Plymouth County has no fence-height ordinance; Massachusetts counties cannot zone. Height limits sit in each town's zoning bylaw, and MGL c.49 §21 makes any fence over six feet built maliciously to annoy a neighbor a private nuisance.
No county government in Massachusetts regulates fence height. In Plymouth County the binding limits live in each town's zoning bylaw. Brockton, Plymouth, Duxbury, Marshfield, Middleborough, and Wareham each set their own residential fence heights, commonly six feet in rear and side yards and four feet in front. Above those local caps, one statewide rule reaches every town: MGL c.49 §21 declares a fence over six feet that is maliciously erected to annoy an adjoining owner a private nuisance, giving the neighbor a tort action for damages.
A spite fence over six feet exposes the builder to a private-nuisance tort suit for damages under MGL c.49 §21. Ordinary height limits are enforced by each town's building department.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
Plymouth County, MA
No Plymouth County or state law limits holiday lights, inflatables, or yard displays. Towns rarely regulate seasonal decorations at all, and where a bylaw to...
Plymouth County, MA
No Plymouth County rule governs garage-sale signs; towns handle them through local sign bylaws. On your own lawn a yard-sale sign is generally fine, but a si...
Plymouth County, MA
Towns, not Plymouth County, regulate signs, through zoning bylaws authorized by MGL c.40A. Those bylaws must stay content-neutral: after Reed v. Town of Gilb...
Plymouth County, MA
Rental registration and inspection are local powers, not county ones. The State Sanitary Code under MGL c.111 §127A lets each town's board of health enforce ...
Plymouth County, MA
Massachusetts has no statewide just-cause eviction law, and no Plymouth County town can add one. A landlord ends a tenancy at will with 30 days' written noti...
Plymouth County, MA
Rent control is illegal across every Plymouth County community. Massachusetts voters banned it in 1994 through Question 9, now codified as MGL c.40P §4: no c...
See how Plymouth County's height limits rules stack up against other locations.
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