Fence laws in North Dakota
What North Dakota 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 North Dakota, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- North Dakota splits the fence on a property line in equal shares.
- How tall
- North Dakota sets no maximum fence height. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Permits
- North Dakota has a state building code, but enforcing it is a local choice.
- Pool barriers
- North Dakota sets no statewide pool barrier rule. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Spite fences
- North Dakota has no spite fence statute. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Measured from what
- North Dakota names a starting point for one wire and not the other. The figure is 16 inches, for greatest distance the bottom wire of a lawful fence may sit above the ground. It reaches a legal fence for holding livestock, not a fence at a house only.
- Corner lots
- North Dakota leaves corner clearance to city governing bodies under Chapter 40-47 and county commissions under Chapter 11-33.
- Retaining walls
- North Dakota leaves retaining walls to the international building, residential, mechanical and fuel gas codes, adopted by rule by the Department of Commerce.
- Materials
- North Dakota bans no fence material. The figure is 3 strands, for a barbed wire legal fence.
- Livestock
- North Dakota lists seven kinds of fence that count as a legal fence. The figure is 3 strands, for barbed wire legal fence.
Who owns the fence between two properties in North Dakota?
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North Dakota answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
North Dakota splits the fence on a property line in equal shares. Both neighbors have to keep up the fence between their land, unless one of them leaves the land open with no fence at all. The same section adds that a neighbor who wants a better fence than the law asks for pays the whole cost of it.
The occupants and the coterminous owners of lands enclosed with fences are mutually and equally bound to maintain the partition fences between their own and the next adjoining enclosures unless one of such owners chooses to let that owner's land lie open.
Also on fences on the property line in North Dakota
- set in state lawEqual shares only cover a legal fence, which is the plain livestock fence the state describes. A neighbor who asks for anything better than that pays for all of it, both to build it and to keep it up, unless the two of them agree to split the cost. N.D.C.C. 47-26-05North Dakota · Statute
- set in state lawNorth Dakota does not appoint separate fence viewers. A fence viewer is the local official who settles a fight over a shared fence. In an organized township that job belongs to the board of township supervisors. Where the fence line runs between two townships, one supervisor comes from each. N.D.C.C. 47-26-02North Dakota · Statute
- set in state lawA neighbor who lets a shared fence fall apart in North Dakota can be taken to the fence viewers. They tell both sides they are coming, look at the fence, and put their decision in writing with a deadline to fix it. If the work still does not happen, the other neighbor may do it. The fence viewers then price the work and their own fees, and that money can be collected back from the owner or from whoever lives there, plus one percent a month in interest once a suit is filed. N.D.C.C. 47-26-07North Dakota · Statute
How tall can a fence be in North Dakota?
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North Dakota law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
North Dakota does not limit how tall a fence at a house can be. The four and one half feet in the fence chapter is a floor for a livestock fence, not a cap. The state building code chapter says nothing about fences, and it only applies where a local government chose to enforce it. Cities set the height rule.
Documents read before writing that:
- N.D.C.C. ch. 47-26North Dakota Legislative Assembly
- N.D.C.C. ch. 54-21.3North Dakota Legislative Assembly
Do I need a permit for a fence in North Dakota?
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North Dakota answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
North Dakota has a state building code, but enforcing it is a local choice. A city, township or county that decides to run a building code has to use the state one, and it may change the code to fit local needs. Where no local government has made that choice, nobody is enforcing a code at all. Farm buildings sit outside the chapter unless people live in them or the public uses them.
The governing body of a city, township, or county that elects to administer and enforce a building code shall adopt and enforce the state building code.
Also on permits in North Dakota
- left to the townThe state building code is not printed in North Dakota law. The statute tells the Department of Commerce to adopt it by rule and says it has to be made up of the international building, residential, mechanical and fuel gas codes. Any permit rule for a fence, or any exemption from one, sits inside those books and inside whatever changes the local government made. N.D.C.C. 54-21.3-03(1)North Dakota · Statute
Pool fence requirements in North Dakota
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North Dakota law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
North Dakota has no pool barrier rule. The state pool rules were read in full and they cover germ limits, how clear the water has to be, how much cleaner stays in it, and record keeping, with nothing about a fence, a gate or a barrier. There is no swimming pool chapter in the Century Code either. A barrier rule can only reach a property through a building code that a city, township or county chose to enforce.
Documents read before writing that:
- N.D. Admin. Code ch. 33-29-01North Dakota Legislative Assembly
- N.D.C.C. ch. 54-21.3North Dakota Legislative Assembly
Spite fence laws in North Dakota
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North Dakota law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
North Dakota has no spite fence law. A spite fence is one built to bother a neighbor rather than to do a job. The nuisance chapter was read and it describes a nuisance in broad terms, naming no fence and no height. The fence chapter covers only splitting the cost and what counts as a legal fence. That leaves a nuisance suit or a city rule.
Documents read before writing that:
- N.D.C.C. ch. 42-01North Dakota Legislative Assembly
- N.D.C.C. ch. 47-26North Dakota Legislative Assembly
How fence height is measured in North Dakota
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North Dakota answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
North Dakota names a starting point for one wire and not the other. The fence chapter puts the bottom wire of a legal fence no more than sixteen inches above the ground, and holds the space between two wires to sixteen inches. The top wire is given as a bare forty inches with nothing to count it from. That chapter is about a fence built to hold stock. A fence on a town lot is covered by a city rule written under Chapter 40-47, which gives the city the say over the height of buildings and other structures, so the city decides where the measuring starts.
