Fence laws in New Hampshire
What New Hampshire 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 New Hampshire, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- New Hampshire splits a fence on the line in equal shares between the two neighbors, as long as both are using their land.
- How tall
- New Hampshire sets no maximum fence height. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Permits
- The state building code covers all of New Hampshire, and a permit comes before the work starts.
- Pool barriers
- New Hampshire puts the pool barrier rule in its state building code, and that code is a list of national books named in the statute itself.
- Spite fences
- New Hampshire has a spite fence law with a number in it. The figure is 5 feet, for height a fence has to exceed before the spite fence rule applies.
- Measured from what
- New Hampshire leaves the measuring rule to the local legislative body of a city, town, or county in which there are unincorporated towns or unorganized places.
- Corner lots
- New Hampshire has a state rule with a real distance in it, and it is about signs rather than fences. The figure is 400 feet, for distance from the intersection within which blocking roadside advertising is unlawful. It reaches roadside advertising near an intersection of class I and class II highways and near railroad grade crossings on them only.
- Retaining walls
- New Hampshire leaves retaining walls to the International Residential Code 2024 and the International Building Code 2024, published by the International Code Council, as amended by the state building code review board.
- Materials
- New Hampshire names barbed wire and electric wire in the statute itself as things a legal fence may be built from. It reaches a fence on the line between two neighbors only.
- Livestock
- New Hampshire says a legal fence has to be tall enough to do its job and in good repair, and it gives no inches at all.
Who owns the fence between two properties in New Hampshire?
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New Hampshire answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
New Hampshire splits a fence on the line in equal shares between the two neighbors, as long as both are using their land. If the two write down which stretch each of them keeps up and file it with the town, that split holds for them and for everyone who owns the land later. A split can also be settled by twenty years of both sides going along with it.
The owners of adjoining lands under improvement shall build and repair the partition fence between them in equal shares.
Also on fences on the property line in New Hampshire
- set in state lawWhen the two neighbors cannot agree, and no split has settled in over the years, the town fence viewers divide the fence once somebody asks them to. A fence viewer is a town official who settles fights over a shared fence. Filed in the town records, their split has the same force as one the neighbors made, and a copy of that record can be used as proof. RSA 473:4New Hampshire · Statute
- set in state lawNew Hampshire lets the other neighbor collect double. Once the fence viewers set a deadline and it passes, that neighbor may build or fix the fence, have the fence viewers price the work, and then sue for twice that price plus the cost of the suit. RSA 473:10New Hampshire · Statute
How tall can a fence be in New Hampshire?
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New Hampshire law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
New Hampshire does not limit how tall a fence at a house can be. The legal fence law gives no number and leaves it to the fence viewers to say whether a fence is tall enough for its job. The five feet in the spite fence chapter is the point where a nuisance claim becomes possible, and that claim also needs proof the fence was built to annoy, so it is not a cap. Towns and cities set the height rule.
Documents read before writing that:
Do I need a permit for a fence in New Hampshire?
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New Hampshire answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
The state building code covers all of New Hampshire, and a permit comes before the work starts. In a town that has set up its own enforcement, the permit follows that town process. No permit can be handed out for work that would break the state code.
Before starting work as described in RSA 155-A:2, I, the person responsible for such construction shall obtain a permit.
Also on permits in New Hampshire
- set in state lawHanding out the permit is town work. The statute keeps permits and permit fees with counties, towns, cities and village districts that have set up enforcement, so whether a fence needs a permit in New Hampshire is answered at the town office. The state fire marshal covers only state buildings, community college buildings and university system buildings. RSA 155-A:2, IIINew Hampshire · Statute
Pool fence requirements in New Hampshire
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New Hampshire answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
New Hampshire puts the pool barrier rule in its state building code, and that code is a list of national books named in the statute itself. The list holds the 2024 International Swimming Pool and Spa Code and the 2024 International Residential Code. A state review board looks at the list and the legislature approves it. The barrier numbers are printed in those books and not in state law.
the International Energy Conservation Code 2018, the International Swimming Pool and Spa Code 2024 and the International Residential Code 2024, as published by the International Code Council Inc.
Spite fence laws in New Hampshire
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New Hampshire answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
New Hampshire has a spite fence law with a number in it. A fence, or anything built like a fence, that goes over five feet for no good reason and was put up or kept up to annoy the neighbors counts as a private nuisance. Both halves have to be true: taller than five feet with no need for it, and built or kept to annoy.
Any fence or other structure in the nature of a fence, unnecessarily exceeding 5 feet in height, erected or maintained for the purpose of annoying the owners or occupants of adjoining property shall be deemed a private nuisance.
5 ftheight a fence has to exceed before the spite fence rule applies
Also on spite fences in New Hampshire
- set in state lawA neighbor who loses a spite fence case has thirty days from the judgment to take the fence down. After that, every day it stands costs ten dollars, paid to the neighbor who sued. Money for the harm already done is a separate claim under RSA 476:2. RSA 476:3New Hampshire · Statute
How fence height is measured in New Hampshire
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New Hampshire does not set this. It leaves it to the local legislative body of a city, town, or county in which there are unincorporated towns or unorganized places.
