Massachusetts imposes no general duty to split a boundary fence's cost; each owner fences their own land. The one statewide neighbor rule is MGL c.49 §21: a malicious fence over six feet is a private nuisance the neighbor can sue over.
In Hampshire County a shared boundary fence is a private matter, with no county government to intervene. No statute forces one neighbor to pay half of a residential division fence, so cost-sharing happens only by voluntary written agreement. A survey establishes the true line before building; an encroaching fence is resolved in civil court, not by any town or the vanished county. The statewide protection every neighbor keeps is MGL c.49 §21, which turns a fence over six feet built maliciously to annoy an adjoining owner into a private nuisance carrying a tort action for damages.
An encroaching fence is a civil trespass a court can order removed. A malicious spite fence over six feet exposes the builder to a nuisance suit for damages under MGL c.49 §21.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
Hampshire County, MA
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See how Hampshire County's neighbor fence rules rules stack up against other locations.
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