Does fencing help sell land?
No published source measures what a fence adds to a land sale. What an existing fence carries into a sale is a set of records: whether it runs on the boundary, whether it meets Virginia's lawful fence standard for livestock, and whether any neighbor agreement about it binds a buyer, which takes a writing that says so, recorded in the county clerk's deed book and indexed.
A fence already standing, and the first of three questions put to it: is it on the line?
Picture a woven wire fence along the back of a pasture, put up long enough ago that nobody remembers who paid for it. When that tract goes under contract, a buyer's attorney and surveyor are going to ask the fence three things. Is it on the line? Is it lawful for stock? Was anything about it ever recorded?
| The question | What decides it | Who answers it |
|---|---|---|
| Is it on the boundary? | The deed, the plat and the corners on the ground | A surveyor |
| Is it a lawful fence for livestock? | Va. Code 55.1-2804, and any county ordinance under 55.1-2814 | The statute, and county administration for the ordinance |
| Does any agreement about it bind the buyer? | Whether it was written, recorded and indexed under 55.1-2825 | The clerk's deed book, and an attorney |
The first question has nothing to do with the fence itself. A fence is where someone decided to build, and that is not always where the deed puts the boundary. A fence may follow a tree line or the edge of an old field rather than the line the deed describes. Before anyone relies on a fence as the line, the corners have to be found, which is covered in how to find your property corners. Setting the line is a surveyor's work, and a boundary survey is the document that shows it.
A fence that turns out to sit over the line on one side raises an encroachment question. When the neighbors agree on where the line actually runs, that agreement has its own form, set out in what a boundary line agreement is. A dispute over the line is an attorney's matter.
Does it meet the statute's test for holding livestock?
Virginia law has a definition of a lawful fence, and it is written from the animal's side. Under Va. Code 55.1-2804, a fence is a lawful fence as to domesticated livestock that could not creep through it if it takes one of the forms the statute lists.
Two of those forms are the ones most people picture on pasture ground:
- Height alone. A fence at least five feet high, measured from the bottom of the ditch if the fence stands on a mound.
- Barbed wire. At least 42 inches high, with at least four strands of barbed wire "firmly fixed to posts, trees, or other supports substantially set in the ground", subject to the post-spacing terms in the statute.
The statute lists other forms too, so a fence that is neither of these is not automatically outside it. A buyer who plans to run cattle on the pasture will read the fence against that list, and a seller who knows what the fence is made of and roughly how tall it stands can answer the question before it is asked.
There is a county layer as well. Va. Code 55.1-2814 lets a county's board of supervisors, by ordinance after the required notice, declare property boundary lines a lawful fence as to domesticated livestock, countywide, in a magisterial district, or in a selected portion of the county. Whether the county where the land sits has adopted such an ordinance, and where it applies, is a question for county administration or the board of supervisors.
An agreement about the fence binds a buyer only if it reached the deed book
Some division fences exist because two neighbors once agreed on something: who builds which half, who keeps up the water gap, who replaces the wire when a tree comes down. Whether that deal survives the sale depends on paper, not memory.
The starting rule is Va. Code 55.1-2821, which puts division fences at joint and equal expense between adjoining landowners, with exceptions for land an owner lets lie open and for neighbors who agree otherwise. That rule in full, the notice to build or repair, and what happens when a neighbor does not take part are covered in boundary disputes basics.
The rule that matters at a sale is Va. Code 55.1-2825. An agreement between adjoining landowners about building or maintaining the division fence binds their successors in title only if it meets three conditions:
It is in writing and says so
The agreement has to be written and has to state specifically that it binds successors.
It is recorded
It goes in the deed book in the clerk's office of the county where the land is.
It is indexed
It is properly indexed the way deeds are required by law to be indexed.
A handshake arrangement that never reached the clerk's office does not carry to the buyer under that section. A fence is not the only thing a neighbor arrangement can touch, either: a gate or fence across a shared way is a separate question, taken up in whether you can gate or fence across an easement.
Where a fence sits in the price: an improvement, with no published figure attached
Virginia Cooperative Extension describes improvement value as the value of dwellings, buildings or other improvements on a property, separate from the land itself, and its examples start with structures as small as fences, barns and roads. That puts a fence in the improvement column. It does not put a number on it, and no source read for this answer does.
So the honest answer to whether a fence helps is that nobody has measured it here. What a fence is worth on a particular pasture, to the buyers that pasture will draw, is an opinion of value question or a licensed appraiser's, never a rule of thumb. What barns and other buildings on working farm ground add is taken up separately in do barns and outbuildings add value.
One practical point for anyone thinking of putting up new fence before listing. Va. Code 62.1-44.15:34 F 7 takes the installation of fence and sign posts out of the erosion and stormwater article, unless federal law requires otherwise. Clearing a new fence line through brush or trees is a different job, covered in whether to clear or bush hog before listing.
Selling pasture or a tract with fence lines on it?
Tell Lowell where the fences run and whether anything about them was ever put in writing with a neighbor. He will sort out with you which of those questions go to a surveyor and which to an attorney. No cost, no obligation.
Got it. Thank you.
We'll be in touch shortly with an honest read.
Questions this raises
Does an old handshake deal with the neighbor about the fence pass to the buyer?
Not under Va. Code 55.1-2825. An agreement between adjoining landowners about building or maintaining a division fence binds later owners only if it is in writing and specifically says so, is recorded in the deed book in the clerk's office of the county where the land is, and is indexed the way deeds are. What an unrecorded arrangement means between the original neighbors is a question for an attorney.
Does putting new fence posts in before listing need an erosion control plan?
Va. Code 62.1-44.15:34 F 7 says the erosion and stormwater article does not apply to installing fence and sign posts, telephone and electric poles and other kinds of posts or poles, unless federal law requires otherwise. That exemption covers the posts. Clearing brush or trees to open a new fence line is a separate activity, and the county's erosion and sediment control authority answers how it is treated.
Is a county's boundary-line fence ordinance the same across the whole county?
Not necessarily. Va. Code 55.1-2814 lets a board of supervisors, by ordinance after the required notice, declare boundary lines a lawful fence as to domesticated livestock countywide, in a magisterial district, or in a selected portion of the county. Whether a county has adopted one, and which part of the county it covers, is a question for county administration or the board of supervisors.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- Va. Code 55.1-2804, lawful fence as to livestock Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 55.1-2814, boundary lines declared a lawful fence by ordinance Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 55.1-2821, division fences at joint and equal expense Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 55.1-2825, division fence agreements binding successors Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 62.1-44.15:34, regulated land-disturbing activities and exemptions Virginia General Assembly
- Agricultural Land Sales in Virginia, 2023 (AAEC-324) Virginia Cooperative Extension