The rules, in plain English

Most of what gets repeated about fences is half right. Here is what the official guidance says, with a link so you can read it yourself. This covers England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own planning rules.

How high can a fence be?

You do not need planning permission to put up, alter, maintain, improve or take down a fence, wall or gate, as long as all of these are true:

• Next to a highway used by vehicles, or the footpath of one, it does not go over 1 metre from ground level.
• Anywhere else, it does not go over 2 metres from ground level.
• If what is already there is taller than that, you are not making it taller.
• No part of the site is a listed building or inside the grounds of one.
• It does not form a boundary with a neighbouring listed building or its grounds.
• The right has not been taken away by an Article 4 direction or a condition on a planning permission.

If any one of those is not true, you need to apply. Source: the Planning Portal.

Which fence is mine?

There is no rule that the left-hand fence is always yours. HM Land Registry says so plainly, and it adds that which side the posts and rails are on is not a reliable guide either. Boundary responsibility in England and Wales is not set out in one single law.

Your deeds are the place to look, along with the register that comes with the title plan. Be ready for them to say nothing. HM Land Registry's own guidance says these records "may include information about ownership or maintenance responsibility, but many do not".

A T mark on a boundary usually shows who owns that boundary structure, or who has to maintain and repair it, and it is conventionally drawn on that owner's side. Two T marks together, sometimes called an H mark, usually means the boundary is shared. But Land Registry warns that T marks are not always conclusive, and a T mark that is not mentioned in the wording of the deed has no special force in law. Read the deed wording, not just the plan.

If nothing in your deeds says otherwise, nobody is forced to put up a fence at all. Watch for a covenant though: that is a binding promise written into the deeds, and it can require you to maintain a boundary. Most boundary arguments are settled by one neighbour offering to split the cost.

Garden rooms and outbuildings

A garden room is usually permitted development, so no planning application. The limits that matter:

• Single storey, eaves no more than 2.5 metres.
• Overall height no more than 4 metres with a dual pitched roof, or 3 metres with any other roof.
• Within 2 metres of a boundary, the whole thing is capped at 2.5 metres. This is the one that changes designs.
• Nothing in front of the principal elevation, which is usually the front wall of the house.
• No more than half the land around the original house covered by buildings, counting what is already there. "Original house" means the house as first built, or as it stood on 1 July 1948 if it is older. A previous owner's extension counts against you.
• No verandas or balconies. A raised platform has to stay under 0.3 metres.
• Inside the grounds of a listed building, an outbuilding always needs planning permission.

Designated land means National Parks, the Broads, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, conservation areas and World Heritage Sites. On all of them, anything at the side of the house needs permission.

In National Parks, the Broads, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and World Heritage Sites there is one more limit: buildings more than 20 metres from the house are capped at 10 square metres in total. That cap does not apply in conservation areas. This matters locally, because Farnham, Guildford, Godalming and Haslemere all have large conservation areas. Source: the Planning Portal.

Building regulations are a separate question

Planning permission and building regulations are two different things. A room can be fine for one and still need the other.

In England, a detached garden building under 15 square metres of floor area with no sleeping accommodation in it does not normally need building regulations approval. Between 15 and 30 square metres it still does not normally need approval, as long as there is no sleeping accommodation and it is either at least one metre from any boundary or built substantially of non-combustible material.

Put a bed in it and the exemption goes, whatever the size. Source: the Planning Portal, is building regulations approval needed for an outbuilding. Confirm with your council's building control before you start.

Hedgehog gaps

You may have been told that hedgehog holes are now the law. They are not, nationally. Two public petitions have asked Parliament to make them compulsory, and neither succeeded.

What is true is that some councils now ask for them in new developments. East Cambridgeshire has gone furthest. Its adopted Hedgehog Recovery Design Guidance, in force since October 2024, tells developers that where a new home has a fence or wall boundary they must put at least one hedgehog hole along each such boundary, about 13cm wide and 13cm high. It applies to new developments, not to a homeowner replacing their own fence.

Other councils encourage it rather than require it. West Oxfordshire has run a voluntary scheme for residents. West Berkshire was asked to make hedgehog holes a planning condition and said no, on the grounds that a blanket rule would not be reasonable for every development.

When is a fence worth repairing?

Look at the posts, not the panels. A panel is a few minutes' work to change. If the post has rotted through at ground level, a new panel bolted to an old post will be back on the ground next winter. See fence repairs.

This page is general information, not legal advice. Rules change, and your council may have local conditions on your property. Always check before you build.