Fence Height, Property Lines and Talking to Your Neighbour

The technical part of a boundary fence is straightforward. The part that causes trouble is everything either side of it.

Front yards and back yards are different

Rear and side boundaries are generally allowed more height than a front yard fence, and corner lots carry sight-line restrictions near the intersection.

Requirements vary across the county, so what your friend built in another city is not a guide to what suits yours.

Find the line before you build on it

Fences get built on assumptions surprisingly often, and a fence a few inches over the line is a problem your neighbour controls rather than one you do.

A fence set just inside your own boundary is entirely yours: yours to maintain, yours to replace, yours to decide about.

Have the conversation first

A shared boundary affects two properties. Ten minutes of conversation before anything is ordered avoids most of the disputes we see.

It also opens the possibility of sharing the cost, which people are often more willing to do than expected.

The good-neighbour question

A standard fence has a finished side and a framed side. Board-on-board construction looks the same from both, which removes the argument entirely.

It uses more timber and costs more. On a shared boundary it is frequently worth it.

If the existing fence is theirs

Sometimes the fence on your line belongs to next door. Replacing it is then their decision, not yours, however tired it looks.

We will tell you if that appears to be the case rather than taking the job and letting you find out afterwards.