Fence laws in New Mexico
What New Mexico 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 Mexico, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- New Mexico leaves the cost of a boundary fence to a municipality, by ordinance. It reaches land inside a municipality's planning and platting jurisdiction only.
- How tall
- New Mexico sets no maximum fence height. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Permits
- New Mexico runs one permit rule for the whole state through the Construction Industries Division.
- Pool barriers
- New Mexico puts a pool barrier rule in its statewide residential building code. The figure is 48 inches, for minimum height of a residential pool barrier.
- Spite fences
- New Mexico has no spite fence statute. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Measured from what
- New Mexico prints a measuring rule in its own residential code, and it is the only fence height in state law that says which side of the fence the tape goes on. The figure is 48 inches, for top of a pool barrier, measured above grade on the side facing away from the pool. It reaches a barrier around a residential outdoor swimming pool, spa or hot tub only.
- Corner lots
- New Mexico keeps its view rule in the highway beautification rules rather than in a zoning law. It reaches directional and other signs controlled by the New Mexico Highway Beautification Act along the interstate, national highway and primary systems only.
- Retaining walls
- New Mexico throws out the national code's test for a wall that holds back earth and writes its own. The figure is 36 inches, for unbalanced fill a retaining wall may hold back with no permit.
- Materials
- New Mexico restricts no fence material. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Livestock
- New Mexico is a fence out state, and the state livestock agency says so plainly.
Who owns the fence between two properties in New Mexico?
Compare fences on the property line across all 50 states
New Mexico does not set this. It leaves it to a municipality, by ordinance.
New Mexico has no statewide rule splitting the cost of a fence on the boundary. The words "partition fence" appear once in the whole of New Mexico law, in the list of things a town is allowed to write an ordinance about. So the rule, where there is one, belongs to the town. Outside a town the fence out rule does the work instead: the owner who wants animals kept off builds the fence.
regulate the construction of partition fences and party walls
The code hands this to a municipality, by ordinance, which is not published in the code itself.
How tall can a fence be in New Mexico?
Compare fence height across all 50 states
New Mexico law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
New Mexico does not limit how tall a fence at a house can be. The state residential building code and the statewide permit rule both reach every house in New Mexico, and neither one caps fence height. Cities and counties set the height rule.
Documents read before writing that:
- 14.7.3 NMACNew Mexico State Records Center and Archives
- 14.5.2 NMACNew Mexico State Records Center and Archives
Do I need a permit for a fence in New Mexico?
Compare permits across all 50 states
New Mexico answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
New Mexico runs one permit rule for the whole state through the Construction Industries Division. That rule opens with a list of work that needs no permit. On the commercial list are sheds under 120 square feet, small walls that hold back earth, low sidewalks and a few other items. A fence does not appear anywhere on it.
Permits shall not be required for the following:
Also on permits in New Mexico
- set in state lawFor a house, the New Mexico permit rule points at section R105 of the International Residential Code and then edits the list of exemptions item by item. Item 2 is deleted, so that exemption has no force in New Mexico. Items 5 and 6 are deleted as well, and items 4, 7, 8, 9 and 10 are kept. 14.5.2.9 NMACNew Mexico · Building code
Pool fence requirements in New Mexico
Compare pool barriers across all 50 states
New Mexico answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
New Mexico puts a pool barrier rule in its statewide residential building code. An outdoor pool, hot tub or spa needs a barrier all the way around it. The top of that barrier stands at least 48 inches above the ground, measured on the side facing away from the pool.
The top of the barrier shall be at least 48 inches (1219 mm) above grade measured on the side of the barrier which faces away from the swimming pool.
48 inminimum height of a residential pool barrier
Also on pool barriers in New Mexico
- set in state lawThe same New Mexico section limits the gaps in a pool barrier. No opening may let a four inch ball through. Other parts of the section hold the gap under the barrier to two inches and set mesh limits for chain link. 14.7.3 NMACNew Mexico · Building code
Spite fence laws in New Mexico
Compare spite fences across all 50 states
New Mexico law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
New Mexico has no spite fence statute. A full text search of New Mexico Statutes Annotated 1978 on the site the Compilation Commission runs returns nothing for the phrase, and neither does a search of the New Mexico appellate reports. Chapter 77 Article 16 is the only fence article the state has, and it is about keeping livestock out: what counts as a lawful fence, and who can recover when animals get in. Nothing in it turns on why a fence was built.
