How close can i build to my boundary: The request could not be satisfied
How Close Can You Build to Your Property Line? What You Need To Know!
Whether you are purchasing a new property that you want to construct a home on or are simply adding a structure to an existing property, one of the biggest questions you may have is how close you can build to the property line. Unfortunately, this isn’t easy to answer because it can vary considerably depending on where you live and what you want to build. Keep reading as we look at several factors that can affect how close you can build to your property line.
Contact Your Local Authorities
Image Credit: Sean Locke Photography, Shutterstock
The first thing that we recommend doing is contacting your local building official to learn more about the laws governing construction near the property line. Every municipality should have a website that lists whom you will need to contact for the answers that you need. You might even be able to find out the answers yourself by carefully reading over the local laws. It will also help you determine if you need to apply for any permits. The easiest way to find your local municipality’s website is to type your city followed by the word, “building,” into your favorite search engine.
Setback
One of the biggest things affecting how close you can build to the property line is what structures are outside it. For instance, property lines facing a street may need to leave space for a sidewalk. This space is called a setback, and its size will vary from town to town. You might face setbacks on two sides if you own a corner lot. Other things that can create a setback include rivers, lakes, railroad tracks, power lines, and more. Many areas have a standard setback of 10 feet for the front and back of a property and 4 feet for the sides.
Why Do We Have Setbacks?
Besides allowing space for curbs and sidewalks, setbacks help ensure that buildings aren’t too close together, thus creating a fire hazard. Setbacks may also allow space for underground utilities.
Buildings
If you are constructing a building, like a garage or a shed, and there are no setbacks in place, most municipalities will allow the construction a few inches from the property line. A garage is especially easy to build near the property line if it faces directly into your property with the door near the line.
Permits
Adding any type of structure, including a garage, will usually require a permit. You can obtain permits by visiting your municipality’s website to read the local laws and find out who can help you. Not receiving the proper permit before construction can affect your homeowner’s insurance. It can also leave you open to legal problems and fines.
Image Credit: wolfields, Pixabay
Fencing
The laws governing fences can be tricky. If there is no sidewalk or street requiring a setback, you can usually build close to, if not right on, the property line. If you do want to place the fence right on the line, you will likely need permission from the neighbors who share the property line with you to minimize property disputes.
Some states, like Pennsylvania, require the two parties to share in the expense of installing and maintaining it.
You can build a fence a few inches from the property line to avoid involving neighbors, but you will need to maintain your property on the other side. Allowing the neighbor to have exclusive use of the area on the other side of the fence for several years can allow them to gain rights to the property in many states through prescriptive easement and adverse possession, so you’ll need to be careful when using this strategy. If your neighbor also builds a fence a few inches from the property line, you will need to work out a way to access and maintain the property between the two fences.
Prescriptive Easement and Adverse Possession
A prescriptive easement is when a neighbor has had exclusive use of an area for many years. This person can argue in court that since they have used it so long uncontested, they can continue to do so, preventing you from doing something different with the land, even though you are still the owner.
Adverse possession is the same as a prescriptive easement, except that the property’s constant exclusive use can cause it to become part of the neighbor’s property permanently.
- See Also: Do I Need a Permit to Build a Wall in My House? What You Need To Know!
Summary
Before constructing anything new on your property, we highly recommend checking with your local municipality to check the local laws. The website should tell you about any permits that you need and any setbacks that you need to follow. You will usually only need to stay a few feet inside your property for anything but a garage or a fence, though you will still need to consider the placement of these items carefully.
Featured Image Credit: bridgesward, Pixabay
Contents
How Close to a Property Line Can I Build a Garage?
Before you jump into construction on your new garage, you’ll need to know the setback regulations for your area, which determine how close you can build to your property line.
Looking to increase your storage space with a new garage? If you’re planning on building a detached structure on your property, you’ll need to know more than just its dimensions. Most cities and municipalities have local regulations in place that determine where you can build a detached structure—like your new garage—even on your own property.
These local regulations are called setbacks—but what are they exactly, and how do you get the information you need? Look no further than
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What is a setback?
A setback is a general regulation on a structure that determines how close it can be to other buildings on the property.
Setbacks also dictate how close structures can be to property lines—or, in other words, how far they must be “set back” from the property line.
Unfortunately, setback regulations aren’t uniform, even on a state level. Individual municipalities tend to dictate their own rules and guidelines, making for lots of variation in setbacks from place to place.
Why you need to know about setbacks
Generally speaking, you’re pretty much entitled to do on your property as you please.
But if you’re building new structures, there are often various local laws that dictate where you can build on your property, along with other structural features like how big or tall your structure can be.
