Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

There are no rules or guidelines in any statute. If the issue of whether maintenance were needed went to trial, and let's hope it doesn't, a judge would probably apply a "reasonable man" standard. The standard works something like this: Would a reasonable man or woman with full knowledge of the facts, but no stake in the outcome, think maintenance was needed? The analysis would include the function of the fence, e.g., to keep the dog in or to keep children out (e.g., away from the swimming pool) and in some cases a fence might even be held to perform an esthetic function, so appearance could be a factor in some neighborhoods. The reasonable person would take into account the cost of the repairs as well as the value of the function of the fence. In a truly doubtful case, it would probably be resolved in favor of doing nothing at present. Courts are somewhat reluctant to order someone to spend money until the need for the repair is rather clear.

Part of the reason for using a vague reasonable person standard is to allow for different general opinions in different neighborhoods and time. Also, if every term were precisely defined, and it is not possible to think of all possible situations, the Code books would be unreadably much too long.