Fence laws in Methuen, Massachusetts
What the Methuen municipal code says about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line. Where Methuen sets no rule of its own, the Massachusetts rule is shown in its place and marked as such.
Fence laws in Methuen, Massachusetts, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- The location rule is stricter than a setback, and the answer turns on where on the lot the fence goes and what it is made of.
- How tall
- Methuen sets one height for the whole city and writes it as a prohibition rather than as a limit. The figure is 6 feet, for maximum height of any fence anywhere in the city.
- Permits
- Installing, erecting, constructing, relocating or altering a fence anywhere in Methuen without a permit from the Building Commissioner is unlawful, with no exemption by height and none by material, and the answer turns on whether the fence is residential or a commercial security fence.
- 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
- Methuen names two datums and both belong to visibility rules, and the answer turns on which rule the height is being read against. The figure is 4 inches, for largest opening allowed in a swimming pool fence.
- Corner lots
- Two documents answer this and they answer it differently, and the answer turns on whether the test is the zoning triangle, the driveway rule or the fence ordinance. The figure is 20 feet, for distance back along each street line forming the corner triangle.
- 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
- Installing or maintaining a barbed wire fence in a residential area is unlawful, stated as its own prohibition rather than as an exception to a list, and the answer turns on the material and whether the area is residential.
- 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 Methuen?
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Methuen answers this, but the answer changes depending on where on the lot the fence goes and what it is made of.
The location rule is stricter than a setback. No fence may be erected on any property between the street and the front of the principal building, which bars a front yard fence outright rather than limiting it to three or four feet the way most cities do. A lot bounded on two or more sides by a public or private way then takes a setback similar to the one the district requires of a building, so a corner lot is held back on both frontages. Two exemptions take most of the sting out of it: the ordinance does not apply to open post and rail fencing as far as front or side setbacks go, and the front and side setbacks do not apply to chain link either, provided no slats or other visual obstruction are put in it. The supporting side has to face the owner and the finished face has to look out toward the abutting property or way. Hedges are held to the same frontage and setback rules.
No fence shall be erected on any property between the street and the front of the principal building on said property and further, any lot which is bounded on two or more sides by a public or private way shall have a setback requirement similar to that of property in the district in which it is located.
The answer turns on where on the lot the fence goes and what it is made of.
- in front of the house
- No fence at all.
- a lot on two or more ways
- The district setback applies.
- open post and rail
- Exempt from the front and side setbacks.
- chain link with no slats
- Also exempt from them.
Also on fences on the property line in Methuen
- 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 Methuen?
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Methuen answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Methuen sets one height for the whole city and writes it as a prohibition rather than as a limit. It shall be unlawful for any person to erect or construct a fence exceeding six feet in height on any premises within the city. There is no district variation, no front yard reduction and no route to a taller fence except the waiver at the end of the ordinance. The zoning ordinance repeats six feet in its own screening subsection, where a solid wall or fence of five to six feet may be substituted for a thirty foot planted buffer between a business or industrial district and a residential one, and adds that shrubbery and other growth are not held to the six foot limit. A swimming pool runs the other way, requiring a fence or wall of at least four feet with no opening larger than four inches.
It shall be unlawful for any person to erect or construct on any premises within the City of Methuen a fence exceeding six (6) feet in height.
6 ftmaximum height of any fence anywhere in the city
Also on fence height in Methuen
- no rule, documents checkedMassachusetts 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. M.G.L. c. 49Massachusetts · Statute
Do I need a permit for a fence in Methuen?
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Methuen answers this, but the answer changes depending on whether the fence is residential or a commercial security fence.
Installing, erecting, constructing, relocating or altering a fence anywhere in Methuen without a permit from the Building Commissioner is unlawful, with no exemption by height and none by material. The application carries a sketch or design of the fence, a description of the materials and a specification of the height, and the Commissioner refuses the permit if the fence does not meet the ordinance. The fee is ten dollars residential and twenty five commercial. A business seeking a security fence files more: a site plan by a registered land surveyor showing the fence against the structures, the lot lines and the abutting ways, a full description of the type and height including whether barbed wire will be used, and the entrances marked for fire vehicles. No permit issues for that fence until the Fire Chief approves the plan for equipment access and the Police Chief approves it for public safety. The Zoning Board of Appeals may waive parts of the ordinance.
It shall be unlawful for any person to install, erect, construct, relocate or alter a fence within the City without first obtaining a permit therefor from the Building Commissioner.
The answer turns on whether the fence is residential or a commercial security fence.
- any fence at all
- A permit from the Building Commissioner.
- a residential permit
- Ten dollars.
- a commercial security fence
- A surveyed site plan, the Fire Chief and the Police Chief.
- a rule that does not fit
- A waiver from the Zoning Board of Appeals.
