Kingman & Mohave County, AZ · published 2026-08-27
Where is my property line? A Kingman fence owner’s guide
The City of Kingman's own Planning & Zoning office says the only sure way to know where your property line is located is a professional survey by a registered land surveyor — and warns, in the same answer, that it is unwise to assume an existing fence, tree, curb, or other physical element marks the boundary. That single sentence is the reason this page exists. (KGM-015)
Every other fence decision — height, material, budget, permit — is reversible on paper before the work starts. A fence built six inches onto the wrong side of a boundary is the one mistake that costs the full price of the fence twice.
Five things that are not your property line
Each of these is treated as a boundary marker somewhere in Kingman and Golden Valley every year, and none of them is one.
1 · The existing fence
The most common and most expensive assumption. Older fences were routinely set to a convenient line — inside the boundary to make maintenance easier, outside it because a previous owner misjudged, or along a graded strip that had nothing to do with the plat. Replacing a fence "in the same place" inherits whatever error the original had, and starts the clock again on it.
2 · The curb, sidewalk, or edge of pavement
Right-of-way widths vary street by street, and the public right-of-way commonly extends past the pavement onto what looks like private front yard. The strip you mow is not necessarily the strip you own, and it is not necessarily a strip you may fence.
3 · Utility markers and paint flags
Locate marks show buried utilities, not boundaries. They are essential — call 811 before any post hole, every time — but a locate mark and a property corner are unrelated pieces of information.
4 · A rebar pin you found in the dirt
Pins get moved by grading, hit by equipment, and occasionally set by someone who was not a surveyor. An unverified pin is a hypothesis, not a corner. A surveyor confirms whether the pin found is the pin of record.
5 · A satellite image with a parcel overlay
County parcel viewers and mapping apps are excellent for orientation and useless for precision. The overlay is drawn for assessment and reference purposes, and the counties that publish them say so. It will not survive a disagreement with a neighbor.
What a boundary survey actually gives you
A boundary survey performed by a land surveyor registered in Arizona reconstructs your lot's legal description on the ground. In practice, that means three deliverables worth asking for by name when you request a quote:
- Monumented corners. Physical markers set at the lot corners, so the fence crew has something to pull a string line from.
- A drawing. A plat of survey showing the boundary, the corners recovered or set, and any encroachments the surveyor observed — including a neighbor's structure sitting on your side.
- A stated basis. The record documents the surveyor relied on. This is what makes the survey defensible later if anyone disagrees with where the line landed.
Ask whether the price includes setting corners you can actually see and string from, or only a drawing. That distinction matters more to a fence project than any other line item, because a drawing alone still leaves someone guessing in the dirt on installation day.
Why there's no price on this page
This site publishes cost figures only where a dated, citable source exists — the Kingman fence cost guide shows the sourcing behind every number it prints. No Kingman-specific boundary-survey cost dataset met that bar as of 2026-08-26, so rather than repeat a national average dressed up as a local figure, this page says nothing about price. Get two written quotes from Arizona-registered surveyors and compare them against each other.
The order to do things in
Most of the expensive mistakes in a fence project come from doing these steps out of sequence.
- 1. Confirm which jurisdiction you're in. A Kingman ZIP code does not mean you are inside Kingman city limits — Golden Valley, Butler, Valle Vista, Chloride, and Dolan Springs are all unincorporated Mohave County. Call City of Kingman Planning & Zoning at 928-753-8130 or Mohave County Planning & Zoning at 928-757-0903. (KGM-015)
- 2. Read the height and placement rules for that jurisdiction. They differ meaningfully — the rules and permits page puts both rulebooks side by side.
- 3. Order the boundary survey. Before design, before material, before quotes for the fence itself — because the survey can change the footage, and footage is what every fence quote is priced from.
- 4. Talk to the neighbor. Especially if the survey moves the line from where everyone assumed it was. A conversation before installation is a different event from a conversation after.
- 5. Call 811 for utility locates. Free, required, and unrelated to the survey. Post holes and buried lines are a bad combination.
- 6. Then get fence quotes — with the survey in hand, so every quote is priced against the same footage and the same line.
Property line vs. setback: not the same thing
These two get conflated constantly, and the difference decides how tall your fence may be. The property line is where your ownership ends — that's the survey's answer. A setback area is a zoning concept: a band measured in from the property line within which structures are restricted. Kingman's fence height limits are written against setback areas, not against the boundary itself, which is why the code caps a solid fence at 3 feet in the front setback and 6 feet at the side or rear. (KGM-016)
Two practical consequences. First, knowing your line does not by itself tell you what you may build on it. Second, the city measures fence height from the higher finished grade where adjoining properties sit at different elevations — common on Kingman's sloped lots — so the same fence can be compliant on your side and over-height as measured from your neighbor's. (KGM-016)
Corner lots add a third: site-visibility triangle standards can restrict height near an intersection beyond the ordinary setback rules. If your lot touches a corner, raise it specifically with City of Kingman Planning & Zoning rather than assuming the table applies.
