Fence laws in Garland, Texas
What the Garland municipal code says about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line. Where Garland sets no rule of its own, the Texas rule is shown in its place and marked as such.
Fence laws in Garland, Texas, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- A Garland fence may run to the property line, and one kind of fence may not. The figure is 5 feet, for setback from an adjoining property line for a pen or dog run.
- How tall
- Eight feet on a residential lot and ten on a commercial one, measured from the top of the fence down to the nearest grade on the side of the person applying for the permit, and the answer turns on whether the property is residential or commercial, and whether the fence is in the required front yard. The figure is 8 feet, for fence on a residential property.
- Permits
- Garland requires a permit for a fence as a rule rather than above a height.
- Pool barriers
- Texas requires a 48 inch fence around some pools, measured from the ground on the outside of the fence. The figure is 48 inches, for pool yard enclosure at a multiunit rental complex or property owners association pool.
- Spite fences
- Garland has no spite fence statute. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Measured from what
- Garland decides what counts as a fence at twelve inches. The figure is 12 inches, for height above which a structure counts as a fence.
- Corner lots
- Garland draws two corner triangles and the difference between them is what the fence faces, and the answer turns on whether the corner is a street meeting an alley or two streets meeting. The figure is 25 feet, for each leg of the triangle where a street meets an alley.
- Retaining walls
- A fence on top of a Garland retaining wall is measured from the ground beside the wall, not from the top of it.
- Materials
- Garland leaves fence materials to Garland Fence Ordinance 5435.
- 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 Garland?
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Garland answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
A Garland fence may run to the property line, and one kind of fence may not. A dog run or any other pen has to stay five feet off the adjoining line, and the rule falls away entirely if the animal has the run of the whole yard. So the setback attaches to the pen rather than to the animal, which means fencing a corner of the yard is regulated where fencing all of it is not.
Fences that will create a dog run or another pen must be kept five (5) feet from an adjoining property line.
5 ftsetback from an adjoining property line for a pen or dog run
Also on fences on the property line in Garland
- 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 Garland?
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Garland answers this, but the answer changes depending on whether the property is residential or commercial, and whether the fence is in the required front yard.
Eight feet on a residential lot and ten on a commercial one, measured from the top of the fence down to the nearest grade on the side of the person applying for the permit. That last detail decides the sloping yard: the applicant reads the ground on their own side, so the neighbor below may see more fence than eight feet. In a required front yard there is no fence at all outside agricultural and industrial zones, except wood or wrought iron under three and a half feet with open space built into it, or brick or masonry that is not cinder block under two and a half feet.
No fence may be higher than eight (8) feet on residential or ten (10) feet on commercial properties as measured from the top of the fence to the nearest grade from the applicant's side of the fence.
The answer turns on whether the property is residential or commercial, and whether the fence is in the required front yard.
- a residential property
- Eight feet. 8 ft
- a commercial property
- Ten feet. 10 ft
- a required front yard, wood or wrought iron
- Under three and a half feet, with open space required between the members. 3.5 ft
- a required front yard, brick or masonry other than cinder block
- Under two and a half feet. 2.5 ft
Also on fence height in Garland
- 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 Garland?
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Garland answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Garland requires a permit for a fence as a rule rather than above a height. The exception is narrow and every part of it has to hold at once: repair or rebuilding of an existing fence where the location does not change, the height does not change, the materials do not change, there is no pool on the lot and the lot has no alley or street intersection. Anything else is a permit, at fifty dollars residential and seventy five commercial.
Generally, a permit is required for all fences.
Also on permits in Garland
- 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 Garland
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Texas answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Texas 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.
This one is Texas law, not Garland law. All Texas findings
The height of the pool yard enclosure must be at least 48 inches as measured from the ground on the side away from the pool.
Health & Safety Code 757.003(b)
48 inpool yard enclosure at a multiunit rental complex or property owners association pool
Spite fence laws in Garland
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Garland 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 Garland 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 Garland
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Garland answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Garland decides what counts as a fence at twelve inches. Anything above that height that encloses, partitions or divides a yard is a fence and falls under the whole chapter, including the permit. A low border under a foot is not a fence at all. Most cities on this site never define the point at which a garden edge becomes a structure.
Fence shall mean any structure which exceeds twelve (12) inches in height above the nearest grade and which encloses, partitions or divides any yard as defined in the Zoning Ordinance.
12 inheight above which a structure counts as a fence
Also on how height is measured in Garland
- 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 Garland
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Garland answers this, but the answer changes depending on whether the corner is a street meeting an alley or two streets meeting.
Garland draws two corner triangles and the difference between them is what the fence faces. Where a street meets an alley the legs run twenty five feet from the intersection at the curb. Where two streets meet they run forty five. Both are measured from the curb or pavement line rather than from the property line, so the triangle starts out in the road and reaches back into the yard.
no fence may extend into the triangular area formed by extending the two (2) curb or pavement lines to a point:
The answer turns on whether the corner is a street meeting an alley or two streets meeting.
- a street meeting an alley
- Twenty five feet from the intersection at the curb. 25 ft
- two streets meeting
- Forty five feet from the intersection at the curb. 45 ft
Also on corner visibility in Garland
- left to the townTexas 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. Tex. Transp. Code 255.002Texas · Traffic code
Retaining wall rules in Garland
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Garland answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
A fence on top of a Garland retaining wall is measured from the ground beside the wall, not from the top of it. The wall does not buy height, which is the opposite of what a reader would guess and the reason a fence that looks legal from inside the yard can fail from the street. Separately, a masonry fence of four feet or more has to be engineered.
If the fence is constructed on top of a retaining wall it shall be measured from grade near the retaining wall.
Also on retaining walls in Garland
- left to the townTexas 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. Tex. Loc. Gov't Code 214.212(a)Texas · Statute
Fence materials allowed in Garland
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Garland does not set this. It leaves it to Garland Fence Ordinance 5435.
The Garland handout sets a structural test and then hands the material question somewhere else. A fence has to stand up to a seventy mile an hour wind, and which materials are allowed and which are banned is left to Fence Ordinance 5435, which the handout does not reproduce. So the list a reader needs is named but not printed with the rest of the rules.
See Fence Ordinance 5435 for proper and prohibited fence materials.
The code hands this to Garland Fence Ordinance 5435, which is not published in the code itself.
Also on materials in Garland
- 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 Garland
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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 Garland 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 Garland
- 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 Garland itself. Each was read on the date shown.
- Texas LegislatureTexas Agriculture Code, Chapter 143, Subchapter F, Removal of Adjoining Fences
- City of Garland, Building Inspection DepartmentFence Requirements, revised October 2008
- 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 Garland 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