Fence laws in DeSoto, Texas
What the DeSoto municipal code says about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line. Where DeSoto sets no rule of its own, the Texas rule is shown in its place and marked as such.
Fence laws in DeSoto, Texas, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- A public easement in DeSoto may not be fenced or blocked at all where its purpose is above ground, and where a fence crosses one a gate at least three feet wide goes in so crews can get through. The figure is 3 feet, for minimum width of a required maintenance gate.
- How tall
- Eight feet is the ceiling in any DeSoto residential district, and the answer turns on whether the fence is forward of the front building line, and what the lot is zoned. The figure is 8 feet, for fence in a residentially zoned district.
- Permits
- DeSoto sets the fence permit line at a dollar figure rather than a height.
- Pool barriers
- An ordinary DeSoto wood fence is deliberately held off the ground, either by a two by six kick board, by a poured concrete strip, or by raising the pickets at least three inches, so the wood never touches soil. The figure is 4 inches, for maximum gap under a pool or spa barrier.
- Spite fences
- DeSoto has no spite fence statute. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Measured from what
- A DeSoto fence may not lean more than ten degrees out of perpendicular with its own base, which turns a complaint about an ugly fence into a measurement. The figure is 10 degrees, for lean at which a fence is out of compliance.
- Corner lots
- DeSoto leaves corner clearance to the commissioners court of each county, for intersections on county roads outside city limits.
- Retaining walls
- DeSoto leaves retaining walls to the International Residential Code as it existed on May 1, 2012, published by the International Code Council, plus any local amendment a city adopts by ordinance.
- Materials
- Wood, masonry, brick, wrought iron, wire, woven wire mesh and comparable materials are allowed in DeSoto, and then the ordinance specifies how a wood stockade fence is built. The figure is 8 feet, for maximum spacing between the posts of a wood stockade fence.
- Livestock
- Texas says what a farm fence has to look like. The figure is 4 feet, for minimum height of a sufficient fence under the stock law. It reaches counties and areas that have adopted the local option stock law under Subchapter B only.
Who owns the fence between two properties in DeSoto?
Compare fences on the property line across all 50 states
DeSoto answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
A public easement in DeSoto may not be fenced or blocked at all where its purpose is above ground, and where a fence crosses one a gate at least three feet wide goes in so crews can get through. A second gate rule covers the owner rather than the city: any strip of the property left outside the fence has to be reachable from inside the boundary through a three foot gate, unless the strip is under twelve inches wide. That one does not apply to a permit for replacing or repairing an existing fence.
A gate shall be constructed in a fence along public easements to allow ingress and egress for maintenance purposes, when applicable. The gate must be at least three (3) feet in width and readily accessible.
3 ftminimum width of a required maintenance gate
Also on fences on the property line in DeSoto
- set in state lawTexas sets no statewide rule for splitting the cost of a fence on a boundary. What the Agriculture Code does say is that a joint owner of a dividing fence cannot pull it out without the other owner agreeing, and that a person who wants to detach a fence from a neighbor fence has to give six months of written notice first. The notice goes to the owner of the attached fence or to that person's agent, attorney, or lessee. Agric. Code 143.122Texas · Statute
How tall can a fence be in DeSoto?
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DeSoto answers this, but the answer changes depending on whether the fence is forward of the front building line, and what the lot is zoned.
Eight feet is the ceiling in any DeSoto residential district. In front of the building line the answer is not a lower height, it is no fence at all: nothing may extend further forward than the front building line of the house on a platted residential lot. The exceptions are the single-family estate district and the agriculture district, where a fence may run out to the front property line, and a pair of corner lots whose side or rear building lines adjoin, where the fence may run out to the side property line. Nonresidential lots and unplatted undeveloped tracts may be fenced to the property line in any district.
No fence shall be erected in any residentially zoned district which will exceed eight (8) feet in height.
The answer turns on whether the fence is forward of the front building line, and what the lot is zoned.
- behind the front building line in a residential district
- Eight feet. 8 ft
- forward of the front building line on a platted residential lot
- No fence at all.
- a single-family estate or agriculture district lot
- A fence may run out to the front property line.
Also on fence height in DeSoto
- no rule, documents checkedTexas does not limit how tall a fence at a house can be. The only heights in state law are for farm fences, such as the five foot fence required around cropland. For a fence at a house, the city sets the limit. Agric. Code ch. 143Texas · Statute
Do I need a permit for a fence in DeSoto?
