The Landlord Lens - 10 Weird Real Estate Laws That Still Exist

Episode Date: January 23, 2026

Some real estate laws make sense.Others… absolutely do not.In this video, we break down 10 of the weirdest real estate laws that still exist, from strange rules around home maintenance to laws that sound fake but are very real. Whether you’re a landlord, homeowner, or renter, these are the kinds of laws that make you stop and say: wait… that’s actually a law?

A lot of these laws are obviously outdated or still on the books, not repealed, but none of them care about how reasonable you think you're being. When's the last time this was actually enforced? $57,000 in damages awarded. What? Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Landlord Lens. I love these kinds of episodes, Seamus.

We're going to have a little fun. I'm super excited. It's a good way to start 2026. Absolutely. Talking about weird laws. Across the U.S., there are a bunch of... strange laws at the municipal level, at the state level, sometimes at the federal level, about what you can or cannot do with your property.

And we're going to dive into a selection of those today that are particularly eyebrow raising. Awesome. So what's law number one on the docket? Law number one is something called spite fences. Spite fence. Have you ever heard of the term spite fence? No, not at all. Okay. Well, in Rhode Island and California, it is illegal to have a fence of a certain height. Okay. So in Rhode Island, if your fence is taller than six feet, that can be classified as a spite fence,

and you can have fines levying against you. And in California, the legal line is drawn at 10 feet for the definition of a spite fence. And again, you can be found liable for damages if you build a spite fence on your property. Incredible. And one of the things that we looked up ahead of this when we heard about spite fences is like, when's the last time this was actually enforced? And we're going to go back to 2011, where a row of trees and, in the beautiful state of California,

was considered spite fence trees. Yes, spite fence trees. And they had to be trimmed, and there was $57,000 in damages awarded. In 2011. In $21, exactly. So that's got to be over $300,000 in today's inflated market. Terrible.

Okay, we have another about fencing. All right. This one is, it's coming out of Scranton, Pennsylvania. They made it illegal to have white pick of fences. Do you know why, John? I have no idea. Yeah. I mean, it seems aesthetic, historic zoning rules because it's an old town, but...

I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's because there's... Get all the snow in Pennsylvania, right? And so I bet from time to time the fence gets covered in the snowdrift and snow plows run into it. Oh, you think? Yes. Has that happened? Because you grew up in a snowy place. Growing up, yeah, we lost a series of household pets in snow banks that we'd find

when they thawed in the spring. Okay, all right. You think it's snow-related. This is saying it might be aesthetic or historic. Oh, that could be the case as well. All right. What's number three, Seamus? Number three is the two-toilet maximum.

This is a really interesting one, and it's very specific to the Waldron Island, which is in Washington, and you're not allowed to have a property with more than two toilets. That would be terrible, as a living condition if you have more than what,

two, three people living there. And I'd also call out what's weird about this is that's at the property level. Yes. It's not at the rental unit level. Yeah, so you definitely don't want to have a multi-unit property

in this situation. Yeah, because you thought a studio is bad. Imagine renting an apartment where you get half a toilet, right? Oh, yeah. To utilize. But it's for really good reason. They're trying to preserve drinking water,

the fresh water on the island. So imagine going to, you know, fill up your coffee maker for your morning cup of Joe. And nothing comes out because someone across town has flushed all four of their toilets. Number four. So this one is right in our backyard kind of Boulder, Colorado. So you can't have upholstered furniture outdoors on properties in Boulder, Colorado. This one seems like it would be, I'm surprised in Boulder, Colorado. There are other places where bugs are a larger problem.

That's why they did it, was bugs. So I've heard bugs. I've also heard, though, because there was a time in Boulder where a lot of the college students were lighting couches and stuff on fire. What? It represented a fire hazard in Boulder, Colorado. I mean, it would technically everywhere, but not everyone else is gone ahead and created a law for it.

