Fence laws in Quincy, Massachusetts
What the Quincy municipal code says about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line. Where Quincy sets no rule of its own, the Massachusetts rule is shown in its place and marked as such.
Fence laws in Quincy, Massachusetts, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- The only distance Quincy states between a fence and a boundary is ten feet, and it is a trigger rather than a setback. The figure is 10 feet, for distance from the front lot line within which a fence or hedge is held to three feet.
- How tall
- Quincy states its fence height in five words: fences shall not be higher than six feet. The figure is 6 feet, for maximum height of a fence anywhere in the city.
- Permits
- Massachusetts runs one building code for the whole state, written by the Board of Building Regulations and Standards under this law.
- 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
- The corner rule names its reference and the fence rule does not, and the answer turns on whether the height is the corner figure or the fence maximum.
- Corner lots
- In any district, no structure, fence or sign may be built and no vegetation planted or kept in the plane above curb level so as to interfere with traffic visibility across a corner, inside the triangle formed by the street lines and a third line joining points twenty five feet back from their intersection, and the answer turns on whether the lot is part of an urban renewal use. The figure is 25 feet, for distance back from the intersection forming the visibility 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
- Chapter 155 is three sections long and the middle one is the only material rule in the city, and the answer turns on what is being done to the fence and what it encloses.
- 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 Quincy?
Compare fences on the property line across all 50 states
Quincy answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
The only distance Quincy states between a fence and a boundary is ten feet, and it is a trigger rather than a setback. Within ten feet of the front lot line, a fence or a hedge may be no more than three feet tall. Everything behind that band goes back to six feet. Two details are worth pulling out. The band is measured from the front lot line itself, not from the required front yard, so the step down happens at the same place in every district whatever the setback is. And a hedge is held to the same three feet as a fence, which means the rule cannot be beaten with planting. Nowhere does the chapter require a fence to stand back from a side line, a rear line or a neighbor, so a fence may sit on those boundaries at the full six feet.
Fences and hedges shall not be higher than three feet within 10 feet of the front lot line.
10 ftdistance from the front lot line within which a fence or hedge is held to three feet
Also on fences on the property line in Quincy
- 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 Quincy?
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Quincy answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Quincy states its fence height in five words: fences shall not be higher than six feet. There is no district variation, no side and rear distinction, no material exception and no route to a taller fence except a variance. The rule sits at the end of the general requirements in the dimensional regulations, after lot area, frontage and open space, and it is the whole of what the zoning chapter says about how tall a fence may be. One reduction follows in the very next sentence, holding a fence or hedge to three feet within ten feet of the front lot line. Beyond that, the only height figure anywhere near a fence in Quincy belongs to the corner rule, which works by blocking a triangle rather than by naming a number.
Fences shall not be higher than six feet.
6 ftmaximum height of a fence anywhere in the city
Also on fence height in Quincy
- 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 Quincy?
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Massachusetts answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Massachusetts 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.
This one is Massachusetts law, not Quincy law. All Massachusetts findings
To formulate, propose, adopt and amend rules and regulations relating to (i) the construction, reconstruction, alteration, repair, demolition, removal, inspection, issuance and revocation of permits or licenses
Also on permits in Quincy
- no rule, documents checkedNeither the zoning chapter nor the chapter actually called Fences creates a fence permit. Chapter 155 has three sections and none of them is an application: one about sitting on a fence around public grounds, one banning electrification, and one sending pool fencing to the state codes with a hundred dollar daily penalty. The zoning chapter states the six feet and the three feet and then stops. Where a fence does reach a decision maker it is attached to something else. A secondhand motor vehicle dealer has to have a fence around the property approved as part of the license for the business. An industrial use has its screening judged against the performance standards. And anything that cannot meet the six feet goes to the Board of Appeals as a variance, the same as any other dimensional rule. Section 4.2.8Quincy · Zoning code
Pool fence requirements in Quincy
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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 Quincy 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 Quincy
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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 Quincy 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 Quincy
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Quincy answers this, but the answer changes depending on whether the height is the corner figure or the fence maximum.
