Fence or deck costs in Riverside

Much of the housing around Riverside is fairly young. In the Census Bureau's 2024 survey, close to two-thirds of homes in the Riverside metro were built in 1980 or later. If your back fence sits on the line between two yards, it isn't only yours.

When a fence divides two lots, California's Civil Code section 841 presumes both neighbors benefit from it equally, and share responsibility for building, maintaining or replacing it, unless you've agreed otherwise in writing. If you plan to fix a shared fence and want the house next door to chip in, the law asks for 30 days' written notice first. That notice should spell out the problem, your proposed fix and your timeline.

Inside the city of Riverside, the zoning code sets the heights. In single-family zones, a fence between side and rear yards can reach seven feet, but only where it can't be seen from the street. Where your lot backs onto a different zone, it can go to eight, still out of street view. Front yards in most zones stop at four feet, and anything above three feet must be mostly open. Walls next to railroads, freeways and flood control channels may rise to eight feet.

Sloped lots get one more limit. In side and rear yards, a fence sitting on a retaining wall can't top ten feet combined, and the retaining part is capped at three feet if the public can see it, or six if it's out of view.