the fence. It reaches a general fence built with a trench or ditch only.
- Corner lots
- Kissimmee does not lower a fence inside the sight visibility triangle, it excludes it.
- Retaining walls
- Florida statute names a wall that holds back earth in one place, and it is about how many permits a town can charge for. It reaches a house, a duplex or a townhouse only.
- Materials
- Kissimmee allows aluminum, treated wood, vinyl, ornamental iron, chain link, concrete, brick and stone, and the answer turns on the material, the yard, and whether the use is agricultural in the AC district.
- Livestock
- The only place barbed wire or an electric fence is lawful in Kissimmee is an agricultural use in the AC district, and the allowance is narrowed twice over: it does not reach a front yard or a street side yard, and it does not reach a non-agricultural use on AC land.
Who owns the fence between two properties in Kissimmee?
Compare fences on the property line across all 50 states
Kissimmee answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
A Kissimmee side or rear yard fence may stand in the required yard, and the condition attached to that is orientation: the finished side faces away from the property the fence belongs to. The code writes the rule from the builder’s point of view rather than the viewer’s, so what the neighbor sees is the finished face wherever the fence sits.
Such fences may be located in the required yard but the finished side of the fence shall face away from the property on which it is located.
Also on fences on the property line in Kissimmee
- no rule, documents checkedFlorida has no law about splitting the cost of a fence on a boundary. Chapter 588 is about legal fences and livestock, and every section in it deals with fence strength, posted land and impounding animals. Chapter 704, which covers easements and rights of entry, says nothing about a boundary fence either. In Florida the split is whatever the two neighbors agree to. Fla. Stat. ch. 588Florida · Statute
How tall can a fence be in Kissimmee?
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Kissimmee answers this, but the answer changes depending on the yard, how open the fence is, and whether the director has approved more.
Six feet in a Kissimmee side or rear yard and three feet in a front yard, with two ways past the front figure. A retaining wall or a decorative open fence that is no more than fifteen percent opaque may reach six feet as of right, and the director may approve a solid fence or wall to six feet where unique topography dictates it, where an unusual outdoor storage area has to be screened, or where buffering is a condition of a development permit. In a side or rear yard the same director may go to ten feet on the first two of those grounds. Inside the form-based code area the chapter 14-5 rules take over instead.
Maximum height of three feet unless it is a retaining wall or a decorative open fence (no more than 15 percent opaque) up to six feet in height;
The answer turns on the yard, how open the fence is, and whether the director has approved more.
- a front yard
- Three feet. 3 ft
- a front yard fence no more than fifteen percent opaque
- Six feet. 15%
- a side or rear yard
- Six feet. 6 ft
- a side or rear yard approved by the director for topography or screening
- Up to ten feet. 10 ft
Also on fence height in Kissimmee
- no rule, documents checkedFlorida sets no statewide limit on how tall a fence at a house can be. The only height in the fence chapter is the five foot floor that makes a fence a legal fence for holding livestock, which is a minimum for farm land and not a cap for a yard. The permit statute names no height either. Height comes from city and county ordinance. Fla. Stat. ch. 588Florida · Statute
Do I need a permit for a fence in Kissimmee?
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Kissimmee answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Kissimmee opens its fence section with a single sentence and no exemptions attached to it: a building permit is required to erect any fence or wall inside the city limits. There is no height below which the requirement falls away and no separate treatment for a replacement, which is unusual among Florida cities that commonly exempt short residential fencing or like for like repair.
A building permit is required to erect any fence or wall within the city limits.
Also on permits in Kissimmee
- set in state lawFlorida runs one building code for the whole state and makes a permit the default for building work. The statute itself says nothing about fences. It does force a local government to skip the permit for work on a single family home worth under $7,500. The fence exemption by height is in the Florida Building Code, not in the statute. Fla. Stat. 553.79(1)(a)Florida · Statute
Pool fence requirements in Kissimmee
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Florida answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Florida requires a pool barrier at least four feet high, measured on the outside. The same section bars gaps or footholds that let a small child get under, through or over it. The barrier has to ring the pool itself and has to be separate from a yard fence, unless that yard fence runs along the pool and meets the same rules. Gates swing away from the pool and latch on their own.
This one is Florida law, not Kissimmee law. All Florida findings
The barrier must be at least 4 feet high on the outside.
4 ftresidential swimming pool barrier, measured on the outside
Spite fence laws in Kissimmee
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Kissimmee law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
Florida has no spite fence law. The fence chapter sets no height that sets anything off and no rule about why a fence went up. Chapter 823, the public nuisance chapter, runs from bonfires to abandoned boats and never reaches a fence built to annoy a neighbor. A claim in Florida rests on common law nuisance instead, which is judge made rather than written by the legislature.
This one is Florida law, not Kissimmee law. All Florida findings
Documents read before writing that:
- Fla. Stat. ch. 588The Florida Senate
- Fla. Stat. ch. 823The Florida Senate
How fence height is measured in Kissimmee
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Florida answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Florida answers the measuring question outright in its oldest fence section. A general fence stands at least five feet and keeps its gaps under four inches for the first two feet up from the ground. Where the fence is built with a trench beside it, those five feet run from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the fence. A bottom point and a top point, both named, which is the part most state fence rules leave out. The rule is about holding livestock. A yard fence in a Florida city is sized by local land development rules adopted under section 163.3202, and those rules carry their own way of measuring.
This one is Florida law, not Kissimmee law. All Florida findings
provided, that when any fence or enclosure shall be made with a trench or a ditch, the same shall be 4 feet wide; and in that case the fence shall be 5 feet high from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the fence.
