Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Rural Living Fence laws?

In Iowa it's the right hand rule. You own, and are responsible for the half on your right looking at the land across the fence.

Unless, it is recorded at the county recorder's office differently.

Here, if the fence is actually ON the boundary line, each party is responsible for half the maintenance and building.

Problem is, they can't/won't enforce it.

Recent length of fence I put up had 5 adjoining landowners.

I didn't even get a dime from any of them. Not even one offered.

SOooo.... I located the survey markers and instructed the fencing crew to keep everything on MY side of the boundary, thus making me the sole owner of said fence.

Here, they cannot legally tie into a fence they don't have interest in legally. They have to set their own braces and corner posts.

Barry, that's pretty much the way it is here. Supposedly, if I were to decide to put up a new line fence, I could force the adjoining landowner to pay half the costs. However, I do not personally know of a situation where this actually happened.

I did the same as you did on the fence that I put up last summer. It was in an old grown up fencerow, and the old existing line fence was still showing in places. We cut as many trees and limbs we needed, and ran the fence on our side of the line. The landowner on the other side would have paid for half the fence had we asked, but he had zero need for a fence, as he crops his side, and we run cattle on our side. So, in that case, I didn't think it right to hit him up for half the costs.

You can’t force someone to pay for a Fence they don’t want...

IF the fence is on the property line and both agree to it... then sure you should both pay for it - just good neighbors and I’ve been there.
I’ve also been where the other person doesn’t have means to pay, or doesn’t want to have a fence at all.... (I had dogs, they like open views)...

SO. ... What if the other guy doesn’t want a fence At all ?

Guess what - it has to be on your property (inside the line) and you have to pay for it ...

People assume it’s a law... Go find a law that says you can force someone to pay for a fence you put up and they don’t need or want...

LOL... we had a professor from california who didn’t want to pay capital gains by a 3 acre farm house plot and immediately he put in a IRON FENCE with stone pillars around his 3 acre farm house he just bought... Do you think he asked the neighbors to pay for half of the fence... BWHAHAHAHA. You guys are funny (ie. Who picks how much that fence you are making the neighbor pay for can cost?)

I'm not sure how the law reads here in AL. I know I've asked neighbors if I could tie into their fence and all were happy to allow me to. I've torn down, cleared, and re-fenced several lines that join neighbors. I simply talked to them and made sure they didn't mind that I was going to do it.....they've all been more than happy that I was.....then I did it. I never thought about asking them to chip in even though the fence is as much use to some of them (that run stock) as it is to me.

Same here... last place I moved into had 10 feet of hedge row between the properties on the back line, 4+ feet sticking through and over the fence between them.

I asked the gal in the back if I could cut it down... As it turned out the lady that lived there was a widow and 83 years old, I asked here if I could clear her side of the fence because it hung over my fence by 4+ feet and I was getting tired of cutting it so I didn’t get hit in the head mowing my side. When it was said and done, she was tickled and said it had been that way since her husband died, and should could not get the mowers to cut down the brush that started... she was really happy.

that’s how life should be...

I just looked it up, and Kentucky law states that if I wanted to, I could sue an adjoining landowner for half the expenses of erecting a fence along the property line. At least that's the way I read it, and have always heard it.

Interesting to see if that law has any teeth in it.

To be honest, I do not know of a case where it's been enforced, and I've had 2 different neighbors put up new fences, and never asked me to help, just as I put one up and didn't ask that guy to help. But......it is on the books, so who knows what would happen if it was tested in court.

I do know that we have some very strict laws here about livestock that gets out and gets on someone else's property, and what the offended landowner can do about it. The same way with someone's dog getting on your property. There is a big stink going on right now in the next county over, where someone's pet German Shepherds got on the neighbors property, where he had cows, and were killed. Supposedly, they were valuable dogs, and the owners have filed a civil suit over the dogs being killed, because they could not file a criminal one.

Bear in mind that different states have differing laws on all of this. .......just like differing courts have differing opinions on what they consider right or wrong.

