Do you need a survey to build a fence?
Almost certainly not to get the permit. Very possibly to sleep at night. Those are two different questions and nearly everything written about this answers only the second one — usually on a page belonging to somebody who sells surveys.
The short answer, split in two
Will the building department make me get one? Of the 55cities whose fence ordinances we have encoded from each city's own municipal code, 1 requires a survey with the application. 1 names a survey as one of several ways to show where your line runs. The other 53 never mention one — they ask for a scaled, dimensioned plot plan, which you can draw yourself.
Do I need to know where my property line is?Yes, and this is the part the surveying firms are right about. Knowing the line and buying a survey are not the same purchase, though — a plat, findable corner markers, or your county's own parcel map may already tell you what you need, and sometimes none of them do.
What 55 cities actually say
This site carries the fence rules for 55US cities, transcribed from each city's own code with a link to the source. We searched every one of them for the word “survey”. Two cities use it, and they use it to mean opposite things.
What this count is, and what it is not
These 55 cities were chosen because their counties publish parcel data we can use, not at random — they sit in 5states, and there are roughly 19,500 incorporated places in the US. The rules were also transcribed to drive height and setback checks, so a survey demand that lives only in a department's submittal checklist rather than in the code could be missed. Treat 1 in 55as a strong hint that your city does not require one, and your city's own fence handout as the answer.
What a survey costs — nobody will say
We went looking for a number to put here and could not honestly find one. What we found instead is worth knowing before you start ringing round.
The practical version: a survey is priced off your specific lot, so the only real number comes from ringing two local firms with your address and parcel number. Anyone publishing a confident average has not seen your lot either.
When you should hire a surveyor anyway
We would rather you did not spend $0 with us and then several thousand on a boundary dispute. These are the cases where the answer is yes and no drawing tool changes it.
- Your city asks for one. One of the forty-nine cities here does. Read your own city's fence handout before anything else on this page — it is the only ruling that binds you.
- The fence is going ON the line rather than inside it. A fence set a foot inside your own boundary is forgiving of a foot of error. A fence built on the line is not, and that is the case where a few inches becomes a legal problem years later.
- A neighbour disputes where the line runs. No map settles a boundary dispute. A licensed surveyor's monumented corners are the thing a court and a title company recognise; a county parcel polygon is not.
- You cannot find a plat, a deed exhibit or any corner markers. If nothing on the ground or on paper tells you where the boundary is, you are guessing — and a drawing of a guess is still a guess.
- The lot is irregular, unplatted, or the aerial photo does not match the paperwork. Curved frontages, flag lots, vacated alleys and old metes-and-bounds descriptions are exactly where GIS parcel layers are least reliable.
- A lender, title company or HOA is asking for one. Their requirement is theirs, and it is unrelated to whether the building department needs it.
What we give you instead, and where it stops
Questions people actually ask
- Do I need a survey to get a fence permit?
- Usually not. Of the 55 US cities whose fence ordinances are encoded on this site from each city's own municipal code, 1 requires a survey with the application — Tarpon Springs, Florida — and 1 names a survey as one of several ways to prove where your line runs, explicitly allowing "other reasonable means" as well. The other 53 never mention one. That is a sample of the cities this tool supports, not a national census, so check your own city's fence handout before you draw a conclusion from it.
- Is the county's parcel line the same thing as a survey?
- No, and the difference matters in one direction only. A county GIS parcel polygon is the same outline your plan reviewer has on screen, which is why it is good enough to show a fence's position on a permit drawing. It is not a boundary survey: it is not monumented on the ground, it carries no surveyor's seal, and it will not settle where a line actually runs. Use it to draw a permit sheet. Do not use it to decide a disagreement with a neighbour.
- What does a boundary survey cost?
- Nobody will tell you until they see the lot, and the published numbers are not worth much. Checked on 2026-08-23: a Florida surveying firm's own cost guide publishes no price at all and says surveys are priced per project, listing only hourly rates of $130–$281 for a two-person crew and $136–$383 for a licensed surveyor; a paid site-plan service quotes $1,200–$5,500 in one place on its page and $100–$600 in another. If you need one, ring two local firms with your address and parcel number and ask for a quote — that is the only number that will be real.
- Can I just build to the existing fence?
- It is the most common way people end up in the wrong place. An old fence is evidence of where somebody once thought the line was, and fences drift — replaced a foot over, rebuilt to a hedge, set inside the line to make mowing easier. If you are replacing a fence in the same trench and your neighbour is content, the risk is small. If you are moving it, or the neighbour is new, do not treat the old line as the boundary.
- What happens if the fence ends up over the line?
- At best you move it at your own cost. At worse your neighbour can require it removed, and in some states a fence left in place long enough can affect the boundary itself. This is the real risk the surveying firms are pointing at when they answer this question with yes, and they are not wrong about it — it is just a different question from whether your permit will be issued.
- So what do I actually need for the permit?
- A scaled, dimensioned plot plan: your lot with its boundaries, the buildings already on it, the fence you propose with its lengths, height, material and gates, a scale, a north arrow, and the distance from the fence to each boundary. Fence Plotter draws that on a satellite image of your own address for free, using the county's parcel outline where we have it. It is a permit drawing, not a survey, and it says so on the sheet.
Start with your address. If your county is covered, the real lot lines come up on their own.
Draw my site plan →Fence Plotter prepares the drawings your application asks for. It is not a land survey, it does not file anything and it does not approve anything — confirm survey, height, setback and material requirements with your building department before you build.