Garden fence heights on a hill. Whats the law?

laurz121

I know there are rules regarding how high you can build fences on your boundary but i'm a bit confused about how that works when you live on a hill.

What I mean is that I know you can build a fence to around 6 foot or something but because I live on a hill a 6 foot fence on one side of my house would be 6 foot to me but to my neighbour it would be an almost 10 foot high fence because of the drop from my property to theirs.

On the other side if I erected a 6 foot fence on the edge of my property 4 foot of it would be below the height of the next door neighbours driveway so it would only be 2 foot high to them.

The problem is that it provides no privacy at all. It doesnt even come up to the top of their legs so to provide and kind of privacy i'd need to build a 10 foot fence.

I hope that makes a little bit of sense to you because most people just look at me blankly when I explain.

Any advice on how the law works? Is it 6 foot (or 2m whatever it is) from the height of your land or theirs?

withabix

It's the height from highest point on the ground.

This also applies to your neighbour as well though - they could erect a 6 foot high fence that would appear to be 10 feet high to you.

laurz121

Ah thats 'great news. I'd love the neighbours to build a 10 foot high fence because the garden is really over looked.

It's not that we don't get along with our neighbours, theyre great. It's just that it would be nice to be able to relax in the back garden without feeling that the neighbours are stood above us looking down even though in reality I don't think they are

wheels1

I had a similar dilema, called the local authority, they actually sent someone out who gave really good advice. Better than getting it wrong and having to remove it someone complains. You could give them a quick call?