Fence laws in Nevada
What Nevada 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 Nevada, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- Nevada has no statute splitting the cost of a fence on the boundary. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- How tall
- Nevada sets no maximum fence height. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Permits
- Nevada has no building code of its own.
- Pool barriers
- Nevada pool law covers a public pool, which it describes as any structure holding a man made body of water meant to be used by people as a group for swimming or bathing, whether or not anyone is charged for it.
- Spite fences
- Nevada has no spite fence statute. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Measured from what
- Nevada answers the measuring question in one place, the livestock title. The figure is 48 inches, for top barrier of a legal fence, measured above the ground. It reaches a legal fence for livestock trespass, not a fence at a house only.
- Corner lots
- Nevada does have a state rule about blocking the view at an intersection, and it sits in the highway chapter rather than in any zoning law. It reaches advertising signs, signboards and other advertising matter placed along a public highway only.
- Retaining walls
- Nevada leaves retaining walls to the building code adopted by the governing body of each city or county.
- Materials
- Nevada orders every county board to pass a rule on battery charged fences, and the state says what that rule has to contain. The figure is 5 feet, for minimum height of the nonelectric fence or wall that has to surround a battery-charged fence. It reaches a battery charged fence in the parts of a county outside any city only.
- Livestock
- Nevada says what a legal fence for livestock has to be. The figure is 20 feet, for maximum spacing between posts on a legal fence.
Who owns the fence between two properties in Nevada?
Compare fences on the property line across all 50 states
Nevada law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
Nevada has no law about splitting the cost of a fence on the line. Nothing in state law makes one neighbor pay a share of a boundary fence, and nothing sets a notice step before building one. The livestock chapter does say what a legal fence has to look like, but that definition decides who pays for damage done by stray animals, not who pays for the fence. The grazing chapter and the property chapter say nothing about cost either. That leaves a deal between the two neighbors or a city rule.
Documents read before writing that:
- NRS ch. 569Nevada Legislature
- NRS ch. 568Nevada Legislature
- NRS ch. 111Nevada Legislature
How tall can a fence be in Nevada?
Compare fence height across all 50 states
Nevada law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
Nevada does not limit how tall a fence at a house can be. NRS 278.580 leaves building codes to each city and county, so no state code carries a fence height or a fence permit rule. The only fence heights in Nevada law are the forty eight inch top barrier on a livestock fence and the five and six foot barriers around a public pool. Cities and counties set the height rule for a yard fence.
Documents read before writing that:
- NRS 278.580Nevada Legislature
- NRS 569.431Nevada Legislature
- NAC 444.136Nevada State Board of Health
Do I need a permit for a fence in Nevada?
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Nevada answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Nevada has no building code of its own. NRS 278.580 lets the governing body of any city or county adopt a building code, write the rules that enforce it, and set the permit fees. The statute names only two things a local code has to carry: the earthquake parts of the International Building Code, and standards for studying earthquake hazards. Whether a fence needs a permit is a city or county question.
the governing body of any city or county may adopt a building code, specifying the design, soundness and materials of structures, and may adopt rules, ordinances and regulations for the enforcement of the building code
Pool fence requirements in Nevada
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Nevada answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Nevada pool law covers a public pool, which it describes as any structure holding a man made body of water meant to be used by people as a group for swimming or bathing, whether or not anyone is charged for it. A pool at a private home is left out when the owner or someone living there controls it and only family and invited guests use it. Foster homes, small child care homes and some private club pools are left out too.
means any structure containing an artificial body of water that is intended to be used collectively by persons for swimming or bathing, regardless of whether a fee is charged for its use
Also on pool barriers in Nevada
- set in state lawNevada requires a barrier that closes off the whole pool area at a public pool. It can be a fence, a wall, a building or something else. It has to keep small children out and give nothing to grab or stand on from the outside, and no part of a pool enclosure may double as a walkway people use to get somewhere else. NAC 444.136Nevada · Agency guidance
- set in state lawNevada sets two barrier heights for public pools, and both are taller than the four feet common in other states. A pool at a hotel, motel, other lodging, trailer park, apartment building, condominium or other building with many homes in it takes a barrier at least five feet high. Every other covered pool takes at least six feet. A layout where a gate or door opens straight from a room into the pool area is not allowed. NAC 444.136Nevada · Agency guidance
- set in state lawThe Nevada pool barrier rule also limits the gaps. Upright pieces sit no more than four inches apart, and any opening along the bottom stays under four inches tall. A gate or door into the pool area carries a permanent lock and a latch that closes and catches on its own, set at least three and a half feet above the ground. NAC 444.136Nevada · Agency guidance
Spite fence laws in Nevada
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Nevada law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
Nevada has no spite fence law and no height that makes a fence a legal wrong on its own. A spite fence is one built to bother a neighbor rather than to do a job. The nuisance sections of chapter 40 never use the word fence, and NRS 40.140 gives only a broad test covering anything that blocks the free use of property. The public nuisance sections of chapter 202 mention a fence once, to say that fencing public land is not a nuisance when a federal agency allows or requires it.
Documents read before writing that:
- NRS 40.140Nevada Legislature
- NRS ch. 202Nevada Legislature
- NRS ch. 111Nevada Legislature
How fence height is measured in Nevada
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Nevada answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Nevada answers the measuring question in one place, the livestock title. A legal fence has at least four side to side barriers, the lowest no more than twelve inches from the ground and the top at least forty eight inches above the ground. The ground is the starting point. The planning and zoning chapter has no match for it. NRS 278.020 gives cities and counties power over the improvement of land and over where structures go and how sound they are, without ever using the word height, so a fence at a house has no state starting point at all.
