Fence laws by topic

What each question looks like across the country

Every figure below is counted from the findings behind these pages, not estimated. The 51 is all 50 states plus the District of Columbia.

Who pays for a fence on the line

39 states have a statute that splits the cost of a boundary fence between two neighbors. The other 12 have nothing on it, which leaves the split to whatever the two owners agreed and to the courts. Most of the statutes that do exist were written for farms in the eighteen hundreds and were never rewritten for a suburb.

How tall a fence can be

This is the most searched fence question and the one state law almost never answers. One place sets a height in its own law, the District of Columbia. The other 50 do not, so the number that governs a yard comes from a city or county ordinance. A national figure for fence height does not exist.

Permits

49 states answer the permit question, and nearly all of them answer it the same way. The state adopts a building code, and that code exempts a fence under a set height from needing a permit. Where the exemption names a height it is six or seven feet, so a fence built to the local maximum often crosses the line into needing a permit.

Pool barriers

39 states set a rule for the barrier around a pool, and it is the strictest fence rule most homeowners will ever meet. Four feet is the most common minimum height. The rules that come with it cover the gap under the barrier, the size of any opening, and whether the gate swings away from the water and latches on its own.

Spite fences

12 states have a statute about a fence built to annoy a neighbor rather than to serve the property. Those statutes usually set a height it has to exceed and require proof of the intent. In the other 39 there is no statute, which is not the same as there being no remedy, because a nuisance claim does not need one.

How height is measured

Where the tape starts changes the answer as much as the limit does. 15 states say it in their own law, 28 hand it to the town, and 8 have nothing on record either way. The three places this splits are the grade it is measured from, which side of a slope counts, and whether a lattice top or a post cap is part of the height.

Corner lots

47 states address the triangle of clear sight at an intersection, but 18 of them do it by pointing at local rules instead of setting the size themselves. The rule is normally written about anything that blocks a driver's view rather than about fences, so a hedge and a fence are treated the same way.

Retaining walls

A wall that holds back earth is a structure, not a fence, and it is permitted on different terms. 34 states leave the threshold to the local building department. Where a state does name one, four feet of retained height is the line that shows up most often, measured from the bottom of the footing rather than from the ground in front.

Materials

47 states say something about what a fence may be made of, and almost all of it is about barbed wire and electric fence rather than about wood or vinyl. A ban on a material in a front yard is a city rule. What a state restricts is usually a material that can injure somebody.

Livestock

50 of the 51 define a lawful fence for livestock, and the definitions are the most exact fence rules in American law: the number of wires, how far apart the posts stand, how high the top wire runs. These are also the oldest, and in much of the west they decide who pays when an animal gets out.