Contact: who to ask about each fence question

This guide takes no messages. There is no form, mailbox or phone line behind it, so use the offices and people below, each for the question it settles.

Find the office that can answer it

Most fence questions have one office or person who can settle them, and it is rarely a guide. We list the routes a reader in Massachusetts can actually use, with the question each one answers, so you know where to take each question.

Nothing on this site stands in for those answers, and nothing here is legal advice.

A fence question usually has one office that can answer it, so find that office before you go looking for a price.

Your town building departmentPermits, zoning and the height rules for your lot.
Dig Safe, by calling 811 or filing onlineBuried utility lines are marked before any post hole is dug.
The conservation commissionThe first check when any part of the fence line is near a stream, pond or wetland.
A land surveyorWhere the property line really runs, settled before any posts go in.
The neighbor, then the town's fence viewersTalk it through once a survey shows where the line runs. The fence viewers are the local officials to ask when a boundary dispute will not settle.
The state home improvement contractor registrationAsk any contractor whether they hold it before you agree to a quote.
A fence contractor, for a quoteAsk once the height, the line and the permits are settled, so the quote prices the fence you planned.

A suburban Massachusetts street lined with cedar, vinyl and chain link fences under a clear sky — A generated illustration, not a photograph of a real street or job. It shows cedar, vinyl and chain link fences on one block.

What to have in hand before you call

An office can answer far faster when the question arrives with its facts attached. Before you call the building department or a surveyor, write down the planned height, the side or corner of the lot where the fence will run, and whether a survey already exists.

Note too whether a stream, pond or wetland lies near the line, and whether a pool, hot tub or spa is within reach of the fence. Those two facts decide which office you need first.

The planned height and where on the lot it runs, corners included
Any existing survey, and when it was made
Whether a stream, pond or wetland is near the line
Whether a pool, hot tub or spa is behind or beside the fence
Your town, and the name of its building department

Which office to ask first, and why

The order of the calls matters more than how fast each one returns. Questions that can stop a fence outright come before questions of price: where the line runs, whether a wetland applies and what the town allows come first, and the quote comes last.

Buried utilities run on their own clock. Dig Safe needs notice before any digging, so put it on the calendar before the crew does. Talk to the neighbor once a survey is in hand, so the conversation is about a known line and not a guess.

A snowy residential street with a fence along the curb and a blue house behind it — A stock photograph used for the setting only. It is not a job, and it is not a picture of any company's work.