The lower barrier must be not more than 12 inches from the ground and the space between any two barriers must be not more than 12 inches and the height of top barrier must be at least 48 inches above the ground.
48 intop barrier of a legal fence, measured above the ground
Fence rules for corner lots in Nevada
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Nevada answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Nevada does have a state rule about blocking the view at an intersection, and it sits in the highway chapter rather than in any zoning law. NRS 405.110 says an advertising sign may not stand where it hides a clear view of a crossing highway. It reaches signs and advertising, nothing else. It draws no triangle, gives no distance, and says nothing about a fence on a house lot, so a corner fence is still a city or county matter under NRS 278.
Be so situated with respect to any public highway as to obstruct clear vision of an intersecting highway or highways or otherwise so situated as to constitute a hazard upon or prevent the safe use of the state highway.
Retaining wall rules in Nevada
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Nevada does not set this. It leaves it to the building code adopted by the governing body of each city or county.
Nevada has no rule of its own for a wall that holds back earth. NRS 278.580 lets the governing body of a city or county adopt a building code covering the design, strength and materials of structures, and adopt the rules that enforce it. Whether that kind of wall needs a permit, and how tall it can stand before it does, is answered by the code that city or county adopted.
the governing body of any city or county may adopt a building code, specifying the design, soundness and materials of structures, and may adopt rules, ordinances and regulations for the enforcement of the building code
The code hands this to the building code adopted by the governing body of each city or county, which is not published in the code itself.
Fence materials allowed in Nevada
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Nevada answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Nevada orders every county board to pass a rule on battery charged fences, and the state says what that rule has to contain. The fence goes on land not marked for homes, or on rural home land. It runs off a battery of no more than 12 volts and meets the international standard for the charger. It sits behind a fence or wall with no current in it at least 5 feet tall, stops at 10 feet, and carries warning signs no more than 40 feet apart. A county may not ban one outright and may not charge a separate permit for it.
(d) Be surrounded by a nonelectric perimeter fence or wall that is at least 5 feet in height; (e) Not be higher than 10 feet in height or 2 feet higher than the height of the nonelectric perimeter fence or wall described in paragraph (d), whichever is greater; and
5 ftminimum height of the nonelectric fence or wall that has to surround a battery-charged fence
Livestock and boundary fence law in Nevada
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Nevada answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Nevada says what a legal fence for livestock has to be. It carries at least four side to side barriers of wire, board, pole or similar material in common use nearby, with posts no more than twenty feet apart. Each post has to hold a sideways pull of 250 pounds at a point four feet up, and each barrier has to hold the same pull halfway between two posts.
a fence with not less than four horizontal barriers, consisting of wires, boards, poles or other fence material in common use in the neighborhood, with posts set not more than 20 feet apart.
20 ftmaximum spacing between posts on a legal fence
Also on agricultural fencing in Nevada
- set in state lawThe same Nevada rule fixes the spacing and the height of a legal fence. The lowest barrier sits no more than twelve inches off the ground, no two barriers are more than twelve inches apart, and the top barrier stands at least forty eight inches above the ground. NRS 569.431Nevada · Statute
- set in state lawNevada is a fence out state for cropland. The farmer builds the fence, not the animal owner. Nobody may collect for livestock damage to cultivated land, and no Nevada court may award it, if the land was not closed in by a legal fence when the animals got in. NRS 569.450Nevada · Statute
- set in state lawOnce land is closed in by a legal fence the rule turns around. If livestock break into ground held by a legal fence, the owner or manager of the animals pays the landowner for all the damage. A second trespass caused by that person neglecting the animals costs double. NRS 569.440Nevada · Statute
- set in state lawNevada calls every unfenced piece of land outside cities and towns open range when cattle, sheep or other farm animals graze or roam there by custom, license, lease or permit. That matters most on the highway. Under NRS 568.360 a person who owns or controls an animal running on open range does not have to keep it off a highway crossing that range and pays nothing for a crash there. Letting an animal into a fenced highway right of way through carelessness is different, and that does bring liability. NRS 568.355Nevada · Statute
Cities in Nevada
6 cities with their own fence rules read from the city’s own code. Where a city says nothing on a topic, the state answer above is what applies.
Documents behind this page
10 documents, each read on the date shown. Nothing on this page rests on a summary of one.
- Nevada LegislatureNevada Revised Statutes, Chapter 569 (Estrays and Livestock)
- Nevada LegislatureNevada Revised Statutes, Chapter 568 (Grazing and Ranging)
- Nevada LegislatureNevada Revised Statutes, Chapter 111 (Estates in Property; Conveyancing and Recording)
- Nevada LegislatureNevada Revised Statutes, Section 278.580
- Nevada State Board of HealthNevada Administrative Code, Chapter 444
- Nevada LegislatureNevada Revised Statutes, Section 444.065
- Nevada LegislatureNevada Revised Statutes, Chapter 40 (Actions and Proceedings in Particular Cases Concerning Property)
- Nevada LegislatureNevada Revised Statutes, Chapter 202 (Crimes Against Public Health and Safety)
- Nevada LegislatureNevada Revised Statutes, Chapter 405, Control and Preservation of Public Highways
- Nevada LegislatureNevada Revised Statutes, Chapter 244, Counties: Government, Section 244.3677, Ordinance regulating battery charged fences: Requirements; prohibitions
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