These regulations are primarily in place to protect property values—both yours and your neighbor’s. Setbacks are among such regulations, but they can get a little trickier to decipher than simple size codes.
Setbacks not only vary from place to place—but they can also vary from yard to yard! You may be subject to different setbacks depending on whether you’re putting your garage in your front or back yard (or even on the side of your house).
In fact, each side of your yard will likely have its own setback rules.
That’s why any good garage-building project should include adequate research into your area’s setback guidelines!
Building codes and setback rules
Although exact setback requirements differ, the standard setback is 5 to 10 feet from your property line. You’ll likely also have to set back your garage at least 15 feet from your main home—although you’ll want to double-check your area’s building codes for the specifics.
For garages, municipalities may also have building codes that regulate the maximum height and length requirements and potentially even the materials you can use to build your garage in the first place.
Violating setbacks
Building directly along your property line isn’t typically allowed for several reasons. For one, you can wind up accidentally encroaching on your neighbor’s property, especially if you’re not one-hundred-percent confident in where your property lines actually are.
For another, it can cost you—literally. Violating setback rules can result in expensive fines, and probably also the demolition of your hard-built structure.
Zero setback garages
In the past, garages were often built directly along property lines, or at the intersecting corners of property lines. These garages are known as “zero setback” garages since they were constructed directly on property lines.
In some cases, you can still build a garage with zero setback—namely, if you’re replacing or repairing an existing garage that’s built on the property line. You also may be able to get away with a zero setback garage if your property is relatively small, or if the structure won’t have any protruding overhangs or architecture that could cross onto the neighboring property.
Your local building department will likely have guidelines for building zero setback garages, although you should be prepared to find them stricter than regular setbacks.
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Building a new garage on your property
Now that you know about setbacks, you can start planning your garage!
The first step is to research—determining your local setback regulations will help you locate the perfect place to build your structure. You’ll also need to know them to plan the size of your space and draw up any blueprints. From there, you can assemble the required building materials (compliant with local building codes, of course!) and get to work.
Usually, you won’t need to acquire a permit before breaking ground on your new garage, so long as your structure is compliant with setbacks, is at least 300 square feet, is properly ventilated, and does not interfere with local drainage or ground wires.
Setbacks for other structures
We’ve covered the general guidelines for building a garage on your property. But what about other structures? As with garages, additions, sheds, fences, and even homes are subject to unique setback regulations:
-
Homes: For building an entirely new residence, setback guidelines range between 5 and 10 feet from the property line on either side and 10 to 20 feet in front and back.
-
Sheds: Like garages, the exact setbacks for sheds can vary greatly depending on where you live. In general, sheds should be at least 5 feet from a front or rear property line, and at least two feet from your property lines on either side.
-
Fences: Some cities allow for shared fences built along property lines—in these cases, the fence often becomes the equal responsibility of the property owners who share that fence line. In other places, you’ll run into setbacks, most commonly between two and eight inches for new fences.
-
Additions: Building an addition or expansion on your main home will typically take more planning, as most towns and cities determine specific size and height guidelines in addition to enforcing setbacks.
Does home insurance cover detached structures?
Want to protect your newly built garage with
homeowner’s insurance
? Luckily, you can—most homeowner’s insurance policies include dwelling coverage that protects your home from vandalism and damage—and a percentage of this coverage is extended to detached structures, like garages.
Typically, that is 10% of the coverage. So if you’ve got $200,000 worth of dwelling coverage included in your policy, your garage (or fence, or shed) would be covered for up to $20,000 worth of damage.
Finding affordable home insurance
Now that you’ve done all the work of building your brand-new garage, make sure your structure is protected (and find great savings on your
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FAQ
Distance from the house to the fence: building codes
What to do?
Julia Perepelkina
asked in the Community
Author profile
I have a summer cottage in New Moscow. I arrived there in the spring and discovered that a neighbor had built a two-story house close to my fence. My house stands five meters from the border of the plots, and the windows of the second floor of the neighboring one are now exactly at the level of mine.
What are the rules for individual housing construction? If a neighbor violated the rules, what sanctions can be applied to him?
Irina Polovodova
lawyer
Author’s profile
When building a house, you must comply with building, fire and sanitary standards. But most importantly, the house must be built in such a way that it does not violate the rights of neighbors and does not pose a threat to their life and health.
The court will proceed from this when it starts to figure out whether any norms have been violated or not. I’ll tell you what can be done in your case.
Where the norms for the construction of residential buildings are prescribed
The main document to be guided by is the rules for land use and development, PZZ. They are accepted by the local administration for a specific territory. For example, there is a PZZ in Moscow, St. Petersburg or Yaroslavl. Even small settlements now often also have land use and development rules.
