I need to find out the laws of buiding a fence, and who is supposed to pay for it.?

Answer 1

Your city hall should be able to help you with the building codes. You will pay for it unless you can find a reason for the city to do so. If you share it with a neighbor, you might try to get them to pay half.

Answer 2

Your local library should have a copy of your municpality's by-laws regarding fence placement and height restrictions.

In my first home, my new neighbours were very private people who wanted a solid fence. I did not want the shade and refused to pay for half. In the old City of Toronto, that meant that they had to erect their fence one foot in from our mutual property line.

I came home for lunch from work one summer day to find that they had begun to tear down the exisitng chain link fence without my permission. Since I had 2 kids and a dog and hadn't been informed, I was quite annoyed and called the City to see what I could do about it.

An inspector came around and issued a stop work order and gave me and my neighbours a copy of the by-law that they were breaking.

At their expense, they had to put back the chain link fence that had been illegally removed and build their solid, sun-blocking, breeze-blocking and UGLY fence a foot from the existing fence. So there was a 100 foot by 1 foot strip of ground between the two fences.

So before you do anything rash, make nice-nice with the neighbours and do your homework. It'll save you a lot of grief and money!

Answer 3

There aren't laws that force you to pay for a fence that is between you and your neighbor. Since you didn't mention the type of fence and who it keeps out, I am presuming it's between you and your neighbor. There are laws that prevent you from putting a tall fence in front of your house that will obstruct the view of automobiles from seeing pedestrians. Most fences in front of the line that is even with the front of your house need to be less than 42 inches tall. If you have a property that borders a city property or a public nuisance, you can try to get the city to pay for the fence to keep the nuisance from going onto your property. There are lots of types of fences, and different jurisdictions handle them differently. Your building department will have a sheet of paper identifying the laws in your area, and have suggestions on how to get someone else to help pay for it. Good luck

Answer 4

Contact your county code office for laws. If you want a fence on your neighbors property, they can pay for it, or not put it in. If you want one on your property, near a highway for example, it's still your problem unless you go to meetings and convince the county to pay for it with taxpayer money. If you want one on your property (to keep out neighbors or keep your dogs in or even to keep their dogs out) it's YOUR cost. Again, be sure to call county code because there are laws about fences, even trees, being too close to the other guys property. Usually trees can go right on the line, but if your neighbor wants to hang lights or chop off branches that hang on HIS SIDE OF THE LINE, he can. If you mean a wood or permanent fencing structure, you may have to put it 5 to 10 feet onto YOUR property side..thus giving the neighbor the illusion his property is even larger.

Answer 5

You will need to find out such things as, set back, maximum height, etc.

You will need to go to your city or county building department (depending on where you live) to find out what building codes apply, and then you will probably need to go to the planning department to find out the local zoning ordinances.

As far as who pays for it, that would probably have to be negotiated between the owners on each side of the fence.

As I understand it once the fence is built it belongs to the person whos property it's built on.