Documents read before writing that:
- NMSA 1978 Sections 77-16-1 to 77-16-9New Mexico Compilation Commission
- NMSA 1978 Section 3-18-6New Mexico Compilation Commission
How fence height is measured in New Mexico
Compare how height is measured across all 50 states
New Mexico answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
New Mexico prints a measuring rule in its own residential code, and it is the only fence height in state law that says which side of the fence the tape goes on. A pool barrier stands at least forty eight inches above the ground, taken on the side facing away from the pool, with no more than two inches of gap at the bottom on that same side. Where the pool wall itself sits above the ground, the barrier may start at the top of the pool wall. Nothing in the code carries that thinking over to an ordinary yard fence.
The top of the barrier shall be at least 48 inches (1219 mm) above grade measured on the side of the barrier which faces away from the swimming pool.
48 intop of a pool barrier, measured above grade on the side facing away from the pool
Fence rules for corner lots in New Mexico
Compare corner visibility across all 50 states
New Mexico answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
New Mexico keeps its view rule in the highway beautification rules rather than in a zoning law. Part 18.21.5 bans a sign placed so that it hides a driver view of traffic coming toward them, merging, or crossing at an intersection. The same part keeps 500 feet clear around an interchange or a street level crossing on a highway with controlled access. Both rules are about signs on state highways, not fences, so a fence at a corner is a city or county matter.
signs located in such a manner as to obscure or otherwise interfere with the effectiveness of an official traffic sign, signal, or device, or obstruct or interfere with the driver's view of approaching, merging or intersection traffic;
Retaining wall rules in New Mexico
Compare retaining walls across all 50 states
New Mexico answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
New Mexico throws out the national code's test for a wall that holds back earth and writes its own. No permit is needed when the wall holds back less than 36 inches of unbalanced fill and the whole wall stands six feet or less from the bottom of the footing to the top. Unbalanced fill is the difference between the ground level on the high side and the ground level on the low side, so it is a smaller number than the height of the wall whenever dirt sits against the low side. A wall holding back a surcharge, meaning extra weight resting on the ground behind it, needs a permit whatever its size, and so does one holding back class I, II or III-A liquids. The same wording runs on the commercial list and on the house list, and the house list gets there by rewriting item 3 of section R105.2 of the International Residential Code.
Section R105.2 (3) - Retaining walls that retain less than 36 inches (915mm) of unbalanced fill, and have a total height equal to or less than six feet from top of wall to bottom of footing. Retaining walls supporting a surcharge load or impounding class I, II, or III-A liquids are not exempt from permit.
36 inunbalanced fill a retaining wall may hold back with no permit
Fence materials allowed in New Mexico
Compare materials across all 50 states
New Mexico law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
New Mexico does not say what a fence may be built from. The two rules where a material limit would sit were read in full. The permit rule names sheds, walls that hold back earth, water tanks, sidewalks, pools, shade cloth, playground equipment, awnings and low partitions, and never a fence material. The residential building code runs through foundations, walls, roofs and building with earth, and never uses the word fence. Barbed wire, electric wire and razor wire are neither banned nor required.
Documents read before writing that:
- 14.5.2 NMACNew Mexico Construction Industries Division, Regulation and Licensing Department
- 14.7.3 NMACNew Mexico Construction Industries Division, Regulation and Licensing Department
Livestock and boundary fence law in New Mexico
Compare agricultural fencing across all 50 states
New Mexico answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
New Mexico is a fence out state, and the state livestock agency says so plainly. The farmer builds the fence, not the animal owner. Anyone whose crops or land would be harmed by roaming animals puts up a fence that meets the state definition of a legal fence.
Every gardener, farmer, planter or other person having lands or crops that would be injured by trespassing animals, shall make a sufficient fence about his land in cultivation, or other lands that may be so injured, the same to correspond with the requirements of the laws of this state prescribing and defining a legal fence.
NMSA 1978 Section 77-16-1, as quoted by the agency
Also on agricultural fencing in New Mexico
- set in state lawThe same agency page gives the other half of the rule. Where livestock may lawfully roam, keeping them off a piece of land is the job of the person who owns that land. The animal owner does not have to fence them in there. Owners duty to enclose property, as quoted by the agencyNew Mexico · Agency guidance
Cities in New Mexico
2 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
6 documents, each read on the date shown. Nothing on this page rests on a summary of one.
- New Mexico Compilation CommissionNew Mexico Statutes Annotated 1978, Chapter 3, Municipalities
- New Mexico State Records Center and ArchivesNew Mexico Administrative Code, 2021 New Mexico Residential Building Code
- New Mexico State Records Center and ArchivesNew Mexico Administrative Code, Permits
- New Mexico Compilation CommissionNew Mexico Statutes Annotated 1978, Chapter 77, Animals and Livestock, Article 16, Fences
- New Mexico State Records Center and ArchivesNew Mexico Administrative Code, Title 18, Chapter 21, Part 5, Outdoor Advertising
- New Mexico Livestock BoardNew Mexico Livestock Board, Frequently Asked Questions, Is New Mexico a fence out state
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