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

Siskiyou County's zoning ordinance does not establish rules for who pays for or maintains a shared boundary fence between neighbors. Those questions are controlled by California state law, specifically Civil Code Section 841, known as the Good Neighbor Fence Act. Under that statute, adjoining landowners are presumed to share equally in the responsibility for maintaining the boundaries between them, and are presumed to be equally responsible for the reasonable costs of construction, maintenance, or necessary replacement of a fence dividing their properties, unless they agree otherwise in writing. A landowner who intends to incur costs for a fence must give 30 days' prior written notice to each affected adjoining landowner, including notice of the presumption of equal responsibility, a description of the problem, the proposed solution, the estimated cost, and the proposed cost-sharing approach. The equal-cost presumption can be overcome by a preponderance of the evidence showing that equal responsibility would be unjust, for example where the financial burden is substantially disproportionate to the benefit one owner receives. In that case a court may order a lesser contribution or none. Property-line location, encroachment, and trespass questions remain matters of private property law and surveying, not county ordinance, so neighbors should resolve disputes through written agreement or, if needed, civil remedies rather than county enforcement.