Fence laws in South Dakota

Who owns the fence between two properties in South Dakota?

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South Dakota answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.

Each landowner in South Dakota owes half the cost of building and keeping up a fence on the line, unless the two sides agree on something else. The statute then takes that back in one case. If neither side keeps livestock on the tract and neither gets any other real benefit from the fence, nothing is owed, and that is measured over five years from the date the fence was built or repaired.

no owner of land is liable for such expense if neither keeps livestock on the affected tract of land and neither derives any other substantial benefit from the fence for a period of five years from the date of erection or repair of the fence.

SDCL 43-23-1South Dakota Legislature, Legislative Research Council · Read 13 September 2026

How tall can a fence be in South Dakota?

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South Dakota law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.

South Dakota sets no statewide limit on how tall a fence at a house can be. The numbers in the fence chapter are the build for a legal fence that holds livestock, not a cap. The residential building code statute leaves the choice of a code to each town and forbids a town going stricter than the model code. Height here is a local zoning question.

Documents read before writing that:

• SDCL 43-23-4South Dakota Legislature, Legislative Research Council
• SDCL 11-10-12South Dakota Legislature, Legislative Research Council

Do I need a permit for a fence in South Dakota?

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South Dakota answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.

No county, municipality or township in South Dakota may require a building permit to repair or replace a fencing panel or post on a detached single family home the owner lives in, as long as what goes back is much the same as what came out. The same list covers doors and windows at the same size, gutters, downspouts, fascia, soffit and siding that holds nothing up. The rule does not reach a property marked as historical, and it does not switch off any other code that applies to the work.

a county, municipality, or township may not require a building permit for the repair or substantially similar replacement of any of the following existing exterior parts of a detached single-family owner-occupied residential structure

SDCL 11-10-15South Dakota Legislature, Legislative Research Council · Read 13 September 2026

Pool fence requirements in South Dakota

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South Dakota law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.

South Dakota states no pool barrier height anywhere in its own law. The health rule for pools at licensed campgrounds and resorts points at an outside book, the Recommended Standards for Swimming Pool Design and Operation, 1996 edition, from the Great Lakes and Upper Mississippi River Board, and prints none of it. Nothing in that rule or in the statutes reaches a pool at a private home. A barrier rule would only arrive there through a residential code a town chose to adopt.

Documents read before writing that:

• ARSD 44:02:14:11South Dakota Legislature, Legislative Research Council
• SDCL 11-10-12South Dakota Legislature, Legislative Research Council

Spite fence laws in South Dakota

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South Dakota law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.

South Dakota has no spite fence law. The general nuisance section reaches an act that annoys or endangers other people, offends decency, blocks a public way, or leaves others unsafe in the use of their property, and it names no structure and no height. The fence chapters in the property title deal only with fences on the line and with woven wire fences.

Documents read before writing that:

• SDCL 21-10-1South Dakota Legislature, Legislative Research Council
• SDCL 43-23-1South Dakota Legislature, Legislative Research Council

How fence height is measured in South Dakota

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South Dakota answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.

South Dakota says what its fence height is measured from, in a word almost no other state uses. Section 43-23-4 sets the four strands of a legal fence on the line at eighteen, twenty eight, thirty eight and forty eight inches from the earth, and allows two inches either way. That is a real answer to what a height is counted from, and it belongs to a fence built to hold stock rather than a privacy fence in town. For a fence in town, section 11-4-1 gives a municipality the power to control the height of buildings and other structures, so the limit and the measuring point both come from the local ordinance.

the lower strand to be eighteen inches, the next twenty-eight inches, the third thirty-eight inches, and the fourth forty-eight inches from the earth

SDCL 43-23-4South Dakota Legislature · Read 13 September 2026

48 intop strand of a legal partition fence, measured from the earth

Fence rules for corner lots in South Dakota

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South Dakota does not set this. It leaves it to municipal governing bodies under Chapter 11-4 and county boards under Chapter 11-2.

South Dakota draws no corner triangle of its own. Chapter 11-4 gives a town the zoning power and Chapter 11-2 gives a county the same power, so a corner triangle comes from there. Three chapters of Title 31, the highways title, were read. The view rules in them are about signs that hide an official traffic sign or a railroad signal, which protects the sign rather than the view across a corner lot.

the governing body of any municipality may regulate and restrict the height, number of stories, and size of buildings and other structures; the percentage of lot that may be occupied; the size of the yards, courts, and other open spaces; the density of population; and the location and use of buildings, structures, and land for trade, industry, residence, flood plain, or other purposes.

SDCL 11-4-1South Dakota Legislature · Read 13 September 2026

The code hands this to municipal governing bodies under Chapter 11-4 and county boards under Chapter 11-2, which is not published in the code itself.

Retaining wall rules in South Dakota

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South Dakota does not set this. It leaves it to each municipality, and the 2024 International Residential Code published by the International Code Council, as that municipality amended it.

South Dakota runs no statewide residential building code. A town that wants one adopts the 2024 International Residential Code, and the statute names that edition and no other. The town may then change any part of it, so long as it does not go stricter than that edition. Nothing in South Dakota law gives a height at which a wall holding back earth needs a permit. That number lives in the model code the town adopted, and in whatever the town changed. A town with no code has no permit rule for such a wall at all.

The governing body of a municipality may enact requirements for construction, alteration, movement, enlargement, replacement, repair, equipment, use and occupancy, location, removal, and demolition of a residential structure by adopting the 2024 edition of the International Residential Code, as published by the International Code Council, Incorporated.

SDCL 11-10-12South Dakota Legislature, Legislative Research Council · Read 13 September 2026

The code hands this to each municipality, and the 2024 International Residential Code published by the International Code Council, as that municipality amended it, which is not published in the code itself.

Fence materials allowed in South Dakota

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South Dakota answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.

South Dakota assumes barbed wire. Where the two owners have not agreed on something else, the default build for a fence on the line takes wood, concrete or steel posts at set lengths and spacings, braced at the ends and corners, carrying at least four strands of ordinary commercial barbed wire at eighteen, twenty eight, thirty eight and forty eight inches off the ground, with two inches of play allowed. The statute treats barbed wire as the normal material rather than limiting it, and a separate section makes any fence the two owners agree on a legal fence.

upon them shall be firmly stretched and securely attached to each at least four strands of ordinary commercial barbed fencing wire

SDCL 43-23-4South Dakota Legislature · Read 13 September 2026

4 strandsa legal partition fence where the owners have not agreed on a different sort

Livestock and boundary fence law in South Dakota

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South Dakota answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.

South Dakota writes out what a legal fence on the line is when the two owners have not agreed on something else. Wood posts stand at least six and one half feet long and four inches across, set two feet into the ground no more than thirty feet apart. Steel posts go no more than twenty feet apart and concrete posts follow the wood spacing. Four strands of ordinary barbed wire run at eighteen, twenty eight, thirty eight and forty eight inches off the ground, with two inches of play allowed in the spacing.

upon them shall be firmly stretched and securely attached to each at least four strands of ordinary commercial barbed fencing wire

SDCL 43-23-4South Dakota Legislature, Legislative Research Council · Read 13 September 2026

4 strandslegal partition fence