Fence laws in Tallahassee, Florida
What the Tallahassee municipal code says about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line. Where Tallahassee sets no rule of its own, the Florida rule is shown in its place and marked as such.
Fence laws in Tallahassee, Florida, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- A Tallahassee buffer fence turns its finished side toward the less intensive use rather than toward the street or toward whoever built it, so the quieter neighbor gets the good face.
- How tall
- Tallahassee names no maximum height for an ordinary fence, and the answer turns on whether the fence is an ordinary one, a required buffer fence, or a buffer alternative. The figure is 4 feet, for height below which a fence is listed as a violation.
- Permits
- A request to depart from the Tallahassee fence rules goes to the city-county board of adjustment and appeals rather than to a city officer, so the body that hears it is shared with Leon County.
- 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
- Tallahassee 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
- Florida has a state rule about blocking a driver from seeing what is coming, and it is written about signs. It reaches signs next to a state highway, an interstate or a federal aid primary road only.
- 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
- Tallahassee reaches two materials most codes leave alone.
- Livestock
- Florida 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. The figure is 3 feet, for height of a legal fence.
Who owns the fence between two properties in Tallahassee?
Compare fences on the property line across all 50 states
Tallahassee answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
A Tallahassee buffer fence turns its finished side toward the less intensive use rather than toward the street or toward whoever built it, so the quieter neighbor gets the good face. The planting goes with it: where a residential use is buffering against something else the plants sit outside the fence, and where a non-residential use is buffering against housing they sit inside. The fence has to be solid and opaque, built of durable material consistent with the surrounding neighborhood, and it has to leave a way in to maintain the landscaping.
The side of a fence facing the less intensive use shall have a finished appearance.
Also on fences on the property line in Tallahassee
- 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 Tallahassee?
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Tallahassee answers this, but the answer changes depending on whether the fence is an ordinary one, a required buffer fence, or a buffer alternative.
Tallahassee names no maximum height for an ordinary fence. What section 3-401 does list, among the things that may be a violation, is a fence of less than four feet. Where the zoning code requires a buffer fence the figure runs the other way again and is a floor: at least eight feet, unless the applicant can show the intent of the chapter is met by something lower in the particular circumstances. A property owner using the fence alternative to a landscape buffer installs an opaque fence of at least six feet along the whole shared line.
Fences less than four feet in height.
The answer turns on whether the fence is an ordinary one, a required buffer fence, or a buffer alternative.
- an ordinary fence
- No maximum is stated, and under four feet is listed as a possible violation. 4 ft
- a required buffer fence
- At least eight feet, unless a lower one meets the intent. 8 ft
- an opaque fence used in place of a landscape buffer
- At least six feet along the whole shared property line. 6 ft
Also on fence height in Tallahassee
- 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 Tallahassee?
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Tallahassee answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
A request to depart from the Tallahassee fence rules goes to the city-county board of adjustment and appeals rather than to a city officer, so the body that hears it is shared with Leon County. The fence article states no permit requirement of its own and no threshold; what it provides is the route for a variance when the rules bite.
Requests for variances from the provisions of section 3-401 shall be heard by the city-county board of adjustment and appeals.
Also on permits in Tallahassee
- 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 Tallahassee
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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 Tallahassee 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 Tallahassee
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Tallahassee 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 Tallahassee 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 Tallahassee
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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 Tallahassee 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 Tallahassee
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Florida answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Florida 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.
This one is Florida law, not Tallahassee law. All Florida findings
Which is placed on the inside of a curve or in any manner that may prevent persons using the highway from obtaining an unobstructed view of approaching vehicles and which is adjacent to the right-of-way of any highway on the State Highway System, interstate highway system, or federal-aid primary highway system.
Retaining wall rules in Tallahassee
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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 Tallahassee 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 Tallahassee
- 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 Tallahassee
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Tallahassee answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Tallahassee reaches two materials most codes leave alone. Wood, metal and petroleum-based sheeting may not be used unless the product was specifically designed for building fences, which rules out corrugated panels and plastic sheet. And masonry products such as concrete blocks or bricks may not be stacked into a fence or wall without mortar or another approved adhesive bonding them together. Barbed wire or similar wire capable of puncturing or cutting a person is a violation except on top of a chain link fence at a nonresidential use, or where the city manager deems it necessary to protect public health, safety and welfare.
Masonry products, such as concrete blocks, bricks, or other similar products not bonded together by mortar or other commonly approved adhesive between the components to create a fence or wall.
Also on materials in Tallahassee
- 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 Tallahassee
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Florida answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Florida 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.
This one is Florida law, not Tallahassee law. All Florida findings
Any fence or enclosure at least 3 feet in height made of barbed or other soft wire consisting of not less than three strands of wire stretched securely on posts, trees, or other supports, standing not more than 20 feet apart
3 ftheight of a legal fence
Also on agricultural fencing in Tallahassee
- 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
11 documents, of which 2 were published by Tallahassee 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 TallahasseeLand Development Code, Chapter 10 Zoning, Article IV, Division 1, buffer fence standards
- The Florida LegislatureThe 2026 Florida Statutes, Chapter 553, Part IV, Florida Building Code
- City of TallahasseeLand Development Code, Chapter 3, Article VII, Fences and Walls, Section 3-401
- 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 Tallahassee 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