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DeSoto answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
DeSoto sets the fence permit line at a dollar figure rather than a height. Construction worth more than twenty five dollars, counting labor and materials, needs a permit from the building official before the fence is built, altered or maintained. The figure comes from the 1995 code and has not been raised, so almost any work clears it. The applicant pays the scheduled fee and shows that the work breaks none of the city ordinances. Appeals go to the Board of Adjustment, except for anything encroaching on the public right of way.
No fence shall be constructed, altered or maintained on any lot, block, or tract of land within the city without first obtaining a permit from the building official if the value of said construction will exceed twenty five dollars ($25.00), including labor and materials.
Also on permits in DeSoto
- set in state lawTexas has no fence permit rule of its own. Instead it made one national code, the International Residential Code as it stood on May 1, 2012, the building code for every city in the state. So the permit rule for a fence comes from that code and not from a Texas statute. Cities can then change it, which is why the answer differs from one city to the next. Local Gov't Code 214.212(a)Texas · Statute
Pool fence requirements in DeSoto
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DeSoto answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
An ordinary DeSoto wood fence is deliberately held off the ground, either by a two by six kick board, by a poured concrete strip, or by raising the pickets at least three inches, so the wood never touches soil. Where that same fence is a pool or spa barrier the rule reverses and the gap becomes a ceiling rather than a floor: no more than four inches between the bottom of the fence and the ground.
If the fence is a pool/spa barrier, the ground-to-fence separation shall not exceed four inches (4").
4 inmaximum gap under a pool or spa barrier
Also on pool barriers in DeSoto
- set in state lawTexas requires a 48 inch fence around some pools, measured from the ground on the outside of the fence. It does not cover most homes. Section 757.002 applies the law only to a pool run by the owner of an apartment complex or by a property owners association. A pool at a single family home is not covered, and the city rule applies there instead. Health & Safety Code 757.003(b)Texas · Statute
Spite fence laws in DeSoto
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DeSoto law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
Texas has no law about spite fences. Both chapters that could hold one were read start to finish. The fence chapter of the Agriculture Code covers livestock and farm land. The building chapter of the Local Government Code covers permits. Neither one mentions a fence built to bother a neighbor. That leaves a nuisance lawsuit or a city ordinance.
This one is Texas law, not DeSoto law. All Texas findings
Documents read before writing that:
- Agric. Code ch. 143Texas Legislature
- Local Gov't Code ch. 214Texas Legislature
How fence height is measured in DeSoto
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DeSoto answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
A DeSoto fence may not lean more than ten degrees out of perpendicular with its own base, which turns a complaint about an ugly fence into a measurement. Broken, loose, damaged, insect damaged or missing slats, posts, rails, bricks and panels are replaced with material of comparable composition, color, size, shape and quality, graffiti comes off immediately, and a fence around a pool or spa is repaired immediately rather than in due course.
Any portion of a fence shall not be allowed to lean so that the fence's axis is more than ten (10) degrees out of perpendicular alignment with its base.
10 degreeslean at which a fence is out of compliance
Also on how height is measured in DeSoto
- left to the townTexas gives two fence heights and never says where to measure from. A farm fence around cropland has to be five feet tall. A farm fence under the stock law has to be four feet. The word ground does not appear anywhere in that chapter. For a fence at a house, Chapter 211 of the Local Government Code lets the city set the height rule, so the city decides how it is measured too. Tex. Loc. Gov't Code 211.003(a)(1)Texas · Zoning code
Fence rules for corner lots in DeSoto
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DeSoto does not set this. It leaves it to the commissioners court of each county, for intersections on county roads outside city limits.
Texas has a whole chapter about seeing around corners, and it does not reach fences. Chapter 255 lets a county set the sight distance at an intersection on a county road outside city limits, and ban anything that blocks the view. But that ban covers plants, loose dirt and other items, not a building or structure fixed to the ground. A fence is fixed to the ground, so a county order under this chapter does not apply to it. Inside a city, the city decides.
This one is Texas law, not DeSoto law. All Texas findings
The commissioners court may: (1) define the appropriate sight distance; (2) prohibit an obstruction of the sight distance by any vegetation, loose earth, or other item except a building or other structure affixed to the ground, if the obstruction is a traffic hazard; and (3) provide for the removal and disposition of an obstruction maintained in violation of an order adopted under this section.
The code hands this to the commissioners court of each county, for intersections on county roads outside city limits, which is not published in the code itself.
Retaining wall rules in DeSoto
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DeSoto does not set this. It leaves it to the International Residential Code as it existed on May 1, 2012, published by the International Code Council, plus any local amendment a city adopts by ordinance.
Texas has no rule of its own for a wall that holds back earth. It made the International Residential Code, as that code stood on May 1, 2012, the building code for every city in the state, and it does not print any of that code's text. So whatever that edition says about a retaining wall is what applies in Texas. Cities can change it after a public hearing, which is why the rule differs from one city to the next.
