Fence laws in New Jersey
What New Jersey 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 Jersey, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- New Jersey only splits a fence on the line when at least one of the two neighbors is pasturing or keeping animals.
- How tall
- New Jersey sets no maximum fence height. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Permits
- New Jersey runs one construction code for the whole state.
- Pool barriers
- New Jersey sets no statewide pool barrier rule. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Spite fences
- New Jersey has no spite fence statute. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Measured from what
- New Jersey leaves the measuring rule to a municipal zoning ordinance adopted under the Municipal Land Use Law.
- Corner lots
- New Jersey protects the driver view in its highways title, and only for signs that need a state permit. It reaches signs permitted by the Roadside Sign Control and Outdoor Advertising Act along state highways only.
- Retaining walls
- New Jersey writes its own rule for a wall that holds back earth instead of leaving it to the national code. The figure is 4 feet, for retaining wall height at or above which a construction permit is required.
- Materials
- New Jersey calls an electric security fence a perimeter fence intrusion protection system, and it sets nine things such a fence has to do. The figure is 5 feet, for minimum height of the nonelectric fence or wall that has to surround the system. It reaches an electric security fence on land a town has not set aside for homes only only.
- Livestock
- New Jersey sets one height for a lawful fence and one job for it to do. The figure is 50 inches, for minimum height of a lawful fence, which the statute states as four feet and two inches.
Who owns the fence between two properties in New Jersey?
Compare fences on the property line across all 50 states
New Jersey answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
New Jersey only splits a fence on the line when at least one of the two neighbors is pasturing or keeping animals. Each neighbor who uses the land that way builds and keeps up a fair share. A neighbor who leaves the land empty and open, or who keeps no animals, owes nothing toward it. That is narrower than most states, where both sides share the cost whatever the land is used for.
Where the lands of any 2 or more persons shall join each other and 1 or more of them are using said lands for the pasturage or keeping of animals, each of them so using said lands shall make or amend and maintain a just proportion of the partition fence between said lands
How tall can a fence be in New Jersey?
Compare fence height across all 50 states
New Jersey law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
New Jersey does not limit how tall a fence at a house can be. State law gives that job to the towns, which may set the size, height and shape of fences between neighboring lots. Height is a town rule in every New Jersey town.
Documents read before writing that:
- R.S. 40:48-1(29)New Jersey Legislature
- N.J.S.A. 4:20-7New Jersey Legislature
Do I need a permit for a fence in New Jersey?
Compare permits across all 50 states
New Jersey answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
New Jersey runs one construction code for the whole state. The Commissioner of Community Affairs adopts it after a public hearing, and it covers building work everywhere in the state. The list of work that needs a permit, and the list of work that does not, sit inside that code at N.J.A.C. 5:23 and not in the statute.
The commissioner shall after public hearing pursuant to section 4 of the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-4) adopt a State Uniform Construction Code for the purpose of regulating the structural design, construction, maintenance, and use of buildings or structures to be erected
Pool fence requirements in New Jersey
Compare pool barriers across all 50 states
New Jersey law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
New Jersey does have a pool barrier rule. It sits in the state construction code at N.J.A.C. 5:23-3.21, which takes in the International Swimming Pool and Spa Code and then changes parts of it. The Department of Community Affairs publishes that rule only as a PDF and its text could not be read, so no height is claimed here. The numbers live in the national code rather than in New Jersey text.
Documents read before writing that:
- N.J.A.C. 5:23-3.21New Jersey Department of Community Affairs
- N.J.S.A. 52:27D-123New Jersey Legislature
Spite fence laws in New Jersey
Compare spite fences across all 50 states
New Jersey law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
New Jersey has no statewide spite fence law. A spite fence is one built to bother a neighbor rather than to do a job. Title 4, Chapter 20 covers fences on the line and says nothing about spite. State law instead lets each town set the size and height of fences between neighbors, so the answer is a town rule.
Documents read before writing that:
- N.J.S.A. 4:20-7New Jersey Legislature
- R.S. 40:48-1(29)New Jersey Legislature
How fence height is measured in New Jersey
Compare how height is measured across all 50 states
New Jersey does not set this. It leaves it to a municipal zoning ordinance adopted under the Municipal Land Use Law.
New Jersey states a fence number and never says where to measure it from. The state construction code says no permit is needed for a fence six feet or less in height, and it never says six feet above what. The Municipal Land Use Law fills the gap by handing the bulk, height, number of stories, direction and size of buildings and other structures to a town zoning rule. The town decides where the measuring starts.
Regulate the bulk, height, number of stories, orientation, and size of buildings and the other structures; the percentage of lot or development area that may be occupied by structures; lot sizes and dimensions
The code hands this to a municipal zoning ordinance adopted under the Municipal Land Use Law, which is not published in the code itself.
Fence rules for corner lots in New Jersey
Compare corner visibility across all 50 states
New Jersey answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
New Jersey protects the driver view in its highways title, and only for signs that need a state permit. Section 27:5-9 sets the conditions on that permit, and one of them is that the sign may not block a clear view of the road ahead or of official signs and signals. Nothing there reaches a fence at a house. A town gets the power to draw a corner sight triangle, the clear space kept open where two streets meet, from the Municipal Land Use Law.
