what is the legal height i can put a fence round my property?

While I suspect it may be up to 6 ft in your back garden it can vary in your front garden considerably. You need to check with your local laws/planning office so you dont make a costly mistake? The saying is 'good fences make good neighbours' but they can be so upset by new fences so tread carefully

Just what I was going to post Drc - different councils have different rules.

4ft unless you have an agrement with your nabour, that is a fence betwen two properties, (party fence) unless the fence 7ft was there befor your nabour mover in,any higher than 7ft and you are interfearing with his light.

Head for your Council office FIRST....then there can be no arguments later. Fences are a bone of contention and a written permission/agreement with the local Jobsworth - puts you in the right from the offset!

It does not matter what the agreement between neighbours is Cliffo.You need to check what you can do because if you go against the laws where you live they will make you alter/take it down. I could only have a 6ft fence on my side garden yet the neighbour could build a 2 storey extension right up to the same boundry.Also the right to light is a well misunderstood phrase!

sorry to sound like a know it all but read the new lawrs on laylandi and fences ,councils are all the same on that subject or should be

Unfortunately they aren't Cliffo - in Scotland, for example, the Scottish Exec. sets the guidelines but each individual council makes the final decision.

as for the right to light and extentions I agree, I represented a frend when a nebour of hers had a conservatry built and standing in that extention you could see right into her living room, I was not called untill the foundations were in , i won the case with the council but while I was geting meetings the contractor got on with the job and the council would not stop him untill it was to late ,if we had had the money to take him and the council to court I was ashored that we would have won, the council said there is nothin we can do because it is up now, two of his brothers were on the planing board, so I agree the ordanery folk have no chanch and if you have power you can'not loose.

A fence or wall can only be 1 metre high where it is next to the public highway or public footpath. If you require a higher boundary then you will need planning permission. If you plant a tree/shrubs on your side of it then there isn't much anyone can do. The land adjacent to your property along the highway/pavement is public highway and owned by the local authority. Only they can obtain an order under Part 8 The Anti Social Behaviour Act 2003 to make sure you keep any hedges planted along there to 2m. You should always enquire of your local planning authority before erecting a fence or wall.
Boundary fences/walls adjacent to neighbouring properties, sides and rear of property should be no more than 2 metres high. If you want them higher you need planning permission. People do plant hedges and a lot of the time they are left to grow. You are able to complain to the local authority for an order (as above P8 ASBA 2003) although this will cost you money depending on the local authority.

Sorry, the laws and regulations I was referring to are only applicable to England and Wales, Scotland may have other statutes in place. Go to your local planning office and they should be able to help.
For less important matters like painting a fence which is the boundary responsibility of a neighbour, attaching trellis to it or growing plants up it, etc can be agreed - 'subject to contract' between neighbours. You really need to ask before you do anything!! Before you do anything to a fence/boundary, check your title plan. There should be an inverted 'T' on the boundary which is your responsibility. This should be provided when you go through the conveyancing procedure when buying a property. The Land Registry should have this information if your property is registered.

As you can see - you have raised a thorny question - and as Moon Grower and I suggested at the beginning...just go to your own local Council Office and ask them what the rules are in YOUR area as they DO differ from one county to the next. Good luck

Yup they definitely do Alzh.

juat a point of intrest Welsh water told me the other day that you can not plant a tree within nine meaters from any building,

Blimey Cliffo ...within nine metres is sure going to stop a lot of people being able to plant a tree in their gardens...which I suppose is the idea!!! LOL
Makes me almost glad they slapped preservation orders on all of mine..despite them being MUCH closer than that!

Alzheimer you are fortunate to have those trees , the older they are the nicer they are, I surpose their concern is for drains, although I belive willow are the only one's that brake in to drains, we need a lot more trees not less.

I ADORE my trees - and would have more not less but don't you believe it - there are plenty others that break into drains...as I have good cause to know.
The youngest daughter planted out a small table model Xmas tree about 40+ years ago. That sitka spruce is now all of 60 foot tall and caused over £2000 in damages to our drains about 15 years ago. What a mess too...the roots had broken in and formed nests of rootlets inside - totally blocking the whole system. That magnificent specimen (as the arborist described it last year!!) had been enjoying "breakfast in bed" with all the extra "nutrients" eeek! Our poor neighbour has to put up with all the pine needles on his car all year round and we weren't even allowed to lop a couple of the lower branches off that hung over the wall! I guess that's what you get for living in a conservation area ...but I wouldn't swap my 150 year old cottage for anything!

9 metres is a heck of a distance - I think someone was winding you up Cliffo :-)

Alz. We love our trees too but I'm glad there isn't a preservation order on them. Recently the council decided we needed new street lighting, don't ask me why to old lights were perfectly good! Seems these new light had to be exactly 40 metres apart. This would have meant that the holly tree in our front garden would have had to go as the mark was bang in front of it... I chatted to the workmen who came to dig the hole for the new pole and it migrated approx 2 metres to the side :-)

Well done, MG....my chum had a similar experience with a street light - and also chatted to the workmen - having put in a request to the council for it to be changed as the point earmarked was very near one of the two entrances to her newly laid lok-blocked U-shaped car park/avenue area - making driving in very tricky.
They agreed it needed to be moved - guess where it landed up - slap bang in the middle of the other entrance - so she can NOT use it. I suspect there was a wicked glint in the eye of the Jobsworth involved - as her Father had been Provost a few years before!!!

Oh how frustrating Alz... I fed them cups of tea and biscuits. They even showed me how to get into the box to plug in our Christmas lights!

it seams daft to me Moon grower, but I was trying to get a drawing of the drains were I intend siting my fruit trees the council directed me to dee valie water , my surplyer ,(I could through a stone into the dee from were I live) they directed me to welsh wates in cardif, I was then directed to Stoke were their engnier has his offic , apart from telling me that it would cost me £20.00 for the drawing it would cost me over a£100.00viset from an enginer, and I do not think he was joking when he said that under the new law I would not be allowed to plant (any)tree within nine meaters of a bulding, I know for a fact Alzheimer that you need permition from the forestry commishion to fell a tree of a certain circumference' but your trees are even out of their hands,I am certain that a tree that grows to six or seven feet will not have roots that would bother a building a lot less than that from it , and when pointed out to him all I got was well that is the law, remind me who was it that said the law is an ass.

Cliffo I believe that each council has a Tree Officer - could you not check with him regarding rules and regs. We've certainly got trees a lot nearer our house than 9 metres

Oh dear - some of my trees - the rowans in particular are about 10-12 FEET from the house and one in particular must be 25 feet high with a canopy to match...and the ivy has colonised it big time..and many moons ago. That's what you get in a garden this old - thank goodness...as I love my trees. Yes indeed MG - each council in Scotland has its own Tree Officer and ours is a delightful lady ..whose office is smack across the road ...and she just has to look out of her window to enjoy my trees..ha ha !

that may be the case in Scotland, but in cheshire they do not have sutch a person,and nither were I come from in Wales, in both cases all trees come under the forestry commition, my intrest was in drains because , in the event some time in the future the water board wishing to dig up the drains for some reason ,I do not want my trees disturbed, I have cancled the trees as far as he water board know, and I have been lifting manhole covers and have made my own drawing of direction and depth, I can now go ahead with the prep for planting ignoring the new law, and to---- with the drains and the new law.