The top wire shall be not less than forty inches [101.6 centimeters] high, the bottom wire shall be not more than sixteen inches [40.64 centimeters] above the ground, and no two adjacent wires shall be separated by more than sixteen inches [40.64 centimeters].
16 ingreatest distance the bottom wire of a lawful fence may sit above the ground
Fence rules for corner lots in North Dakota
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North Dakota does not set this. It leaves it to city governing bodies under Chapter 40-47 and county commissions under Chapter 11-33.
North Dakota has no state rule about seeing around a corner. Cities get the zoning power in Chapter 40-47 and counties get it in Chapter 11-33, and neither one names a corner sight triangle, the clear space a city keeps open where two streets meet. The highway chapters were read too. The one view rule in them stops the state and local governments from planting anything that hides a highway sign, which guards the sign and not the driver at a corner. The city or the county decides.
regulate and restrict the height, number of stories, and the size of buildings and other structures, the percentage of lot that may be occupied, the size of yards, courts, and other open spaces, the density of population, and the location and use of buildings, structures, and land for trade, industry, residence, or other purposes
The code hands this to city governing bodies under Chapter 40-47 and county commissions under Chapter 11-33, which is not published in the code itself.
Retaining wall rules in North Dakota
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North Dakota does not set this. It leaves it to the international building, residential, mechanical and fuel gas codes, adopted by rule by the Department of Commerce.
North Dakota has no rule of its own for a wall that holds back earth. The Department of Commerce adopts the state building code by rule, and the law says that code has to be made of the international building, residential, mechanical and fuel gas codes. Whether such a wall needs a permit is answered by those books, plus any change a city, township or county made when it took the code on.
shall adopt rules to implement, amend, and periodically update the state building code, which must consist of the international building, residential, mechanical, and fuel gas codes.
The code hands this to the international building, residential, mechanical and fuel gas codes, adopted by rule by the Department of Commerce, which is not published in the code itself.
Fence materials allowed in North Dakota
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North Dakota answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
North Dakota bans no fence material. The fence chapter lists the builds that count as a legal fence, and two of them are wire. One is barbed wire, at least three wires of number twelve and one half gauge or thicker. The other is an electric fence of one, two or three smooth wires, with a wire height and a post spacing given for each of those three shapes. Barbed wire and an electric fence are both named as accepted builds.
A barbed wire fence consisting of at least three barbed wires with at least number twelve and one-half gauge wire, the wire to be fastened firmly to posts
3 strandsa barbed wire legal fence
Livestock and boundary fence law in North Dakota
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North Dakota answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
North Dakota lists seven kinds of fence that count as a legal fence. The barbed wire kind takes at least three barbed wires of number twelve and one half gauge or thicker, tied firmly to posts. The top wire sits at least forty inches off the ground, the bottom wire no more than sixteen inches off it, and no two wires next to each other are more than sixteen inches apart.
A barbed wire fence consisting of at least three barbed wires with at least number twelve and one-half gauge wire, the wire to be fastened firmly to posts
3 strandsbarbed wire legal fence
Also on agricultural fencing in North Dakota
- set in state lawThe smooth wire kind takes five wires. Posts go no more than two rods apart, which is about thirty three feet, and stays go no more than eight feet apart. The top wire sits between forty eight and fifty six inches off the ground and the bottom wire between sixteen and twenty inches. A plain rail, board, wood or stone wall fence four and one half feet tall and in good repair also counts, and so does any fence the two neighbors agree on. N.D.C.C. 47-26-01(6)North Dakota · Statute
- set in state lawNorth Dakota does not let livestock run loose, and it ties that straight to the fence rule. An owner who lets animals get out by not keeping up a legal fence commits a class B misdemeanor. Livestock here means bison, cattle, goats, horses, mules, sheep and hogs. Land the county has named a grazing area is the one exception. N.D.C.C. 36-11-01North Dakota · Statute
- set in state lawA county commission in North Dakota can name a piece of land a grazing area, either on its own or after a majority of the owners and renters there sign a petition asking for it. The land has to be used mostly for grazing and closed in by a fence or something like one. Inside a grazing area the owner of the animals does not pay for damage to crops, property or land, and does not pay for a crash on a highway where the approved warning signs stand between two hundred and four hundred feet from the entrance. N.D.C.C. 36-11-07(2)North Dakota · Statute
- set in state lawOutside a grazing area the legal fence decides who pays. An animal that goes through, over or under a legal fence is trespassing, and whoever owns it or has charge of it pays for all the damage it does. N.D.C.C. 36-11-09North Dakota · Statute
Documents behind this page
6 documents, each read on the date shown. Nothing on this page rests on a summary of one.
- North Dakota Legislative AssemblyNorth Dakota Century Code, Chapter 47-26, Partition Fences
- North Dakota Legislative AssemblyNorth Dakota Century Code, Chapter 54-21.3, State Building Code
- North Dakota Legislative AssemblyNorth Dakota Administrative Code, Article 33-29, Chapter 33-29-01, Pool Facilities in North Dakota
- North Dakota Legislative AssemblyNorth Dakota Century Code, Chapter 42-01, Nuisances, General Provisions
- North Dakota Legislative BranchNorth Dakota Century Code, Title 40, Chapter 40-47, Municipal Zoning
- North Dakota Legislative AssemblyNorth Dakota Century Code, Chapter 36-11, Trespass of Livestock
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