Washington has no shared-fence-cost law, so neighbors in Whatcom County split a boundary fence only by voluntary agreement. Each owner is responsible for the fence on their own land. A fence built purely to spite a neighbor can be challenged as a nuisance.
Unlike California, Washington has no statute forcing an adjoining owner to pay half of a division fence, so cost-sharing in Whatcom County is entirely voluntary and best put in writing. Each owner maintains the fence on their side of the surveyed line, and a fence encroaching over the boundary is a civil matter resolved in Superior Court, not by the county. Washington also recognizes the spite-fence doctrine: a fence built with no real purpose beyond annoying or injuring a neighbor can be treated as a private nuisance under RCW 7.48 and ordered removed. A boundary survey settles most disputes before they start.
An encroaching fence can be ordered removed as a civil trespass. A malicious spite fence can be enjoined and taken down as a private nuisance, with damages.
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See how Whatcom County's neighbor fence rules rules stack up against other locations.
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