So in order to control the impulsive college students from setting upholstered things on fire, they just said move the furtive. or indoors? And that would, they would stop doing the fires if it was indoors. Well, yeah, no one wants to burn their own belongings, right? They just want to have a good time around a love seat on fire. Okay, this next one is about exterior burglar bars. You've probably seen them walking around a normal neighborhood, burglar bars on some windows. Don't see a lot of them in Fort Collins. I guess that's fair. I've got burglar bars at my house. Good idea. Yeah, it's good. It makes me feel safer. Excellent. What's really interesting about this law in Mississippi, though, is you can't have

them on the outside. Yeah. But you can still have them in the inside. So if you're trying to keep someone in, don't worry, you can still go full penitentiary. So this law was apparently passed. If I saw this, I would think, oh, maybe this seems like a 70s law, crime wave, whatever. 1996. Yeah. And what's really great is if you installed your burglar bars before 1996. your grandfathered in. You get to keep them. You get to keep them. I don't know what you exactly have to do

to prove that you had installed them before 96. What happens if one rosses and has to be replaced, all things for Ridgland, Mississippi to figure out. This next law is near and dear to my heart, but that is that there's no DIY. So do it yourself work on Sundays. And that's in New Jersey, Schenectady, New York, Hawaii, and then Santa Fe has this on the books as well.

So this is, exterior painting, roofing, like anything having to do with your house, you've got to plan a different day to do it than one of the two days of the weekend. Sunday is a day of rest unless, of course, you're paying someone else to do the work, in which case, in all these locations, no law in the books that we're aware of. This is a law in Aspen, which is located in the most expensive county in Colorado. Snowballs, you cannot throw them at people, vehicles, or property in public or private space. So no snowball fights even in your backyard.

Snowball fights are also legal across every elementary school in the United States, I believe. Is that true? Yes, absolutely. I think you're lying. Yeah, I don't know that to be a case. I do know that a number of kids, maybe myself included, got in school suspension for throwing snowballs, but just at each other and teachers. Yeah, never cars. Absolutely, never cars.

Never cars. Only humans. Law number eight, limits on unrelated roommates. So in New York City, you have a limit of the number of unrelated individuals to live together. And this apparently is related back to old tenements where you have rooms renting out by the room to six, seven, eight people at a time who are working in the Industrial Revolution. Yeah, and this is one of those laws that I do actually think has some real serious repercussions, just like a lot of occupancy limit laws, where it reduces the affordability of housing, right? the less people that can live in, live in one building together, the more people you have out on the market trying to find housing. So it just pushes prices up. It apparently is also used when

other eviction laws fail. So it's still being used pretty frequently today. Even if that's not the reason for the eviction, they'll use this as the reason to go through courts. This is also about New York City. And it's livestock and chicken. So in Brooklyn, and you can imagine Brooklyn, It's a bunch of multi-story buildings and hubbub, lots of people around, right? Cattle and pigs are permitted in some areas of properly fenced. Yes, but roosters, geese, and ducks are not allowed. Oh, okay. So no birds.

Yeah, they're outright been. And my guess, having been in Brooklyn several times, is the amount of properly fenced areas is pretty darn minimal because I've never seen any cattle or pigs in Brooklyn. Well, that's because they're properly fenced and hidden. Good point. They're probably behind what would be considered a spite fence in Rhode Island. Yeah, California, Rhode Island. That's right.

Okay, this next one is about female roommate limits. Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee. There are limits on the number of female roommates in a particular unit. Huh. Yeah. And this goes back to anti-brothal laws. So these are very old laws. Yeah, it's got to be very hard for the sorority houses in these given states.

but yeah, just an interesting law in the books. Looking at it, there hasn't been a lot of enforcement of this law, which makes a lot of sense. Okay, all right. Pennsylvania, 16. Okay, that's a very high number. It feels like not a lot of houses are going to fall in there. Tennessee, eight. Well, that's half of it.

Ohio is five. Five women can't live together. Can you imagine having that sixth daughter and just, ah! Uh-oh. Uh-oh. I mean, I guess it's a really good reason to build an, uh, an eight-year-old. to you. So a lot of these laws are obviously outdated or still on the books, not repealed. Some are rarely enforced. We noted some that aren't and are enforced pretty frequently. But none of them care

about how reasonable you think you're being in your behavior out there. What was your favorite one? Honestly, I think I'm going to go back to the spite fences. I just love the idea of anything you do to antagonize your neighbor, especially that row of trees. That is a, that is a, an absurd one, a row of trees that they had to cut and finance and then pay $56,000 is a lot of money. It's wild. I'm sure, though, some of our audience out there has run into some of these obscure laws. We would love to know if you've ever come into contact with any, especially if they've been enforced. So please sound off in the comments below as to the strange laws in your area. Yeah, please do. And like and subscribe. We'll see you guys next week for another episode of Landlord

Lens. TurboTenant is the all-in-one platform for landlords to manage their rental properties. From vacancy to tenancy, we have you covered with industry-leading tools and expert advice. Landlord better from anywhere for free at turbotenant.com.