Fence laws in Revere, Massachusetts
What the Revere municipal code says about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line. Where Revere sets no rule of its own, the Massachusetts rule is shown in its place and marked as such.
Fence laws in Revere, Massachusetts, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- Revere answers the cost of a boundary fence in two places that do not agree, and both are quoted below rather than one being picked as the winner.
- How tall
- Revere puts fence height where most cities put lot area, and the answer turns on the zoning district the lot is in. The figure is 6 feet, for maximum fence height in the RA, RA1, RB, RB1, RC, RC3 and NB districts.
- Permits
- Revere never writes a sentence saying a fence needs a permit.
- 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
- Revere names a datum once and it is at the corner: three feet above curb level, and the answer turns on whether the height is a corner figure or a district figure.
- Corner lots
- In a residential district, where two or more streets meet, nothing higher than three feet above curb level may stand in the triangle drawn by the two street lines and a line joining points twenty feet back along each of them, and the answer turns on whether it is a corner, a pair of driveways, or a state road. The figure is 20 feet, for distance back along each street line 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
- The material rule is a footnote to the dimensional table and it works by naming districts rather than by naming a use.
- 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 Revere?
Compare fences on the property line across all 50 states
Revere says two different things about this. Both are quoted below, and neither one is treated as the right answer.
Revere states no fence setback, and the two provisions that would decide the question point opposite ways. The definitions chapter makes a fence a structure by name. The dimensional chapter then says an accessory structure has to meet the yard requirements of the principal building, excepting only swimming pools, which would push a fence back to the house line. But the same chapter gives every zoning district its own maximum fence height, which would be pointless if a fence could not stand in a yard, and the usable open space definition lists fences among the things that do not count as an obstruction. This site does not pick a side. The ordinance says both things and only Revere can say which one it meant.
Two provisions disagree. Both are printed, and this page does not pick a winner.
A fence is a structure, because Section 17.08.840 says so by name. Read straight, this sentence puts an accessory structure on the same yard requirements as the house, and it carves out swimming pools and nothing else. In the RA district that would hold a fence twenty feet off the front line and ten off each side.
An accessory building or structure shall comply in all respects with the yard requirements of this title for the principal building, except swimming pools.
The usable open space definition treats a fence as something that does not obstruct the space it stands in, and the dimensional table gives every district its own maximum fence height. Both only make sense if a fence is expected to stand in a yard, up to the line, with height rather than distance doing the limiting.
This space shall exclude parking areas, driveways and walkways, and shall be open and unobstructed to the sky. Trees, plantings, arbors, fences, flagpoles, sculpture, fountains, swimming pools and recreational and laundry-drying apparatus and similar objects shall not be considered obstructions.
Also on fences on the property line in Revere
- 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 Revere?
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Revere answers this, but the answer changes depending on the zoning district the lot is in.
Revere puts fence height where most cities put lot area. The Table of Dimensional Controls runs a column headed maximum fence height beside frontage, yard setbacks, building height and stories, and every district carries a figure in it. The residential districts RA, RA1, RB, RB1, RC and RC3 read six feet, along with the Neighborhood Business district. The denser residential districts RC1 and RC2 read ten, as do General Business, Central Business, Limited Industrial, Industrial Park and both Planned Development districts. Highway Business and the Transit Economic Development district read fifteen, which is the tallest ordinary fence figure in this project. The Wonderland overlay district writes its own ten feet rather than borrowing. A swimming pool takes a six foot enclosure under its own section whatever district it sits in.
Max. Fence Height(ft.)
Section 17.24.010, Table of Dimensional Controls
The answer turns on the zoning district the lot is in.
- most residential districts
- Six feet. 6 ft
- the denser and business districts
- Ten feet. 10 ft
- Highway Business and Transit Economic Development
- Fifteen feet. 15 ft
- a swimming pool
- Six feet of enclosure, everywhere.
Also on fence height in Revere
- 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 Revere?