New Hampshire sets no fence height for a house, so it never says where a height starts. The fence law in RSA 473 is about fence viewers, splitting a shared fence and paying for repairs. RSA 674:16 is the one that matters here, and it lets the governing body of a city or town adopt a zoning rule on the height, number of stories and size of buildings and other structures. The measuring rule is written into that ordinance, one town at a time.
The zoning ordinance shall be designed to regulate and restrict: (a) The height, number of stories and size of buildings and other structures;
The code hands this to the local legislative body of a city, town, or county in which there are unincorporated towns or unorganized places, which is not published in the code itself.
Fence rules for corner lots in New Hampshire
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New Hampshire answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
New Hampshire has a state rule with a real distance in it, and it is about signs rather than fences. Putting up roadside advertising within 400 feet of where class I and class II highways meet, or of a railroad crossing on them, is unlawful when the sign hides the view and makes the approach unsafe. The fence sections of the same chapter deal with a fence standing inside the highway bounds. The corner rule for a fence at a house is a town rule.
It shall be unlawful to erect any roadside advertising within a distance of 400 feet of any highway intersection of class I and II highways or railroad grade crossings thereon when said advertising obstructs the view of said intersections and crossings, rendering the approach to same by vehicular traffic hazardous.
400 ftdistance from the intersection within which blocking roadside advertising is unlawful
Retaining wall rules in New Hampshire
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New Hampshire does not set this. It leaves it to the International Residential Code 2024 and the International Building Code 2024, published by the International Code Council, as amended by the state building code review board.
New Hampshire has no rule of its own for a wall that holds back earth. The state building code is a list of national books named in the statute, and that list holds the 2024 International Residential Code and the 2024 International Building Code among others. The test for that kind of wall comes from those books, plus the changes the state building code review board approved and the legislature signed off on.
"state building code" means the adoption by reference of the International Building Code 2024, the International Existing Building Code 2024, the International Plumbing Code 2024, the International Mechanical Code 2024, the International Energy Conservation Code 2018, the International Swimming Pool and Spa Code 2024 and the International Residential Code 2024, as published by the International Code Council Inc.
The code hands this to the International Residential Code 2024 and the International Building Code 2024, published by the International Code Council, as amended by the state building code review board, which is not published in the code itself.
Fence materials allowed in New Hampshire
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New Hampshire answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
New Hampshire names barbed wire and electric wire in the statute itself as things a legal fence may be built from. The same list holds rails, wood, boards, a stone wall and woven wire, along with a brook, river, pond, creek, ditch or hedge, and anything the town fence viewers judge equal to those. The section sets no height in inches, only that the fence be tall enough for its job, and it bans no material.
All fences of such height as to be reasonably adequate for their purpose and in good repair, consisting of rails, timber, boards or stone wall, barbed, electrified or woven wire, and all brooks, rivers, ponds, creeks, ditches, hedges and other things deemed by the fence-viewers to be equivalent thereto, shall be accounted legal and sufficient fences.
Livestock and boundary fence law in New Hampshire
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New Hampshire answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
New Hampshire says a legal fence has to be tall enough to do its job and in good repair, and it gives no inches at all. The build can be rails, wood, boards, a stone wall, or barbed, electric or woven wire. A brook, river, pond, creek, ditch or hedge counts too, once the town fence viewers judge it the equal of a fence.
All fences of such height as to be reasonably adequate for their purpose and in good repair, consisting of rails, timber, boards or stone wall, barbed, electrified or woven wire, and all brooks, rivers, ponds, creeks, ditches, hedges and other things deemed by the fence-viewers to be equivalent thereto, shall be accounted legal and sufficient fences.
Documents behind this page
11 documents, each read on the date shown. Nothing on this page rests on a summary of one.
- New Hampshire General CourtNew Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated, Title XLVII, Chapter 473, Division Fences and Their Maintenance
- New Hampshire General CourtNew Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated, Title XLVII, Chapter 473, Division Fences and Their Maintenance
- New Hampshire General CourtNew Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated, Title XLVII, Chapter 473, Division Fences and Their Maintenance
- New Hampshire General CourtNew Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated, Title XLVII, Chapter 473, Division Fences and Their Maintenance
- New Hampshire General CourtNew Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated, Title XLVII, Chapter 476, Spite Fences
- New Hampshire General CourtNew Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated, Title XII, Chapter 155-A, New Hampshire Building Code
- New Hampshire General CourtNew Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated, Title XII, Chapter 155-A, New Hampshire Building Code
- New Hampshire General CourtNew Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated, Title XII, Chapter 155-A, New Hampshire Building Code
- New Hampshire General CourtNew Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated, Title XLVII, Chapter 476, Spite Fences
- New Hampshire General CourtNew Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated, Title LXIV, Chapter 674, Local Land Use Planning and Regulatory Powers
- New Hampshire General CourtNew Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated, Title XX, Chapter 236, Highway Regulation, Protection and Control
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