Fence height is the question that arrives after “closeboard or composite?” and before anyone orders timber. In Hertfordshire the rules are national permitted-development principles applied to very local streets: a St Albans conservation frontage is not a Hitchin rear garden.
This is a practical map, not legal advice. Your local planning authority has the last word. We flag risk on site survey so you are not building a beautiful fence that has to come down.
The two-metre rear garden rule
For most houses, a fence beside or behind the house can be up to two metres high without planning permission, measured from ground level. That is why so many Hertfordshire closeboard runs sit at 1.8m or 2.0m. It is a privacy height that usually stays inside permitted development.
“Usually” is doing work. If the fence faces a highway used by vehicles and sits forward of the principal elevation, the permitted height is often one metre. Corner plots in Watford and Hemel Hempstead catch people out here.
Anything over two metres — including trellis stacked on a 1.8m closeboard so the total exceeds 2.0m — can need permission. We measure the finished height, not the board you liked in the yard.
Conservation areas and listed settings
St Albans, parts of Hertford, and older streets in Harpenden or Rickmansworth may have extra controls. A closeboard wall to the pavement on a Georgian street is often the wrong language even when the height is legal. Metal railings belong there more often than boards.
Listed buildings and their curtilage need more care. We would rather pause for a conversation with the authority than specify a default 2.0m featheredge against a listed frontage.
Neighbours, party boundaries, and the line itself
Planning permission is not the same as a neighbour agreement. Replacing a fence on the existing line is common; moving the line, raising it against a neighbour’s window, or finishing only one face can still cause trouble. We look at the existing posts, the title if you have it, and how the reverse face will read.
A survey is also how we catch slopes. A fence that is two metres at one end and 2.4m at the other because the garden falls is a planning and a neighbour issue. We step the capping rather than hoping no one measures.
Acoustic and commercial heights
Acoustic fencing is often specified taller because noise sources sit above the garden. That can push you out of permitted development. Commercial palisade is a different brief again. Both should be designed with the authority in mind, not ordered from a yard sheet.
For a calmer walk-through of process, see what to expect from a fencing survey and our process.
What we do on survey
We measure proposed height from ground, note highways and corners, and say if the street looks like a conservation setting. We do not submit planning applications as a house-builder would, but we will not pretend a 2.4m acoustic screen on a frontage is a weekend job.
If permission is likely needed, we would rather you know before timber is on site.
Two metres is a useful rule. Hertfordshire streets are full of exceptions. Measure the finished fence, the pavement, and the character of the plot.
Book a site survey and we will talk height honestly on your boundary. For how those fences look when they are finished, see our work.
