Ohio's Line Fence Laws have changed as of June, 2008.  The century old State statute was recently overhauled to reflect more modern times.  With the new law in place a landowner wishing to erect a line fence where none existed before is responsible for its total cost.  However, should an adjouning neighbor suddenly see a great opportunity and allows livestock into an adjoining field (against the new fence) within 30 years of the erection of the new line fence, the landowner that erected the fence can seek reimbursement for partial cost of the new fence.  This can only be done, however, as long as the costs had been documented with the county recorder when the fence was built.

For neighbors with existng fences, adjoining landowners are now responsible for equitable shares not equal shares as it was under the old law.  The law now gives specific criteria that needs to be considered when determining those expenses.  In other words, if you have a herd of cattle and your neighbor has two goats, your share will be higher than that of the neighbor's. Also to be taken into consideration are bodies of water, vegetation, topography, and the risk of trespassing.

As in the old law, neighbors can still appear before the township trustees and ask them to help settle a dispute.  Landowners may also take their problem to the common pleas court.  If the neighbors take the dispute to the trustees and are still not satisfied with the ruling, they will have their case settled by binding arbitration. 

The new law also uses some common sense approaches by permitting such things as allowing a landowner to work on the opposite side of a fence without being guilty of trespassing.

See Ohio House Bill 323 for the full Line Fence Statute