Spite fence

Spite fence is a term used in American property law to refer to an overly tall fence, structure in the nature of a fence, or a row of trees, bushes, or hedges, constructed or planted between adjacent lots by a property owner (with no legitimate purpose), who is annoyed with or wishes to annoy a neighbor, or who wishes to completely obstruct the view between lots. The fence or row of trees usually serves no purpose to the owner. Several states and local governments have fence and tree height restrictions to restrict the construction and planting of a spite fence.

Note that the overly tall fence must not have some legitimate purpose other than spite to be prohibited; if there is some other reason for the fence which requires the extra height, a court may permit it. In one case, a man built a 13 foot fence on his property, and his neighbor sued him. The man had put up a fence that tall because his neighbor kept throwing garbage over the old (shorter) fence. Since keeping garbage out of one's yard is a legitimate reason to have a fence, it was found not to be a spite fence.

Golf courses near residential communities will often have fences exceeding 20 feet in height in order to prevent struck balls from flying out of the course and into the windshields of cars and windows of houses near the course. Such fences are not only not spite fences, but may actually be required.

In countries which follow Romano-German jurisdiction, erecting a spite fence (or a spite house) is unequivocally prohibited because of the judicial principle of prohibition of chicane: law must not be used to allow or justify causing intentional harm.

Charles Crocker, a railroad investor and owner of a house on Nob Hill, built a high fence around his neighbor's house spoiling his view, after the neighbor held out for many times the value of the property (Crocker had wanted to buy the whole block). The neighbor was a German undertaker called Nicolas Yung; Crocker was unsuccessful in purchasing the house until Yung had died. The height of the fence meant supporting buttresses had to be used. The work features in the April 1878 panoramic photo of San Francisco by Eadweard Muybridge.

William Waldorf Astor's mansion was next door to that of his aunt, Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor, on the block later occupied by the Empire State Building. William and his aunt did not get along well. William decided to replace his mansion with a hotel, the original Waldorf Hotel. The building not only towered over his aunt's home, it also had no windows at all on the side facing the mansion, thus functioning as a three-dimensional spite fence resulting from an Astor family feud.

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