5 fta general fence built with a ditch, measured from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the fence
Fence rules for corner lots in Kissimmee
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Kissimmee answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Kissimmee does not lower a fence inside the sight visibility triangle, it excludes it. The fence section states that no fence is allowed within the triangle and sends the reader to section 14-7-2 for how the triangle is drawn, so the geometry lives in the traffic standards rather than in the fence rules.
Fences shall not be allowed within the sight visibility triangle (see section 14-7-2).
Also on corner visibility in Kissimmee
- set in state lawFlorida has a state rule about blocking a driver from seeing what is coming, and it is written about signs. Chapter 479 bans a sign on the inside of a curve, or placed any way that could keep road users from seeing approaching vehicles, next to a state highway or a federal aid primary road. Section 337.406 adds that using a state road right of way in a way that gets in the way of traffic is unlawful. Neither one draws a triangle on a corner lot. That is left to local land development rules. Fla. Stat. 479.11Florida · Traffic code
Retaining wall rules in Kissimmee
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Florida answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Florida statute names a wall that holds back earth in one place, and it is about how many permits a town can charge for. When one wall runs across more than one lot, the local government has to issue a single permit for the whole job and cannot demand one for each lot the wall crosses. The rule is written for houses, duplexes and townhouses. It sets no height and it does not say how the wall has to be built.
This one is Florida law, not Kissimmee law. All Florida findings
If a retaining wall spans more than one lot or parcel, a local government that issues building permits must issue a permit for a retaining wall for the project as a whole and may not require a building permit for each lot or parcel upon which a retaining wall is installed on the property of a single-family or two-family residential dwelling or a townhouse.
Also on retaining walls in Kissimmee
- left to the townThe height at which a wall that holds back earth needs a permit is not in Florida statute. It is in the Florida Building Code, which the Florida Building Commission rewrites every three years from the newest International Building Code and International Residential Code. Once the commission adopts it, that code applies across the state with no vote by any city or county, and a local government may only make it stricter. Fla. Stat. 553.73(7)(a)Florida · Statute
Fence materials allowed in Kissimmee
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Kissimmee answers this, but the answer changes depending on the material, the yard, and whether the use is agricultural in the AC district.
Kissimmee allows aluminum, treated wood, vinyl, ornamental iron, chain link, concrete, brick and stone. Chain link is then pushed out of the front yard entirely, with a public school the only exception, and wherever it is allowed it has to be coated in green or black vinyl. Slats woven into chain link or similar fencing for screening are not allowed at all. Barbed wire and electric fencing are prohibited in every district apart from agricultural uses in the AC district, and even there not in a front or street side yard.
Chain link fences in the front yard are prohibited, unless provided in conjunction with a public school. Where permitted, chain link fences shall be coated in green or black vinyl.
The answer turns on the material, the yard, and whether the use is agricultural in the AC district.
- a front yard
- No chain link, unless it serves a public school.
- chain link anywhere it is allowed
- Green or black vinyl coated, and no slats.
- an agricultural use in the AC district
- Barbed wire and electric fencing, but not in a front or street side yard.
Also on materials in Kissimmee
- set in state lawFlorida describes its legal fence by the wire it uses. The fence stands at least three feet tall with three or more strands of barbed or other soft wire on supports no more than twenty feet apart. Battens let the supports stand farther apart, and an electric fence built with high tensile wire gets the widest spacing of all. Fla. Stat. 588.011Florida · Statute
Livestock and boundary fence law in Kissimmee
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Kissimmee answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
The only place barbed wire or an electric fence is lawful in Kissimmee is an agricultural use in the AC district, and the allowance is narrowed twice over: it does not reach a front yard or a street side yard, and it does not reach a non-agricultural use on AC land. Everywhere else in the city both are prohibited outright.
Barbed wire and electric fences are allowed for agricultural uses in the AC district, but not in the front or street side yards. They are prohibited in all other zoning districts
Also on agricultural fencing in Kissimmee
- set in state lawFlorida sets a legal fence at three feet high, made of barbed or other soft wire, with at least three strands pulled tight on posts, trees or other supports no more than twenty feet apart. With battens the supports may stand up to sixty feet apart for a plain fence and one hundred fifty feet for an electric one built with high tensile wire. Any other material that meets about the same specs counts, and gates are built to the same standard. Fla. Stat. 588.011Florida · Statute
- set in state lawFlorida runs one livestock law over the whole state, and holding the animals in is the owner's job. An owner who lets livestock run loose or stray onto a public road pays for all the injury and property damage that follows. Section 588.25 leaves county laws in place where they already require livestock to be penned, and fills the gap where they do not. Fla. Stat. 588.15Florida · Statute
Documents behind this page
10 documents, of which 1 was published by Kissimmee itself. Each was read on the date shown.
- The Florida Senate2026 Florida Statutes, Chapter 588, Legal Fences and Livestock at Large
- The Florida Senate2026 Florida Statutes, Chapter 704, Easements
- City of KissimmeeLand Development Code, Chapter 14-6, Section 14-6-5, Fences and walls
- The Florida LegislatureThe 2026 Florida Statutes, Chapter 553, Part IV, Florida Building Code
- The Florida LegislatureThe 2026 Florida Statutes, Chapter 515, Residential Swimming Pool Safety Act
- The Florida Senate2026 Florida Statutes, Chapter 823, Public Nuisances
- The Florida Senate2026 Florida Statutes, Chapter 479, Outdoor Advertising, Section 479.11, Specified signs prohibited
- The Florida LegislatureThe 2026 Florida Statutes, Chapter 553, Part IV, Florida Building Code
- The Florida LegislatureThe 2026 Florida Statutes, Chapter 553, Part IV, Florida Building Code
- Florida LegislatureThe 2025 Florida Statutes, Title XLV, Chapter 588, Legal Fences and Livestock at Large
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 Kissimmee publishes, plus the Florida rules that apply where the city sets none. Fence laws in Florida 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