The PZZ prescribes:
- The maximum and minimum sizes of plots.
- Minimum setback from lot boundaries to accommodate buildings.
- Maximum number of storeys of the house.
- Allowed building percentage of the plot.
What kind of fence can be placed on a garden plot?
PZZ cannot contradict federal laws and are developed taking into account all construction standards that are in force in Russia.
But local authorities can supplement these norms with their own. For example, to impose additional requirements on the size of land plots and even the appearance of houses.
So, in Rostov-on-Don, it is possible to build a residential building on a plot for individual housing construction, provided that the distance from the boundaries of the plot to the walls of the house is at least three meters, and the area of the plot is at least two hundred square meters.
In Yekaterinburg, a distance of three meters from the border of the site is also prescribed. But the minimum size of a plot for individual housing construction in this city is seven acres.
Art. 11 ZK RF
clause 4.1 of the rules for land use and development of Rostov-on-Don
tab. 23 Rules for Land Use and Development of Yekaterinburg
The PZZ has different requirements for each type of permitted land use. There are 81 such species in the classifier, but only four are relevant for owners of private houses:
- For individual housing construction — 2. 1.
- For personal subsidiary farming — 2.2.
- For horticulture — 13.1.
- For horticulture — 13.2.
1. Thus, in your situation, you need to look at the PZZ of Moscow and find the section with the requirements for individual housing construction – code 2.1.
It is impossible to violate the PPP during construction – it does not matter if a professional company is doing the work or the owner is building for himself. If you build a house with violations, local authorities can sue – and you will have to fix the problems or even demolish the house.
In addition to the PZZ, there are also fire safety rules. They no longer regulate the distance from the house to the boundaries of the land plot, but the distance between the houses. This is called a fire break or setback. It must be at least six meters, and the specific distance depends on the materials from which both houses are made. If the houses are made of bricks, the gap is smaller, and if they are made of wood, the gap is larger.
paras. 4.3, 5.3.2 SP 4.13130.2013
Fire gaps can be reduced by treating one or both houses with special non-combustible compounds or, for example, building a fire wall – this is the name of a special facade cladding that prevents the fire from spreading to the house.
item 2 art. 4 of the technical regulation on fire safety requirements
The State Fire Supervision Authority monitors fire regulations. If the indents are not observed, he can fine the owner of the house in the amount of 5,000 to 15,000 rubles.
art. 20.4 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation
Rules for the construction of private houses in Moscow
According to the federal rules for planning and developing low-rise housing construction areas, the recommended distance from the house to the site boundary is three meters. This is precisely a recommendation, the authorities of specific cities may or may not follow it.
Clause 5.3.4 SP 30-102-99
In Moscow, the rules for land use and development do not establish minimum setbacks of buildings from the boundaries of plots.
This means that your neighbor is not required to maintain a distance of three meters from the house to the fence. According to the PZZ, he has the right to build close. Also, in the PZZ there is no standard for the minimum area of a land plot.
paras. 3.4.1 and 3.4.2 of the Rules for Land Use and Development of Moscow
At the same time, the Moscow PZZ does not cancel the general fire regulations. You should measure the distance not from the fence to the house, but between the houses, and then it will become clear whether the fire break is respected or not.
Violation of the rules on gaps is possible only in one case – if the owners of both houses agree to this. They can sign an agreement and thus take responsibility. If there was a fire, they knew what they were doing.
p. 4.13 SP 4.13130.2013
What are the prospects for a lawsuit in court
Although there is no direct ban on building a house back to back in Moscow, the Supreme Court clarified that in disputes, the courts should look at the reasonableness of the layout.
If the rights of a neighbor are violated due to the proximity of the house, this is wrong.
paras. 4-47 of the decision of the Plenum of the Supreme Court and the Plenum of the Supreme Arbitration Court dated 04/29/2010 style=”white-space: nowrap;”> No. 10/22PDF, 161 KB
That is, you can file a lawsuit and try to prove that the neighbor’s house poses a threat. In your case, the PZZ are not violated, sanitary standards, it seems, too. Apparently, it is necessary to refer mainly to fire regulations.
Art. 304 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation
If the neighborhood is categorically unacceptable, a claim is filed for demolition. But there are more chances to win the case if you do not demand the dismantling of the entire house, but ask for the elimination of specific problems that interfere with life.
Here are court stories from Moscow.
❌ The houses of two neighbors stood a few centimeters apart. Once it was one building, but then part of it was demolished and rebuilt – it turned out to be two separate ones.
In some places, the distance between the houses is only 35 cm.
