Ontario Fence Laws: Height, Ownership and Who Pays

Before you build or replace a fence, you likely want to know how tall it can be, whether it is yours or shared, and whether your neighbour must help pay. In Ontario the answers come from several places at once.

This overview sorts out which rules are provincial, which are municipal, and which questions a survey or lawyer should settle. It is general information, not advice for your property.

Height and design: check your municipality

There is no single Ontario fence-height rule. Municipalities may pass by-laws about structures, including fences, so height and design rules come from local by-laws. Materials, pool enclosures and setbacks are also local matters, so the rules in one city can differ from the next.

This matters even in a dispute with a neighbour. If a municipal by-law sets the height or construction of fences, a fence described in a fence-viewers' award must comply with it. Check the by-law before you buy materials or sign an agreement.

Who owns the fence and who pays

An owner of land may build, maintain and keep up a fence that marks the boundary between their land and the neighbour's land. The Line Fences Act gives neighbours a municipal process when they cannot agree on a new fence, or on repairing or rebuilding one on the boundary.

Through that process, fence-viewers decide how the work is divided and what the fence is made of. An award may have one owner build the fence and require the other to pay one-half of the costs.

• If one owner builds, rebuilds or repairs a line fence on their own initiative and then asks the neighbour to share the cost, the Act's arbitration process does not apply.
• Neighbours may instead sign a written agreement on the prescribed form, which may be registered and enforced as if it were an award.
• For land in a registered condominium, the condominium corporation, not the unit owners, is treated as the owner.

Because of the first point, talk to your neighbour and, if needed, start the process before work begins.

Does the Line Fences Act apply to you?

Not always. A local municipality may provide that the Act does not apply to all or part of the municipality, except section 20, which deals with former railway land next to farms and still applies throughout the municipality. The Act also does not apply to land that is a public highway. In unorganized territories with no municipality, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness handles fencing dispute arbitration.

Your municipal clerk can tell you whether the Act applies where you live.

Boundary lines, surveys and trees

The fence process does not decide where the property line is. The Ontario government says owners must settle boundary disputes themselves, often with legal advice and a survey. Preparing plans and documents that determine a boundary is cadastral surveying, and no individual may practise it without a licence under the Surveyors Act, unless working under the supervision of a licensed member.

Where there is doubt about the true location of a boundary, an application may be made to the Director of Titles to confirm it under the Boundaries Act. It must include an up-to-date plan of survey signed by a surveyor and the survey's field notes. Once confirmed and certified, the boundary is deemed to be the true boundary of the parcel.

Trees on the line have their own rules:

• A tree whose trunk grows on the boundary is the common property of the owners of both lands.
• Injuring or destroying such a tree without the landowners' consent is an offence, with a possible fine of up to $20,000, up to three months in prison, or both.
• Planting trees on the boundary requires the neighbouring owner's consent.
• If a tree falls on a line fence, the owner or occupant of the land where it stood must immediately remove it and repair the fence.

What to do next

• Read your municipality's fence by-law for height, materials and setbacks.
• Confirm where the boundary is, using a survey if there is any doubt.
• Talk to your neighbour early and put any cost-sharing deal in writing.
• Ask the clerk whether the Line Fences Act applies to your property.
• Do not cut or remove a tree on the boundary without both owners' consent.
• Get legal advice if the line itself, a long-used strip of land or a large cost is in dispute.

Frequently asked questions