Q: I live in a single-family house in Jamaica, Queens. A 4-foot-high chain-link fence separates my neighbor’s yard from mine. My neighbor recently attached a patchwork of unsightly items to his side, including plywood, green corrugated roofing material and old wooden doors. The view in my backyard has gone from innocuous to an embarrassment. He won’t let me attach anything to my side, saying that the fence is on his property. Some materials extend over six feet high. What can I do?

A: As unappealing as your neighbor’s design choices might be, bad taste is not illegal. If you were to sue him for creating a private nuisance in an attempt to force him to take down the display, the court might side with your neighbor.

“Courts strictly adhere to the principle that things that are simply disagreeable or unsightly” are not nuisances, said Bruce F. Bronster, a real estate lawyer and partner in the Manhattan office of WindelsMarx. The reasoning goes: One person’s eyesore is another’s masterpiece.

Neither city nor state rules address appropriate fence materials. And city rules limit the height of residential fences to four feet in the front and six feet for other areas.