Fence laws in Mississippi
What Mississippi statutes and statewide codes say about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line.
Fence laws in Mississippi, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- Nothing has been read for Mississippi on this one yet.
- How tall
- Mississippi sets no maximum fence height. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Permits
- Mississippi does not run one building code for the whole state.
- Pool barriers
- Mississippi sets no statewide pool barrier rule. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Spite fences
- Nothing has been read for Mississippi on this one yet.
- Measured from what
- Mississippi 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
- Nothing has been read for Mississippi on this one yet.
- Retaining walls
- Mississippi leaves retaining walls to one of the last three editions of the International Residential Code or the International Building Code, as picked by the county or city.
- Materials
- Mississippi wrote the battery charged security fence into its alarm contracting law and set what one has to be. The figure is 5 feet, for minimum height of the nonelectric fence or wall that has to surround a battery-charged security fence. It reaches battery charged security fences tied to a monitored alarm system only.
- Livestock
- Mississippi is a fence in state.
Who owns the fence between two properties in Mississippi?
Not researched yet for Mississippi. Nothing on this page states what the rule is, because nothing has been read that says.
How tall can a fence be in Mississippi?
Compare fence height across all 50 states
Mississippi law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
Mississippi sets no statewide limit on how tall a fence at a house can be. The county or city sets it. The state building code page and the State Fire Marshal page both describe which codes local governments adopt, and neither names a fence height.
Documents read before writing that:
- Mississippi Insurance Department, Mississippi Uniform Building CodesMississippi Insurance Department
- Mississippi Insurance Department, State Fire Marshal's OfficeMississippi Insurance Department
Do I need a permit for a fence in Mississippi?
Compare permits across all 50 states
Mississippi answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Mississippi does not run one building code for the whole state. A 2014 law made every county and city adopt a uniform building code, unless the local government voted itself out by the end of November 2014. So whether a fence needs a permit depends on which code the county or city adopted, and on whether it adopted one at all.
Under Senate Bill 2378 of 2014, all counties and municipalities must enact uniform building codes unless they opt out prior to Nov. 30, 2014.
Mississippi Insurance Department, Mississippi Uniform Building Codes
Pool fence requirements in Mississippi
Compare pool barriers across all 50 states
Mississippi law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
Mississippi sets no statewide fence, gate or barrier rule for a pool. The State Department of Health publishes pool guidance about water chemistry and disinfectant levels, and points to the CDC Model Aquatic Health Code as something a local government can build its own pool rules from. Neither page names a fence.
Documents read before writing that:
- Environmental Health, Pool and Swimming GuidelinesMississippi State Department of Health
- Environmental Health, Swimming and Aquatic Health Model CodeMississippi State Department of Health
Spite fence laws in Mississippi
Not researched yet for Mississippi. Nothing on this page states what the rule is, because nothing has been read that says.
How fence height is measured in Mississippi
Compare how height is measured across all 50 states
Mississippi law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
No Mississippi document on a state server says what a fence height is measured from. Under Senate Bill 2378 of 2014 every county and city had to adopt a uniform building code unless it voted itself out before the end of November 2014. The Insurance Department page that collects each local code choice names the model codes without printing any of their words, so no definition of grade shows up there. The Mississippi Code itself, including section 17-1-3 on county and city zoning, is published by a private company and not on a state site. It could not be read here, so a measuring rule inside it has not been ruled out.
Documents read before writing that:
- Mississippi uniform building code adoption under Senate Bill 2378 of 2014Mississippi Insurance Department, State Fire Marshal
Fence rules for corner lots in Mississippi
Not researched yet for Mississippi. Nothing on this page states what the rule is, because nothing has been read that says.
Retaining wall rules in Mississippi
Compare retaining walls across all 50 states
Mississippi does not set this. It leaves it to one of the last three editions of the International Residential Code or the International Building Code, as picked by the county or city.
Mississippi has no retaining wall rule of its own. Each county board of supervisors and each city picks one of the last three editions of the International Residential Code or the International Building Code as its least standard. A wall that holds back earth is treated the way the picked edition treats it. A county or city that voted itself out within the first hundred and twenty days is not held to that code at all.
One (1) of the last three (3) adopted editions of the International Residential Code (IRC), and any specific appendix or appendices as adopted and amended by the Mississippi Building Codes Council
Miss. S.B. 2378 (2014), Section 1(1)(b)
The code hands this to one of the last three editions of the International Residential Code or the International Building Code, as picked by the county or city, which is not published in the code itself.
Fence materials allowed in Mississippi
Compare materials across all 50 states
Mississippi answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Mississippi wrote the battery charged security fence into its alarm contracting law and set what one has to be. It ties into a monitored alarm and runs off a battery of no more than twelve volts. It stands behind a fence or wall that carries no current and is at least five feet tall, stops at ten feet, and carries warning signs no more than thirty feet apart. A city or county may not ban one, charge a separate permit for it, or add rules that do not match the state list.
(v) Is surrounded by a nonelectric perimeter fence or wall that is not less than five (5) feet in height; (vi) Does not exceed ten (10) feet in height or two (2) feet higher than the nonelectric perimeter fence or wall described in subparagraph (v) of this paragraph, whichever is higher;
5 ftminimum height of the nonelectric fence or wall that has to surround a battery-charged security fence
Livestock and boundary fence law in Mississippi
Compare agricultural fencing across all 50 states
Mississippi answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Mississippi is a fence in state. The person who owns the animals keeps them in, and pays for what they damage if they get out. A neighbor does not have to build a fence to keep livestock off. Section 69-13-19 sets the floor for those damages at twenty five dollars a head for a horse, cow or hog and ten dollars for other stock, and doubles it once the owner has been told about the first trespass.
Every owner of livestock referred to in Section 69-13-1 shall be liable for damages for all injuries and trespasses committed by such animals by breaking and entering into or upon the lands, grounds, or premises of another person
Miss. Code 69-13-19, printed in full in Section 2 of the bill
Also on agricultural fencing in Mississippi
- left to the townA county can vote itself out of the statewide stock law. When it does, and a county next to it stays in, the county that voted out builds and keeps up a fence along its own line at its own cost. The statute never says what that fence is made of or how tall it stands. It hands the specification to the Department of Agriculture and Commerce. Miss. Code 69-13-7, printed in full in the billMississippi · Statute
Documents behind this page
8 documents, each read on the date shown. Nothing on this page rests on a summary of one.
- Mississippi Insurance DepartmentMississippi Uniform Building Codes, State Fire Marshal's Office
- Mississippi Insurance DepartmentState Fire Marshal's Office
- Mississippi State Department of HealthPool and Swimming Guidelines
- Mississippi State Department of HealthSwimming and Aquatic Health Model Code
- Mississippi LegislatureSenate Bill 2378, 2014 Regular Session, as sent to the Governor
- Mississippi LegislatureHouse Bill 823, 2022 Regular Session, as sent to the Governor, amending Section 73-69-5, Mississippi Code of 1972
- Mississippi LegislatureHouse Bill 382, 1997 Regular Session, as introduced
- Mississippi LegislatureHouse Bill 1584, 1998 Regular Session, as introduced
What this page does not cover
Everything above is state law. Fence height, setback, corner visibility and materials are set by city and county ordinance in almost every state, and a local rule can be far stricter than the statewide default. A parcel can also carry an easement, an overlay district, a fire hazard zone or a recorded HOA restriction, none of which appear in a statute.
This is general information drawn from published government documents. It is not legal advice, statutes are amended, and the date beside each finding is the date the document was read. How findings are made · What the terms mean