In 2013, the court ordered the owner of one of the houses to redo the slope from the roof so that the water from it does not spoil the foundation of another. But the owner did not comply with the decision, but filed another lawsuit – he demanded to demolish the second floor of the neighbor’s house, dismantle the gas pipe and slopes from the roof.
The examination confirmed that the claims were justified: precipitation from the roof fell on the foundation of a neighboring house and destroyed it. In addition, the gas pipe passed too close – this is a direct threat to safety. In addition, the expert concluded that the very construction of the second house is unreliable and it may fall.
5 myths about fines for summer residents: what land owners should not be afraid of
Residents of this house did not agree and also filed a lawsuit. They said that they were ready to redo the drain from the roof, but only if the neighbor pays for it – 467,031 R.
In addition, he must compensate for moral damage in the amount of 200,000 R, and it would also be nice to remove the bushes from the boundaries of the site.
The court denied everyone everything. The judge referred to the Moscow Land Regulations, which do not specify the indents between the houses. A forensic examination showed that the threat from the proximity to the gas pipe is far-fetched, and precipitation does not affect the foundations in any way. So, there is nothing to compensate each other.
Case No. 33-3197/2019PDF, 97 KB
✅ A woman built a two-story residential building with an area of 153.8 m² on a plot of five acres, and Rosreestr refused to register ownership. Reason: they could not withstand a three-meter indent from the boundaries of the site.
The court ordered an expert examination to find out if there were any violations of fire safety rules. The expert concluded that there is a violation, but this will not interfere with the operation of the house.
You need to build a fire wall – and you can live.
The owner of the house made a reconstruction on the site, and the court ordered the department to register the property.
Case No. 2-4762/2020PDF, 82 KB
What is the result
In your case, the land use and development rules, on the basis of which it would be possible to achieve the demolition of the house, are not violated.
It is possible that the neighbor during the construction did not follow the fire safety rules and did not withstand the required gap between the houses. You can apply to the State Supervision Service with a statement. Please note that this local structure is called the Oversight and Prevention Department – OPM and PR – and rarely accepts applications electronically. It is better to file a complaint on the website of the main department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the region, and then it will be redirected automatically.
I want to legally blow up my dacha.
What will happen to me for this?
If the violation is confirmed, the maximum fine that can be imposed on a neighbor is 15,000 RUR.
You can also sue. But if the decision is positive, the court will most likely simply oblige the neighbor to take additional measures. For example, treat the house with a fire retardant or install an automatic fire extinguishing system. It is unlikely that he will decide on the demolition.
You can also file a claim for other violations. For example, if in winter snow falls from your neighbor’s roof onto your property, this violates your rights. But even in such a situation, the maximum that you will achieve is a court decision that the neighbor is obliged to redo the roof.
Loud footsteps from above and rubbish under the windows: 6 court stories about neighbor quarrels
What to do? Readers ask – experts answer
How to settle a dispute between neighbors if a house or a bathhouse is built close to a fence » Abinsk urban settlement
Often conflict situations among neighbors arise because of violation of the boundaries of plots.
Is it possible to build close to the fence? Yes, if the owner of the adjacent lot has given permission. Moreover, this approval is best obtained in writing. Thus, the owner of the site will insure himself against possible litigation by a neighbor.
It is necessary to start acting if, already at the initial stage of construction, the setback required by the standards is not observed. It is much easier to suspend construction at the beginning, this will avoid unnecessary expenses for rebuilding. To defend his rights, the owner must have documents confirming the rights to the land (document of ownership, extract from the register of rights). And if all the documents are in order, then it is worth trying to solve the problem with a neighbor peacefully. If the violator does not come to his senses, document the fact of construction with non-compliance with the boundaries. For example, you can organize a geodetic examination, which will confirm violations with an official act. It is also possible to carry out an inspection by the fire authorities if fire safety standards are violated.
Fixing violations will bring the neighbor to administrative responsibility.
To protect your rights, you can also
contact the district or city administration. Based on the verification data
the municipality is obliged to decide on the demolition of the unauthorized structure. If with
with the help of administration staff to solve the problems of violation of the boundaries of the site
successful, you need to contact the prosecutor’s office or the court.
Having the necessary documents in hand,
the owner of the site does not have to prove anything, the court will decide on the basis of
the conclusions of the authorities.
If non-compliance is
critical (mold has formed on a residential building as a result of
lack of sunlight, the risk of simultaneous ignition of neighboring buildings and
etc.), the court will decide on the demolition of the “problematic” building.
Why do we need indents from the borders of the land
plot? What can lead to a violation of the minimum allowable distance
between houses? First, the risk of fires; second, the threat
sewage flooding; thirdly, houses create a shadow that prevents
growing plants and creates a lack of sunlight in the house.