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Revere answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Revere never writes a sentence saying a fence needs a permit. It gets there through a definition instead. A structure means a combination of materials assembled at a fixed location requiring a permit to erect, place or construct, and the list that follows names fences alongside buildings, stadiums, sheds, signs and swimming pools. So the permit requirement is written into the meaning of the word rather than into a rule, which is unusual drafting and has a side effect worth noticing: anything that does not need a permit is, on those words, not a structure at all. The zoning title has no fence application, no fee and no exemption by height. A fence that forms part of a required screen under Chapter 17.32 or part of an outdoor storage enclosure is also reviewed through whatever approval that use needs.
a combination of materials assembled at a fixed location requiring a permit to erect, place or construct, and includes, but is not limited to, buildings, stadiums, platforms, radio towers, sheds, storage bins, signs, swimming pools and fences.
Also on permits in Revere
- 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 Revere
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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 Revere 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 Revere
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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 Revere 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 Revere
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Revere answers this, but the answer changes depending on whether the height is a corner figure or a district figure.
Revere names a datum once and it is at the corner: three feet above curb level. That is the street rather than the ground the fence stands on, which matters on a lot that sits above or below the road. The driveway rule beside it measures horizontally instead, fifteen feet from the front lot line. The maximum fence height column in the dimensional table carries no datum at all, so nothing states whether six feet in an RA district is read from natural grade, finished grade, the higher side or the lower. A berm is not addressed. A fence standing on a retaining wall is not addressed. The one measuring instruction written about the fabric of a fence belongs to the pool section, where every horizontal member that could act as a ladder has to face the pool side.
All horizontal members of a fence that can act as a ladder must face the side enclosing the pool.
The answer turns on whether the height is a corner figure or a district figure.
- a visibility triangle
- Three feet above curb level.
- the district maximum
- No datum named.
- a pool fence
- The climbable side faces the water.
- a berm or a retaining wall
- Not addressed.
Also on how height is measured in Revere
- 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 Revere
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Revere answers this, but the answer changes depending on whether it is a corner, a pair of driveways, or a state road.
In a residential district, where two or more streets meet, nothing higher than three feet above curb level may stand in the triangle drawn by the two street lines and a line joining points twenty feet back along each of them. A single post or a tree is excepted by name, and everything else, hedge, fence, wall, sign or accessory building, is not. Two things about this rule are worth pulling out. It has a second half almost nobody else writes: where a lot line is also the boundary between two driveways, a fence may be no more than three feet high for the first fifteen feet measured from the front lot line, which protects two neighbors backing out beside each other rather than protecting a corner. And it has a limit on its own reach, applying only to streets under the jurisdiction of the city and not to a state highway or a Metropolitan District Commission road.
In all residential districts at the intersection of two or more streets, no hedge, fence, wall, sign, accessory building or other solid object (other than a single post or tree) which is higher than three feet above curb level, nor any other obstruction to vision, shall be permitted in the triangular area formed by the intersecting street lines and a line adjoining each intersection line twenty feet distant from the intersection along the street line.
The answer turns on whether it is a corner, a pair of driveways, or a state road.
- a residential corner
- Twenty feet back, three feet tall. 20 ft
- a line between two driveways
- Three feet for the first fifteen. 15 ft
- a state or MDC road
- The section does not apply.
- a single post or a tree
- Excepted by name.
Also on corner visibility in Revere
- 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 Revere
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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 Revere 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 Revere
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Revere answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
The material rule is a footnote to the dimensional table and it works by naming districts rather than by naming a use. No barbed wire and no fence with pointed ends is allowed in RA, RA1, RB, RB1, RC, RC1, RC2, RC3, NB, GB or CB. Reading the list the other way is what makes it interesting, because the districts left out of it are the Limited Industrial, Industrial Park, both Planned Development districts, Highway Business and the Transit Economic Development district, and in those six the ban simply does not apply. Pointed ends is a broader phrase than barbed wire and catches a wrought iron fence with spear tops, which is a common choice in a business district and is barred in General Business and Central Business by this note. Nothing else about materials appears: no permitted list, no finished side rule, and no mention of an electric fence.
No barbed wire or fences with pointed ends shall be allowed in the RA, RA1, RB, RB1, RC, RC1, RC2, RC3, NB, GB and CB districts.
Section 17.24.010, Table of Dimensional Controls, note i
Also on materials in Revere
- 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 Revere
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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 Revere 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 Revere
- 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 Revere 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 RevereRevised Ordinances of the City of Revere, Title 17, Zoning, Chapter 17.24, Dimensional Regulations
- City of RevereRevised Ordinances of the City of Revere, Title 17, Zoning, Chapter 17.08, Definitions
- 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
- 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 Revere 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