I have always put a fence up just inside my property line.That way I don't have to screw with neighbors.. I have neighbors on three sides of me. County road on the 4th.These three neighbors moved in after me,and not on volunteered to even help maintain the fence,let alone pay for part of it. One neighbor has neither horses,cows, or pets so he doesn't need a fence.The other two I had to put up and electric wire to keep their horses off my fence.

Colorado law is a fence out state.If you don't want to have neighbor's livestock on your property, you have to fence them out.
Why or how could anyone think that if they wanted to put up a fence, their neighbor had to help pay for it?

Here, if you don't want someone else's livestock on your place, you have to fence them out.

I guess if the neighbors get tired of your cows eating the geraniums in the flower garden and crapping on the back patio, they may want to chip in for half the fence...

Each township / county / state has different ordinances that over take each other... (town over county, county over state, ....up to state level, they you get the goofy federal vs. state (inter-state) stuff...

If I'm reading it right, and I believe I am, it is the responsibility of any livestock owner to keep their stock fenced in........not the responsibility of the adjoining landowner to keep them out. If my cows get out, and get onto a neighbors property that is not fenced off, and do damage, I am not responsible............the first time, but I will be thereafter.

Also, if my stock gets out and does damage to my neighbor, he can attach a lien to my cattle. He can also hold them, if he goes to the trouble of catching them, and make me pay damages before getting them back. A male animal that keeps getting out and getting onto the neighbors property, and breeding the neighbors animals, may be caught and neutered.

Of course, there have been many farmers here accused of purposely allowing the neighbors bull to come onto their land and breed their cows, in order to keep from buying their own bull.

There was a case here where an Amish farmer with a large dairy herd, was not keeping his cattle fenced in, and allowing them to get into his neighbors soybean field. The Amish man was repeatedly warned, and finally the other farm caught several of the cows, took them to market, and sold them in order to pay for the damage. Turned out the bank had a lien on the cows, but the law was on the side of the farmer that sold them because he had documented his damage.

Personally, I have no problem with outcomes like that, as I believe in being responsible for what I own.

Are we talking states that have open range laws and states that do not?

I'm sure that Kentucky does not have an open range law.

I am a township trustee since 82, I've yet to get in on a fence viewing.

True. Kentucky has a law that states that if you harvest timber on your neighbors property, accidently or on purpose, you shall pay himTHREE times the price of what the timber sold for.

I know of an instance here, in which the boundary line fence was old and couldn't bee seen in most places, and one landowner got across the line and harvested a bunch of white oaks on his neighbor. They were what were called veneer quality, and worth a lot money. The man who cut them had to pay over $30,000 dollars to his neighbor.......and here's the kicker...........the neighbor was going to have the trees cut anyway.

In the county where I live the Township Zoning dictates what fencing laws are on the books. The Township were I live is zoned Agriculture One (exclusive ag) and fence division requires non-livestock landowners pay for half on any fence. Many city slickers have bought land and fought it but lost in the end.

I have been a Town Supervisor and a Town Chairman and been in on a few fence divisions and disputes. Many times the Town Board put out bids to install fences and the cost was passed on to a landowner's property taxes.

Not in Colorado,but the livestock owner maybe liable for damages.I think people east of the Mississippi have different slant on things

Might not be law where you live, but.......

Louisiana Law......

Art. 685. Common fences.

A fence on a boundary is presumed to be common unless there is proof to the contrary.

When adjoining lands are enclosed, a landowner may compel his neighbors to contribute to the expense of making and repairing common fences by which the respective lands are separated.

It takes a few years to go by the lawbook, and get a fence repaired here. If the trustees rule the fence needs work, or rebuilding, after some time, they hire it done, bill the land owner, if the bill is not paid, the county lawyer has the auditor add it to the tax bill. If that goes unpaid, the land goes up on a tax sale.

That sure is a sorry state. I'd hate to have to a relationship with a neighbor that came to that.

Good fences make for good neighbors........I don't care where you live.

Not many of my neighbors are worth even bothering with.

