Stanislaus County, CA Fence Regulations: Neighbor Fence Rules (2026)

The County Zoning Ordinance regulates how tall a fence can be and where it may sit (Sections 21.28.040 and 21.24.040), but it does not decide who pays for a shared boundary fence. That question is answered by California Civil Code Section 841, the Good Neighbor Fence Act of 2013, which applies countywide including unincorporated Stanislaus County. Under Section 841, adjoining landowners are "presumed to share an equal benefit from any fence dividing their properties" and are "presumed to be equally responsible for the reasonable costs of construction, maintenance, or necessary replacement of the fence." A landowner who intends to incur costs for a boundary fence must give each affected adjoining owner 30 days' prior written notice describing the problem, the proposed solution, the estimated cost, the proposed cost-sharing, and the timeline. The equal-responsibility presumption is rebuttable: a neighbor can show that sharing costs equally would be unjust, considering factors such as disproportionate financial burden, the actual benefit, and financial hardship. Disputes over cost-sharing are civil matters between owners, not zoning enforcement issues. For the physical fence itself, the County's height-by-yard rules and vision-clearance limits still control.