Fence laws in Malden, Massachusetts
What the Malden municipal code says about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line. Where Malden sets no rule of its own, the Massachusetts rule is shown in its place and marked as such.
Fence laws in Malden, Massachusetts, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- Where surface parking sits next to a public sidewalk, Malden asks for a landscaped buffer wide enough to let trees, shrubs and perennials establish themselves healthily, and never less than six feet, and the answer turns on whether the ground steps between the parking and the sidewalk. The figure is 3 feet, for fence allowed inside a parking buffer.
- How tall
- Malden sets no maximum fence height. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Permits
- The one place Malden requires a permit for a fence is the floodplain overlay district, and the reason is what a fence does to moving water rather than what it looks like, and the answer turns on whether the fence stands in the floodplain overlay district.
- Pool barriers
- Massachusetts sets a pool fence height in law, but only for public and semipublic outdoor inground pools. The figure is 6 feet, for fence height around a public or semipublic outdoor inground swimming pool. It reaches public and semipublic outdoor inground pools, not a pool at a home only.
- Spite fences
- Massachusetts has a spite fence law, and it is the best known one in the country. The figure is 6 feet, for height above which a maliciously built fence may be treated as a private nuisance.
- Measured from what
- Malden 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
- The Malden obstructions rule protects a band between three and eight feet above the plane of the established street grades, inside the triangle formed by the intersecting street lines and a line joining points twenty five feet from the intersection, and the answer turns on the kind of intersection and whether the corner is squared or rounded. The figure is 8 feet, for ceiling of the protected band.
- Retaining walls
- Massachusetts needs no permit for a wall that holds back dirt when it is four feet tall or less, measured from the bottom of the footing to the top of the wall. The figure is 4 feet, for height at or below which a retaining wall needs no building permit. It reaches one and two family homes and townhouses up to three stories only.
- Materials
- Massachusetts bans barbed wire in one place by name. The figure is 6 feet, for height below which barbed wire may not be used along a sidewalk on a public way. It reaches fences along a sidewalk on a public road only.
- Livestock
- Massachusetts calls a fence legal and sufficient at four feet tall and in good repair. The figure is 4 feet, for height of a legal and sufficient fence.
Who owns the fence between two properties in Malden?
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Malden answers this, but the answer changes depending on whether the ground steps between the parking and the sidewalk.
Where surface parking sits next to a public sidewalk, Malden asks for a landscaped buffer wide enough to let trees, shrubs and perennials establish themselves healthily, and never less than six feet. A fence or wall may go inside that buffer, but only at three feet or less, so the planting is the screen and the fence is a boundary marker rather than a barrier. The exception is written into the same sentence and is about topography rather than design: the three foot limit does not apply where there is a significant grade change between the parking and the sidewalk, which is the case where a low fence would be doing fall protection rather than screening. The rest of the standards in that section govern what the planting may be, requiring native or adapted species and barring anything on the Massachusetts Prohibited Plant List.
The buffer may include a fence or wall of no more than three feet in height unless there is a significant grade change between the parking and the sidewalk.
12.20, Parking, Loading, and Screening Regulations
The answer turns on whether the ground steps between the parking and the sidewalk.
- a fence inside a parking buffer
- Three feet. 3 ft
- the width of that buffer
- Never less than six feet. 6 ft
- a significant grade change
- The three foot limit does not apply.
Also on fences on the property line in Malden
- set in state lawMassachusetts splits a fence on the line in equal shares between the two neighbors. That holds as long as both of them are working their land, and any deal the two make instead wins over it. Massachusetts also still appoints fence viewers in every town to settle arguments about those shares. M.G.L. c. 49, § 3Massachusetts · Statute
How tall can a fence be in Malden?
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Malden law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
Massachusetts sets no limit on how tall a fence at a house can be. The six foot figure in Chapter 49 is what turns a spite fence into a nuisance case, not a cap on height. Chapter 49 covers fence viewers, fences on the line and boundary fights, and nowhere limits an ordinary fence. Height comes from town zoning bylaws.
This one is Massachusetts law, not Malden law. All Massachusetts findings
Documents read before writing that:
- M.G.L. c. 49Massachusetts General Court
- M.G.L. c. 49, § 21Massachusetts General Court
Also on fence height in Malden
- no rule, documents checkedMalden sets no height for a fence anywhere in its code. Title 12, the zoning title, uses the word three times: once in the floodplain overlay, where a fence is listed among the development needing a permit; once in the parking screening standards, where a fence inside a landscaped buffer is held to three feet; and once in the obstructions section, which is the corner rule. Title 4, Building and Construction Standards, uses it twice, once about a driveway permit and once requiring a pool on a vacant or foreclosed property to be drained or covered and fenced with a securely locked gate. None of the five is a general figure. So a homeowner in Malden building a back yard fence away from a corner, away from a parking buffer and out of the floodplain has no city number to meet at all. the whole of Title 12, ZoningMalden · Zoning code
Do I need a permit for a fence in Malden?