I just build new fence on MY side of the property line making them "good neighbors"...

I'm fixing to make 5 more neighbors, "good neighbors" by putting up a net wire deer proof fence.

They are 5 acre tracts. Between 3 of them they killed over 15 deer on their 5 acre tracts this season.

Had to get the game wardens out about 6 weeks ago because I found one illegal buck gutshot on my side of the fence, 30 yards from a feeder I found 5 feet from the boundary line, and guess what was in line behind where he was shooting?.... My house!

Idiot!

After the game wardens made him move the feeder, he called me and said he was sorry, he thought the feeder was just in line with my barn...

I'm just gonna high fence them out. See how many deer they raise on their huge "5 acre ranch" after that.

It's the same way here. I have 300 acres, all in one tract. I have a Mennonite neighbor a 2 acre lot, and guess where he hunts........on the fence line.

I have another neighbor, White trash, who has 10 acres, and all his stands are within spitting distance of the line. I'd get a call every year......we shot a deer on our side, and it went over on you, can we go get it. I finally said 'NO"........either learn how to kill a deer without it running off, or quit hunting the property line. Haven't had a call since.

It's the same everywhere. I have often wished I could put a high fence up.

This is the crap I'm fencing out...

First, I had the white trash neighbors rattle my windows with a high powered rifle shot one evening. WTH? His $300 trailer house is 200 yards from my front door...

Then a couple days later I saw buzzards on a gutshot illegal deer.



Upon looking at the deer, I found he'd placed a feeder 5' from the fenceline.



I got to looking, and saw where they had posted on facebook about shooting deer out of their living room window...



Directly behind that feeder about 100 yards is my HOUSE!



They are gonna squeal like a pig under a gate when I high fence them out.

But good fences make good neighbors...

I don't believe I'd like having to put up with chit like that. That idiot is really teaching his kid some good habits, and chances are the kid will grow up to be just like daddy.

Walk to the half way point. The fence on the right is yours.



If you have cattle.......your neighbors have to fence them out.


If you have sheep you have to fence them in.


If you are Jim F'ing Conrad you do all the fencing.

No one gives you any schit.

Jim!

I didn't know we shared the same middle name! COOL!

Middle name? That's the Only name some people call ME!

South Dakota has the walk to the middle, look across the fence, and you do the right side.

My neighbors and I get along well and there have been no problems but they are ranchers and I am a retired hobby farmer. We all have cattle.

I think here in Nebraska it's the right hand rule...standing on your side....that's what I was always told anyway...
For the most part the guy that needs the fence and has the livestock usually builds it with the nehbor share the cost...
We have a fence in fence out rule...if the nehbor doesn't want to fix his fence he will not have a leg to stand on....if your cows get in his corn....most of us take responsibility for our cows if they damage crops.....our nehbor has a rented farm with poor fences and his cows get in my corn every year and he takes responsibility ...he only needed to pay damages a few times...if it's not too bad I let it go...

Here in WI, Chapter 90, State Statites, covers fences. Sounds like many states represented here have similar statutes ; when a fence is needed to contain livestock, each LO is responsible to construct a mutually agreeable fence (minimums are defined in Ch 90). Each LO is responsible for the right half of the fence as each is facing their respective property line.
IF a LO refuses to cooperate, the other LO can petition the town board to construct the other guy's fence, which they will, then the twp will bill the obstinate LO when said fence is completed.

Wow, never gave this any thought, never really heard of the issue
other than the fights about where the fence had been built in relation to boundaries.

It always just seemed .like the person who wanted the fence( and usually the cows) built the fence. I know ranchers were the first settlers in many places,
And in the West they didn't fence. But I have a hard time getting past the
fact that "No cows, no problem", and whoever has cows, either has, or creates
the "problem. Making it their problem to fix.

Just can't imagine making a crop farmer pay to keep his neighbors
animals contained.

Geographic/cultural thing I guess.
Open range meets farmland.

Is it simply the fact that the cows were there first,
making the crops the problem?