This one is Texas law, not DeSoto law. All Texas findings
To protect the public health, safety, and welfare, the International Residential Code, as it existed on May 1, 2012, is adopted as a municipal residential building code in this state.
Tex. Loc. Gov't Code 214.212(a)
The code hands this to the International Residential Code as it existed on May 1, 2012, published by the International Code Council, plus any local amendment a city adopts by ordinance, which is not published in the code itself.
Fence materials allowed in DeSoto
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DeSoto answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Wood, masonry, brick, wrought iron, wire, woven wire mesh and comparable materials are allowed in DeSoto, and then the ordinance specifies how a wood stockade fence is built. Steel posts of a stated gauge and diameter, no more than eight feet apart, sunk eighteen inches into concrete footings at least two feet deep and ten inches across. Three horizontal stringers of at least two by three inches, bolted to the posts with noncorrosive straps and quarter inch bolts. Every nail and fastener nonrusting and of a type that will not work loose in the wind. Posts and rails go on the inside so they do not face a street. Plywood, corrugated steel and fiberglass panels are prohibited as fencing.
Vertical posts shall be spaced no more than eight feet (8') on center and shall be set a minimum of eighteen inches (18") deep into concrete post footings set at least two feet (2') deep and having a minimum ten-inch (10") diameter.
8 ftmaximum spacing between the posts of a wood stockade fence
Also on materials in DeSoto
- set in state lawTexas only says what a fence has to be made of inside a county or area that has voted to stop animals roaming loose. There a fence works if it keeps out the animals that are still allowed to roam, and the law gives four ways to build one. Barbed wire takes three wires on posts no more than thirty feet apart, with a stay between each pair. Pickets go no more than six inches apart. Boards take three boards. Rails take four. All four have to stand at least four feet tall. Barbed wire is allowed outright, and voters in an area can decide that three barbed wires on their own are enough. Tex. Agric. Code 143.028Texas · Statute
Livestock and boundary fence law in DeSoto
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Texas answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Texas says what a farm fence has to look like. It has to be at least four feet tall, and there are four ways to build one. Barbed wire takes three wires on posts no more than thirty feet apart, with at least one stay between each pair of posts. Pickets have to be no more than six inches apart. Boards take three boards, each at least five inches wide and one inch thick. Rails take four rails.
This one is Texas law, not DeSoto law. All Texas findings
In order to be sufficient, a fence must be at least four feet high and comply with the following requirements: (1) a barbed wire fence must consist of three wires on posts no more than 30 feet apart, with one or more stays between every two posts; (2) a picket fence must consist of pickets that are not more than six inches apart;
4 ftminimum height of a sufficient fence under the stock law
Also on agricultural fencing in DeSoto
- depends, see the pageTexas has no single answer for who has to build the fence. Each county votes on it, and an area inside a county can vote on its own. The vote decides whether the animals it names are allowed to roam loose, and it only applies where the vote was held. Agric. Code 143.024(a)Texas · Statute
- set in state lawIn a county that has not voted, the farmer builds the fence, not the animal owner. Anyone farming or gardening cleared land has to put up a fence at least five feet tall that hogs cannot get through. Agric. Code 143.001Texas · Statute
Documents behind this page
6 documents, of which 1 was published by DeSoto itself. Each was read on the date shown.
- Texas LegislatureTexas Agriculture Code, Chapter 143, Subchapter F, Removal of Adjoining Fences
- City of DeSotoCode of Ordinances, Chapter 3, Article 3.900 General Building Regulations, Section 3.901 Fences
- Texas LegislatureTexas Local Government Code, Chapter 214, Municipal Regulation of Housing and Other Structures
- Texas LegislatureTexas Health and Safety Code, Chapter 757, Pool Yard Enclosures
- Texas LegislatureTexas Local Government Code, Title 7, Chapter 211, Municipal Zoning Authority
- Texas LegislatureTexas Transportation Code, Title 6, Subtitle C, Chapter 255, County Regulation of Sight Distances
What this page does not cover
A city ordinance is not the only rule that reaches a fence. The zoning district a parcel sits in can change the height allowed on it, and so can an overlay district, a recorded easement, a fire hazard severity zone or a coastal zone. A homeowner association can be stricter than the city and nothing in the municipal code will say so. None of those appear here.
The rules above are the ones DeSoto publishes, plus the Texas rules that apply where the city sets none. Fence laws in Texas has the state layer in full.
This is general information drawn from published government documents. It is not legal advice, ordinances are amended, and the date beside each finding is the date the document was read. How findings are made · What the terms mean