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Malden answers this, but the answer changes depending on whether the fence stands in the floodplain overlay district.
The one place Malden requires a permit for a fence is the floodplain overlay district, and the reason is what a fence does to moving water rather than what it looks like. The city requires a permit for all proposed construction or other development there, and names fences in the list alongside new construction, changes to existing buildings, manufactured homes, agricultural facilities, sheds, storage facilities, drilling, mining and paving, catching anything that might increase flooding or adversely affect flood risk to other properties. The Building Inspector is the floodplain administrator, and the district boundaries come from the FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map and the Flood Insurance Study report dated 8 July 2025, both on file with the City Clerk, Planning Board, Building Inspector, Conservation Commission and Assessor.
The City of Malden requires a permit for all proposed construction or other development in the floodplain overlay district, including new construction or changes to existing building, placement of manufactured homes, placement of agricultural facilities, fences, sheds, storage facilities or drilling, mining, paving and any other development that might increase flooding or adversely impact flood risks to other properties.
12.04, the Floodplain District provisions
The answer turns on whether the fence stands in the floodplain overlay district.
- a fence in the floodplain overlay district
- A permit, from the Building Inspector as floodplain administrator.
- a fence anywhere else
- No city permit is named in either title.
Also on permits in Malden
- set in state lawMassachusetts runs one building code for the whole state, written by the Board of Building Regulations and Standards under this law. The board makes the rules on building work and on issuing permits. The tenth edition is built on the 2021 International Codes, and its chapter 51 adopts the 2021 International Residential Code with Massachusetts changes. The list of work that needs no permit sits in that code, not in the law itself. M.G.L. c. 143, § 94Massachusetts · Statute
Pool fence requirements in Malden
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Massachusetts answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Massachusetts sets a pool fence height in law, but only for public and semipublic outdoor inground pools. Those need a six foot fence held down at ground level. A board or stockade fence may be five feet, and anything over five feet has to be chain link. The section does not reach a pool behind a house, which falls under the state building code instead.
This one is Massachusetts law, not Malden law. All Massachusetts findings
Every public and semipublic outdoor inground swimming pool shall be enclosed by a fence six feet in height and firmly secured at ground level provided that any board or stockade fence or structure shall be at least five feet in height, but if over five feet in height, the fence shall be chain link.
6 ftfence height around a public or semipublic outdoor inground swimming pool
Spite fence laws in Malden
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Massachusetts answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Massachusetts has a spite fence law, and it is the best known one in the country. A fence, or anything built like one, that goes over six feet for no reason and was put up or kept up out of spite to annoy a neighbor counts as a private nuisance. The neighbor can sue for money over the harm to the comfort or use of their property. Both the height and the spite have to be there.
This one is Massachusetts law, not Malden law. All Massachusetts findings
A fence or other structure in the nature of a fence which unnecessarily exceeds six feet in height and is maliciously erected or maintained for the purpose of annoying the owners or occupants of adjoining property shall be deemed a private nuisance.
6 ftheight above which a maliciously built fence may be treated as a private nuisance
How fence height is measured in Malden
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Malden law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
Massachusetts puts a fence height in law and never says what it is measured from. Chapter 49 makes a fence over six feet a private nuisance when it is kept up to annoy a neighbor, and gives the six feet no starting point, which is what decides the answer on a slope or on top of a wall. The Zoning Act does not settle it either. Its section 3 is a list of things a local rule may not do, and it touches height only in passing, for child care buildings and for ham radio masts. Neither place gives a way to measure a fence.
This one is Massachusetts law, not Malden law. All Massachusetts findings
Documents read before writing that:
- M.G.L. c. 49, s. 21Massachusetts General Court
- M.G.L. c. 40A, s. 3Massachusetts General Court
Fence rules for corner lots in Malden
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Malden answers this, but the answer changes depending on the kind of intersection and whether the corner is squared or rounded.
The Malden obstructions rule protects a band between three and eight feet above the plane of the established street grades, inside the triangle formed by the intersecting street lines and a line joining points twenty five feet from the intersection. Three things make it broader than the usual version. It applies at the intersection of two or more streets or a bike path, so a shared use path is treated as a street. It reaches a parked vehicle as well as a fence, wall, sign, structure, tree, shrub or planting, so leaving a van on the corner breaks it. And it has its own sentence for rounded corners, saying the twenty five feet is measured from the point where the street lines would have met had they been projected past the rounding.
At the intersection of two (2) or more streets, or bike path, no fence, wall, sign or other structure shall be erected and no tree, shrub or other planting shall be planted or maintained, and no vehicle shall be parked which prevents an unobstructed view through the space between three (3) and eight (8) feet in height, above the plane of the established grades of the streets
The answer turns on the kind of intersection and whether the corner is squared or rounded.
- inside the triangle
- Clear between three and eight feet above the street grades. 8 ft
- the size of the triangle
- Twenty five feet along each street line. 25 ft
- a rounded corner
- Measured from where the street lines would have met.