That way in Arkansas now, but it has not always been that way. Free Range went away mostly back in the late 1950's and early 1960's, but not everywhere at once. I guess by county, but not sure. I know of one place where cows were roaming free, and the State Highway had a cattle guard in it, until the late 1970's. People fenced out, and the proof is that they did and most still do put the wire on the outside of their property fence. They don't know why except that is how it was always done. They have no idea that a cow should push against the post and not the staple. Of course most build with steel posts now, but they still put the wire on the outside. miles

I was taught years ago to string the wire on the side the cattle are on, as they tend to push against a non electric fence. If there are cattle on both sides, then the ranchers/farmers should check their fences a bit more often.

Years ago when I needed to erect a new perimeter fence (line fence) with a new neighbor who wasn't aware of and didn't understand our common fence law, I offered to build his "half" and just charge him for the materials.
He agreed to this, he met his responsibility and I got a good fence that I didn't need to worry about.

Lesson's learned, Never build a fence on your property line, unless you have a current staked survey. we have 75 miles of 8'6" high fence on our property line, and 16 miles of low fence , for cattle, and about 5 miles of pipe and cable horse fence. good fences don't make good neighbors, they help control bad neighbors. Rio7

That is absolutely true RIO7, it's amazing how some line fences are "off" when a legal survey is done, and the impacted neighbor is always defiant. If there are any exceptions, I haven't seen any.
You guys have some serious fence !!

Absolutely correct.

I find the survey markers, and flag them up, and take the fencing crews and show them those survey markers, and tell them to build the fence just inside my property line. Do NOT build my neighbor a fence!

I want ownership of the fence without question.

In this state the fence line is the legal boundary regardless of what a survey shows, if the fence has been in place for more than 15 years. Its called adverse possession.

I hate to disagree, but that's just not so.

15 years may be the duration of a hostile adverse possession claim, but usually the time period starts upon discovery... Which usually happens when one party or the other has a legal survey done.

Owning a surveying business for 25 years, licensed in 5 states helps me clarify some of these things.

Barry is right in just about every state I ever looked at . Adverse possession has to be adverse to the owner without his permission, if I built a fence 15 feet inside the line those 15 feet are still mine and adverse possession doesn’t apply as I’m the one that put up the fence

Here the clock starts when the fence is built. Someone has to complain within 15 years to restart the clock. I know of two Court cases in the last ten years in my county where land sold and a survey was done by the new landowner. Survey showed that the line should be over onto the adjoining property. Adjoining landowner would not agree to moving the fence. Both times the new landowner lost in court and the boundary was established by the Court where the fence had been in place for more than 15 years without anyone complaining. It did not matter who had owned the land previously. Both cases were decided on how long the fence had been in place without anyone complaining. Most of the time adjoining landowners will agree to put the fence on the line and split the cost. But that does not work when the they won't agree. It normally happens when one buys land that the other wanted.

I don't see anything that's much different in Kansas law than any other state.

Most differences are with the amount of time. 10 years, 15 years.. etc.

Usually a lawsuit has to settle the dispute.


Just because someone has had a fence over the property line for or beyond the 15 years doesn't mean they have clear title to it, or you lose title to it. Adverse possession claims are always on a clouded title as well. Most title companies won't guarantee title to a property that adversely claims property without a warranty deed. A quit-claim deed is not much good legally.

I agree. In both of these cases it cost WAY!!! more in legal fees than the disputed land was worth. They both came about because the parties did not like each other. So the Court had to establish the boundary.

I see both cases were new land owners as well.

Lawsuits involving parties that have been there awhile can be different.

If I was buying land and the survey revealed an encroachment like that, I'd make the seller resolve it, or not buy the property.

Around here Ag land is seldom sold with a survey. Most times the sale bill will state crop acreages are based on FSA info. The sale bill and deed on a section would say 640 acres more or less. Surveys are normally done after purchase by the new land owner. Most times they are never done. I have never had one done an any of the land I have bought in the last 35 years. The fences are still where the were when I bought the ground, it's all grassland. I get along with my neighbors.