Easements: the line you own but can't always fence
A survey can confirm a strip is yours and it can still be unfenceable. Kingman's Zoning Code states plainly that no fence or wall may sit within a utility easement without the easement holder's authorization. Easements are recorded against the parcel, so they show in a title report and a surveyor can plot them — ask for them to be shown on the drawing rather than discovering one when a utility crew removes a section of new fence. (KGM-016)
On larger unincorporated parcels in Golden Valley and similar areas, access and utility easements are common enough that this is worth checking as a first question rather than a last one. See the Mohave County height rules guide for what else changes outside city limits.
When the survey and the old fence disagree
This happens often enough that it is worth planning for before it happens. The survey comes back and the line is not where the fence has been for twenty years. Nobody did anything wrong; fences drift from boundaries for ordinary reasons, and the discovery is uncomfortable rather than dramatic.
Three things are worth knowing at that moment. First, the survey has not moved anything — it has described what was already true, which means the situation you are in today is the situation you were in yesterday. Second, this is a civil matter between two property owners; the City of Kingman and Mohave County set the rules for what may be built, not who owns which strip of ground, and neither office adjudicates a boundary dispute for you. Third, the cheapest version of this conversation is the one that happens before anything new is built.
The practical routes people take are to build to the surveyed line and accept that the yard changes shape, to agree in writing with the neighbor that an existing structure may stay where it is, or — where the discrepancy is large or long-standing, or where either party disagrees about what the survey shows — to get advice from an Arizona real estate attorney. Property law is outside what this site publishes on, and a boundary question with money attached is worth an hour of someone qualified rather than an afternoon of internet reading.
Whatever route you take, put the outcome in writing and keep it with the survey. A verbal understanding between neighbors is worth exactly as long as both neighbors own their houses.
The third rulebook: HOAs and CC&Rs
Most fence planning gets as far as two rulebooks — the city's or the county's — and stops. If your property is in a subdivision with a homeowners association or recorded covenants, conditions and restrictions, there is a third, and it is a private contract rather than a public code.
A private restriction can be stricter than the zoning code, and being inside the legal height limit does not make a fence compliant with a covenant that governs materials, colors, or where a fence may run relative to the front of the house. Approvals are usually handled by an architectural review process with its own timeline, and that timeline is not something a contractor can shorten.
Read your own CC&Rs before you order material — not a summary, the recorded document — and get any required approval in writing. It is the same principle as the rest of this page: the cost of checking is small, and the cost of being wrong is the whole fence.
What to hand a fence contractor
A contractor who is given all of this quotes faster, quotes more accurately, and has far less reason to write a change order later:
- Your parcel number and the confirmed jurisdiction — city limits or unincorporated county.
- The survey drawing, and confirmation that corners were physically set on the ground.
- Any easements shown on the survey or in your title report, and who holds them.
- Any HOA or CC&R approval you have obtained, with its conditions.
- The 811 locate ticket if you have already called it in.
- Known ground conditions — where caliche was hit on any previous project, and where irrigation or drainage runs.
The last one matters more here than most places. See high-desert wind and your fence for why ground conditions drive both the labor line and how long the fence lasts.
Common questions
How do I find my property line before building a fence in Kingman?
The City of Kingman Planning & Zoning office states it directly: the only sure way to know where a property line is located is a professional survey by a registered land surveyor. An existing fence, tree, curb, or utility marker is not evidence of the boundary. Order the survey before the first post hole, not after the fence is up. (KGM-015)
Can I just use the old fence line?
Not safely. The City of Kingman warns in its own Planning & Zoning FAQ that it is unwise to assume an existing fence, tree, curb, or other physical element marks the property line — you might place a fence or shed on someone else’s property. Old fences were frequently set for convenience rather than to a survey, and a fence that has been in the same place for years does not make that place correct. (KGM-015)
What happens if my fence is on the neighbor’s property?
The practical outcomes range from a signed agreement letting it stay, to moving it at your own cost, and the dispute is a civil matter between the two property owners rather than something the city or county resolves for you. Because the cost of moving a finished fence lands entirely on whoever built it in the wrong place, a boundary survey ordered up front is the cheapest part of this whole sequence.
Does a survey tell me how tall my fence can be?
No — those are two different questions answered by two different sources. A survey tells you where your lot ends. Height and placement limits come from the City of Kingman Zoning Code inside city limits, or Mohave County zoning Section 27 in unincorporated areas such as Golden Valley. You need both answers before you buy material. (KGM-016, KGM-011)
Free · no obligation
Survey in hand? Get fence quotes
Tell us your footage and where the property sits. Your request goes to an independent, licensed Arizona fencing company serving Kingman or Golden Valley.
Serving Kingman and Golden Valley, Arizona.