Also on permits in Methuen
- 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 Methuen
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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 Methuen 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 Methuen
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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 Methuen 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 Methuen
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Methuen answers this, but the answer changes depending on which rule the height is being read against.
Methuen names two datums and both belong to visibility rules. At a driveway the height is read above the adjacent ground, so the fence is measured against the dirt beside it. At a corner it is read above the plane through the curb grades, which is the street rather than the lot and which matters where a yard sits above the road. The six foot maximum in the fence ordinance carries neither. Nothing says whether six feet is read from natural grade, finished grade, the higher side or the lower, and nothing says whose side of a boundary it is read from. A berm is not addressed. A fence standing on a retaining wall is not addressed. A fence running down a slope is not addressed. The one dimension the fence ordinance does measure carefully belongs to a swimming pool, where no opening may be larger than four inches in any direction.
A fence, hedge, wall, sign or other structure or vegetation may be maintained on any lot, provided that in the front yard area, no such structure or vegetation shall be over 2 1/2 feet in height above the adjacent ground within five feet of the front lot line unless it can be shown that such vegetation or structure will not restrict visibility in such a way as to hinder the safe entry or exit of a vehicle from any driveway to the street.
The answer turns on which rule the height is being read against.
- a driveway
- Above the adjacent ground.
- a corner
- Above the plane through the curb grades.
- the six foot maximum
- No datum named.
- a pool fence
- No gap wider than four inches. 4 in
Also on how height is measured in Methuen
- no rule, documents checkedMassachusetts 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. M.G.L. c. 49, s. 21Massachusetts · Statute
Fence rules for corner lots in Methuen
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Methuen answers this, but the answer changes depending on whether the test is the zoning triangle, the driveway rule or the fence ordinance.
Two documents answer this and they answer it differently. The zoning ordinance draws the geometry: between the property lines of intersecting streets and a line joining points twenty feet back from the corner, or from the meeting of the tangents on a rounded corner, no structure in a residence district may be erected and no vegetation other than a shade tree kept, between three and seven feet above the plane through the curb grades. The fence ordinance states no shape at all and instead makes it unlawful to erect, install or maintain a fence that obscures clear view of traffic at intersections or driveways or creates a safety hazard, which reaches a fence the triangle would miss. A third rule covers the driveway on its own, holding anything in the front yard area to two and a half feet above the adjacent ground within five feet of the front lot line unless visibility can be shown not to suffer.
Between the property lines of intersecting streets and a line joining points on such lines 20 feet distant from their point of intersection or, in the case of a rounded corner, the point of intersection of their tangents, no building or structure in any residence district may be erected and no vegetation other than shade trees may be maintained between a height of three feet and seven feet above the plane through their curb grades.
The answer turns on whether the test is the zoning triangle, the driveway rule or the fence ordinance.
- a residential corner
- Twenty feet back, clear from three to seven feet. 20 ft
- a driveway
- Two and a half feet within five feet of the front line. 5 ft
- anywhere else a fence blocks a view
- Unlawful under the fence ordinance.
- a shade tree
- Excepted from the triangle.
Also on corner visibility in Methuen
- 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 Methuen
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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 Methuen 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 Methuen
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Methuen answers this, but the answer changes depending on the material and whether the area is residential.
Installing or maintaining a barbed wire fence in a residential area is unlawful, stated as its own prohibition rather than as an exception to a list. The wording is worth reading carefully, because it bans the fence in a residential area rather than on residential property, and it bans maintaining one as well as installing one, which reaches a fence that was already there. Outside residential areas barbed wire is allowed and the commercial security fence application asks expressly whether it will be used. Chain link is handled in the exemptions: it escapes the front and side setback rules so long as no slats or other means of visual obstruction are added, so slatting a chain link fence changes where it may stand. The orientation rule is written from the frame, requiring the supporting side to face the owner and the finished face to face the neighbor or the way.
It shall be unlawful for a person to install or maintain, in a residential area, a barbed wire fence.
The answer turns on the material and whether the area is residential.
- barbed wire at a house
- Unlawful.
- barbed wire at a business
- Allowed, and named on the application.
- chain link
- Exempt from front and side setbacks until it is slatted.
- the finished face
- It faces the neighbor.
Also on materials in Methuen
- set in state lawMassachusetts 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. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 86, 6Massachusetts · Statute
Livestock and boundary fence law in Methuen
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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 Methuen 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 Methuen
- 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 Methuen 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 MethuenThe Charter and the General Ordinances of the City of Methuen, Chapter 9, Section 9-89, Ordinance Regulating Fences
- 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
- 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
- City of MethuenCity of Methuen Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance, Article VI, Dimensional Controls, Section 6.2, General dimensional regulations
- 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 Methuen 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