Permits & Rules
Can I put a fence on my property line?
Usually yes, but confirm two things first. Some municipalities in this territory allow a fence directly on the boundary; others require it set back a few inches to a few feet, and that figure comes from your specific township or borough. Second, establish where the line actually runs — the old fence, the hedge and the mown edge are not evidence, a boundary survey is. Most contractors set the fence just inside the line so future staining, repair and post work can all be done from your own side.
The setback rule is municipal and it varies inside a single county. Some ordinances permit a fence right on the boundary, some require a small offset, and several treat a fence near a right-of-way or inside the sight triangle at an intersection differently again. Corner lots draw the most attention, because most ordinances in this territory treat both street frontages as front yards and apply the lower front-yard height limit along each of them. Ask the code office for the setback and the height limit in the same phone call.
Finding the line is the step people skip. The deed and the recorded plot plan describe the boundary; a survey with pins set in the ground proves it. Existing features prove nothing at all. In the older Delaware County townships especially, fences frequently sit well inside the true line because whoever built them kept clear of a hedge, a slope or a neighbour, and the mown edge migrated to match over the years. Building to a wrong assumption is the one fence mistake that cannot be fixed cheaply.
There is a practical argument for setting a few inches inside your own boundary even where the ordinance would let you build directly on it. A fence on the line has one face you cannot stand in front of without your neighbour's permission, and that matters every time it needs staining, a rail replaced or a post reset. Set it inside, and every future service visit happens on ground you control. The price of that is a few inches of yard you were never going to use.
Talk to the neighbour before the crew arrives rather than after. Show them the survey, tell them the height and the material, and settle which side faces out — many HOA standards and some ordinances require the finished face toward the neighbour or the street, and it is a far easier conversation in advance. Long-standing boundary features can also raise questions about where the legal line sits, and that is a question for a property attorney rather than for a fence contractor.
All of this is practical guidance rather than legal advice. What we do on our side is stake the layout and walk it with you before anything is dug, work to the surveyed line where one exists, and ask for a survey where the boundary is genuinely in question. We also confirm the setback your municipality enforces before we set the line, because that figure is written by the township or borough and not by the state.