Also on corner visibility in Malden
- left to the townMassachusetts leaves this to the town. The public ways chapter lets the town board or officer in charge of laying out roads give permits for signs, awnings and other things that stick out into or over a public road. The same section lets that board set the fees and write its own rules and fines for them. The chapter runs from direction signs to snow clearing to bicycles, and never measures a corner. Zoning covers the rest, so both routes end at the local bylaw and neither one prints a triangle. M.G.L. c. 85, s. 8Massachusetts · Traffic code
Retaining wall rules in Malden
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Massachusetts answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Massachusetts needs no permit for a wall that holds back dirt when it is four feet tall or less, measured from the bottom of the footing to the top of the wall. A wall holding up extra weight on the soil behind it, such as a driveway or a building, needs a permit at any height. Massachusetts dropped the first chapter of the model residential code and wrote its own, so this permit list is state text rather than a pointer to a model code. Other laws and the trade codes can still call for a permit.
This one is Massachusetts law, not Malden law. All Massachusetts findings
Retaining walls that are not over four feet (1,219 mm) in height measured from the bottom of the footing to the top of the wall, unless supporting a surcharge.
4 ftheight at or below which a retaining wall needs no building permit
Fence materials allowed in Malden
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Massachusetts answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Massachusetts bans barbed wire in one place by name. A fence running along a sidewalk on a public road may not carry barbed wire anywhere within six feet of the ground, and building or keeping one is a fine of twenty to fifty dollars. The rule sits in the public ways chapter, not the fence chapter, and it reaches only a fence beside a sidewalk.
This one is Massachusetts law, not Malden law. All Massachusetts findings
Whoever builds or maintains a barbed wire fence within six feet of the ground along a sidewalk located on a public way shall be punished by a fine of not less than twenty nor more than fifty dollars.
6 ftheight below which barbed wire may not be used along a sidewalk on a public way
Livestock and boundary fence law in Malden
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Massachusetts answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Massachusetts calls a fence legal and sufficient at four feet tall and in good repair. It can be rails, timber, boards, iron or stone. Brooks, rivers, ponds, creeks, ditches and hedges count too, and so does anything else the town fence viewers judge just as good. Height is the only number in it.
This one is Massachusetts law, not Malden law. All Massachusetts findings
Fences four feet high, in good repair, constructed of rails, timber, boards, iron or stone, and brooks, rivers, ponds, creeks, ditches and hedges, or other things which the fence viewers consider equivalent thereto, shall be deemed legal and sufficient fences.
4 ftheight of a legal and sufficient fence
Also on agricultural fencing in Malden
- set in state lawMassachusetts lets a landowner hurt by loose farm animals sue the owner of those animals, or hold the animals until the damage is paid. The section names horses, mules, asses, cattle, sheep, goats and swine, and it puts no fence condition on that right. Another section points the same way by making the town field driver pick up farm animals found loose on public roads or on common and unimproved land. M.G.L. c. 49, s. 29Massachusetts · Statute
Documents behind this page
13 documents, of which 2 were published by Malden itself. Each was read on the date shown.
- Massachusetts General CourtMassachusetts General Laws, Part I, Title VII, Chapter 49, Section 3, Maintenance of partition fences
- City of MaldenCode of the City of Malden, Title 12, Zoning
- Massachusetts General CourtMassachusetts General Laws, Part I, Title VII, Chapter 49, Fences, Fence Viewers, Pounds and Field Drivers, full chapter listing
- Massachusetts General CourtMassachusetts General Laws, Part I, Title VII, Chapter 49, Section 21
- City of MaldenCode of the City of Malden, Title 4, Building and Construction Standards
- Massachusetts General CourtMassachusetts General Laws, Part I, Title XX, Chapter 143, Section 94, Powers and duties of board
- Massachusetts General CourtMassachusetts General Laws, Part I, Title XX, Chapter 140, Section 206, Enclosure of swimming pools
- Massachusetts General CourtMassachusetts General Laws, Part I, Title VII, Chapter 40A, Section 3, Subjects which zoning may not regulate
- Massachusetts General CourtMassachusetts General Laws, Part I, Title XIV, Chapter 85, Section 8, Permits for signs and other structures projecting into or over ways
- Massachusetts Board of Building Regulations and Standards780 CMR 51.00: Massachusetts Residential Code, Chapter R1, Scope and Application, Tenth Edition, amendments to the 2021 International Residential Code
- Massachusetts General CourtMassachusetts General Laws, Part I, Title XIV, Chapter 86, Section 6, Barbed wire fences
- Massachusetts General CourtMassachusetts General Laws, Part I, Title VII, Chapter 49, Fences, Fence Viewers, Pounds and Field Drivers
- Massachusetts General CourtMassachusetts General Laws, Part I, Title VII, Chapter 49, Fences, Fence Viewers, Pounds and Field Drivers
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 Malden publishes, plus the Massachusetts rules that apply where the city sets none. Fence laws in Massachusetts 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