A sign may not interfere or be likely to interfere with the ability of the operator of a motor vehicle to have a clear and unobstructed view of the highway ahead or of official signs, signals or traffic control devices.
Retaining wall rules in New Jersey
Compare retaining walls across all 50 states
New Jersey answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
New Jersey writes its own rule for a wall that holds back earth instead of leaving it to the national code. A construction permit is needed to build, enlarge, change, rebuild or tear down such a wall four feet or taller, and also a shorter one that hurts a foundation. The four feet counts every wall on the same slope added together, measured from the bottom of the footing to the top of the wall. Walls the town already reviewed in subdivision and site plan work, and walls a county engineer or the state transportation department reviews, are left out.
No person shall construct, enlarge, alter, reconstruct, or demolish a retaining wall or series of retaining walls having a total height four feet or greater, or a retaining wall less than four feet having a negative impact on a foundation, without first obtaining a construction permit.
4 ftretaining wall height at or above which a construction permit is required
Fence materials allowed in New Jersey
Compare materials across all 50 states
New Jersey answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
New Jersey calls an electric security fence a perimeter fence intrusion protection system, and it sets nine things such a fence has to do. It ties into an alarm somebody watches. It cannot go on land a town has set aside for homes only. It runs off a storage battery of no more than 12 volts and meets the international standard for the charger. It stands behind a fence or wall with no current in it at least five feet tall, stops at ten feet, carries warning signs no more than 40 feet apart, and is put in by somebody trained or certified to install it.
e. be surrounded by a nonelectric perimeter fence or wall that is not less than five feet in height;
5 ftminimum height of the nonelectric fence or wall that has to surround the system
Livestock and boundary fence law in New Jersey
Compare agricultural fencing across all 50 states
New Jersey answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
New Jersey sets one height for a lawful fence and one job for it to do. It stands four feet and two inches from the surface of the ground, and it has to be close, strong and tight enough that horses and cattle cannot get through or under. Where the fence sits on the line and either neighbor works the land, it also has to be tight enough to stop sheep. Low meadow along a stream or river that floods is left out of that last part.
if four feet and two inches high measuring from the level or surface of the earth, and close, strong and sufficient to prevent horses and cattle from going through or under it.
50 inminimum height of a lawful fence, which the statute states as four feet and two inches
Also on agricultural fencing in New Jersey
- set in state lawNew Jersey ties the damage claim to the fence. When horses, cattle or sheep get over, push through or break down a fence the chapter calls lawful, the owner of the animals pays the hurt neighbor for all of it. Two neutral people from the neighborhood set the amount, one picked by each side, and each has to own the same sort of property that was damaged. If the animal owner will not pick, the hurt neighbor picks both. If the two cannot agree, they bring in a third. N.J.S.A. 4:20-22New Jersey · Statute
- set in state lawNew Jersey bans barbed wire between neighbors unless the neighbor agrees to it. A fence on the line made of barbed wire, or of wire with barbs or points strung on it, is not a lawful fence without the next door owner's consent, and the statute forbids it outright without that consent. Most farm states treat barbed wire as the normal build. New Jersey does the opposite. N.J.S.A. 4:20-3New Jersey · Statute
Cities in New Jersey
17 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
11 documents, each read on the date shown. Nothing on this page rests on a summary of one.
- New Jersey LegislatureNew Jersey Statutes (Unannotated), Title 4, Section 4:20-7, Duty to make and maintain portion of partition fence
- New Jersey LegislatureAssembly Bill A697 (2022 session), reproducing R.S.40:48-1 paragraph 29, Fences
- New Jersey LegislatureNew Jersey Statutes (Unannotated), Title 52, Section 52:27D-123, State Uniform Construction Code; adoption
- New Jersey Department of Community AffairsN.J.A.C. 5:23-3, Uniform Construction Code subcodes (PDF, could not be read)
- New Jersey Business Action Center, Department of StateMunicipal Land Use Law, N.J.S.A. 40:55D-1 et seq.
- New Jersey LegislatureNew Jersey Statutes, Title 27, Highways, Chapter 5, Roadside Sign Control and Outdoor Advertising
- New Jersey Department of Community AffairsNew Jersey Administrative Code, Title 5, Chapter 23, Uniform Construction Code, Subchapter 2, Administration and Enforcement
- New Jersey LegislatureP.L.2021, Chapter 2, An Act concerning perimeter fence intrusion protection systems and other alarm systems
- New Jersey LegislatureNew Jersey Statutes (Unannotated), Title 4, Agriculture and Domestic Animals, Section 4:20-1, Sufficiency of fences in general
- New Jersey LegislatureNew Jersey Statutes (Unannotated), Title 4, Agriculture and Domestic Animals, Section 4:20-22, Damages by animals breaking through lawful fences
- New Jersey LegislatureNew Jersey Statutes (Unannotated), Title 4, Agriculture and Domestic Animals, Section 4:20-3, Partition fences of barbed wire
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