The corner rule names its reference and the fence rule does not. Visibility across a corner is judged in the plane above curb level, so the street is the datum and a lot that sits above the road gets less room than one at grade. The six foot maximum and the three foot front band carry nothing at all. No grade is named, no curb, no finished ground level, and nothing says whether the height is read from the higher or lower side where a fence runs along a change in level. A berm is not addressed. A fence standing on a retaining wall is not addressed, even though the definition of structure lists a retaining wall and a fence in the same sentence. Nothing says whose side of a boundary the six feet is read from, which matters because no setback keeps the fence off the line.
in the plane above curb level
The answer turns on whether the height is the corner figure or the fence maximum.
- a corner
- The plane above curb level.
- the six foot maximum
- No datum named.
- a berm or a retaining wall
- Not addressed.
- a shared boundary
- No side is named.
Also on how height is measured in Quincy
- 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 Quincy
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Quincy answers this, but the answer changes depending on whether the lot is part of an urban renewal use.
In any district, no structure, fence or sign may be built and no vegetation planted or kept in the plane above curb level so as to interfere with traffic visibility across a corner, inside the triangle formed by the street lines and a third line joining points twenty five feet back from their intersection. The rule is written as a purpose test inside a shape: the triangle sets the where and the words interfere with traffic visibility set the what, so a low open fence inside the triangle is not automatically caught. It applies in every district, which is broader than the many codes that limit the rule to residential land. And it carries an exemption almost nobody else writes, releasing an urban renewal use from the section entirely, which matters in a city with as much redevelopment land as Quincy.
In any district, no structure, fence or sign shall be constructed and no vegetation shall be planted or maintained in the plane above curb level so as to interfere with traffic visibility across a corner within that part of the lot which is within a triangle formed by the street lines and a third line joining points on the street lot lines 25 feet from their intersection.
The answer turns on whether the lot is part of an urban renewal use.
- any corner lot
- Twenty five feet back along each street line. 25 ft
- an urban renewal use
- Exempt from the section.
- vegetation
- Caught by the same sentence.
- the test applied
- Whether it interferes with visibility, not a fixed height.
Also on corner visibility in Quincy
- 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 Quincy
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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 Quincy 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 Quincy
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Quincy answers this, but the answer changes depending on what is being done to the fence and what it encloses.
Chapter 155 is three sections long and the middle one is the only material rule in the city. Nobody who has a chain link fence, or any other fence capable of conducting electricity, may cause it to be electrified so that it gives off an electric shock. The drafting is about what an owner does to a fence rather than about what a fence is made of, so it reaches a chain link fence somebody wires up afterwards and not just a purpose built electric fence. Nothing bans barbed wire. Nothing bans razor wire. No permitted material list appears anywhere, and there is no rule that the finished side has to face outward. Screening in the industrial districts is described by effect rather than by material, asking for ornamental lattice, an opaque fence, plantings or sight-obscuring screening. A swimming pool fence is sent to the state building code and the state sanitary code, with a hundred dollar penalty for each day of violation.
No person who has a chain-link fence or other type of fence which is capable of conducting electricity shall cause said fence to be electrified so that it gives off an electric shock.
The answer turns on what is being done to the fence and what it encloses.
- electrifying a fence
- Prohibited.
- barbed or razor wire
- Not named either way.
- an industrial screen
- Lattice, opaque fence, plantings or screening.
- a swimming pool
- The state building and sanitary codes.
Also on materials in Quincy
- 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 Quincy
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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 Quincy 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 Quincy
- 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
15 documents, of which 4 were published by Quincy 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 QuincyCode of the City of Quincy, Chapter 375, Zoning, Section 4.0, Dimensional Regulations
- 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
- City of QuincyCode of the City of Quincy, Chapter 155, Fences
- City of QuincyCode of the City of Quincy, Chapter 375, Zoning, Section 5.0, General Regulations
- 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 QuincyCode of the City of Quincy, Chapter 375, Zoning, Section 6.0, Special 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 Quincy 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