The first place i bought after i got out of the army, was a repo I bought from the bank was South. of Jackson, Wyo. it had a log house and a shop, both about 90% finished but never lived in also had an old trappers cabin that was in not to good shape, no fences 160 acres plot map. no survey, after finishing the house and shop and building a barn.
I started staking out my corners to build fence, I had a old guy that lived in a nice small
log house to the East, and the Snake river on the north and the Hoback river West, National forest to the South, after studying my plot map I went to do my East corner and here comes the old man and his son that wouldn't wave or say hello and he started raising hell and hollering I was on his land,I tried to show him my plot map and he slipped it out of my hand.

He said he was going to call a survey guy he knew and have it surveyed to prove my plot map was wrong, then I would have to move my corner to where it belonged, I said That was ok with me. about a week later here came a survey crew, they were shooting a line from the North to the South East, turned my out my line was about 5" from his front door on his porch and cut threw his bed room and yard and garden, about 1/4 of his house was on my land and 1/2 his big garden was mine to. They set a corner at the national forest line.about 150' up the hill. they drove a 10 penny nail with a flag in his porch right if the front door. The old man was really pissed off and started hollering at everyone that could see he was going to sue everyone it got a little crazy there for a couple of day's, I asked the survey guy how much of my land is his house and yard on? he said about 1/3 of an acre. so I asked him to survey it off, and I went to the old man and told him I would give it to him if he let me be. it worked out but he hated me anyway.

Rio7 P.S. kinda long winded but I made it as short as i could hard to type with a broken hand.---- get a survey!

Rio, I've seen stuff like that quite a bit through the years. Some of it was REALLY bad. It was good of you to resolve it as you did. Most don't.

Ignorance. Willful ignorance too.

Had guys pull guns on me, follow me around while surveying, shouting threats, even had one guy keep tearing out a property corner I was resetting back to the plat of record.

First, he put the corner where he wanted it. The second time he just threw it out in the yard of the neighbor. Third time, he tore the rebar and cap out, and left a note "To the surveyor" that if he caught me resetting that corner again, he was going to shoot me...

I got the sheriff out there and made a believer of him. Can you imagine actually writing out a terroristic death threat?

He was a real dumbass.

I've heard this referenced in numerous conversations over the years, but have never read any legal language about this here in WI, so I've never been able to establish fact from fiction.

rockinbbar,I owned that place for 4 years,, sold it to a money guy from Calif. for over 10 times what I paid for it, now it's a housing development, you tube has a camera on the bridge and you can see the old man's cabin, I check it every once in awhile just see what else is going on, but have never regreted selling out. Iv'e owned 11 ranch's since then surveyed them all or had a survey, title ins. and all the other B.S. that goes with owning land. I learned clear title and survey are a must or no deal. Rio7

Without question, the only way to buy land. Period.


I got called in by a title company to go check a tract of land the title company had closed and the buyer built a house on. A rather expensive one... Over $500k.

Of course the title company required a survey for the closing. The buyer didn't want to pay for it. The buyer's lawyer even drew up a document absolving the title company from any claims resulting from future disclosures a survey may reveal. So, the title co. excluded coverage on boundaries or anything else survey related.

About 9 months later, the BLM contacted the buyer and asked him why he'd built his fancy new home on BLM land?

What did the guy do? He ran down to the title company and filed a claim saying they should have told him that land was BLM...

Last I heard, the title company said "Sorry. No cigar." Plus the BLM had him served with papers considering him in trespass, and ordering him to remove the house and restore the land back as it was.

In MO , if fence has been in place XX years without dispute it stays there.

actually in Missouri you can make the neighbor pay for half of fence if they also have cattle running against it. Now I don't know about a super fancy high-dollar fence making somebody pay for half of it that would be a little a****** leash. But if only one person runs cattle against the Border fence that person is solely responsible legally

They use Roman Numerals in MO?.....

Lol thought I fixed that. Its 10 years .I put xx till i looked it up to double check the time frame