Fayette County, Ohio Eviction Risk: Low

Fayette County scores 2.6/10 on the eviction-risk index, placing it in the Low risk tier and at rank 48 of 88 Ohio eviction laws counties, meaning 47 counties carry higher risk and 40 are more landlord-friendly than Fayette. For investors evaluating this rural southwest Ohio market, that middle-of-the-pack statewide position translates to a county that is measurably manageable but not without pockets of pressure, particularly in its largest municipality.

Across the county's 9 cities, scores span from 2 to 2.8, a range that reflects genuinely different operating environments within the same county lines. Average rent runs $783 per month, and the average rent burden sits at 23.9% of income, a figure that stays below the conventional 30% stress threshold, suggesting most renters are not stretched to a breaking point. That said, a 20.7% poverty rate means a meaningful share of the renter pool has little financial buffer when income disruptions hit.

The cities inside Fayette County

The highest-risk city in the county is Milledgeville, scoring 2.8/10 with a population of 1,240. Washington Court House, the county seat and by far the largest concentration of renters at a population of 14,439, scores 3.8/10, putting it in the elevated-within-county tier. Because Washington eviction laws Court House accounts for the large majority of the county's total rental inventory, its score drives the county average more than any other locality.

Conditions ease considerably at the lower end of the range. Bloomingburg scores 2.5/10 (population 1,019), Octa scores 2.2/10, and Good Hope comes in at 2.1/10. New Holland and Milledgeville each score 2.8/10. The spread from 2.8 to 4 across towns that are sometimes just a few miles apart illustrates that county-level averages can obscure what landlords actually face building by building. Investors should treat each city's score as its own underwriting input.

State-level laws that apply here

Every rental in Fayette County operates under Ohio eviction laws state law, specifically ORC § 5321 (Landlords and Tenants). Ohio eviction laws's notice requirements are among the shorter in the Midwest: nonpayment of rent and material lease violations each require only a 3-day notice to vacate under ORC § 1923.04, while month-to-month holdover tenancies require 30 days' notice under ORC § 5321.17. Fixed-term lease expirations require no advance notice to terminate. Understanding the full Ohio eviction laws eviction process matters here because, even with short notice windows, an uncontested case runs 21 to 45 days and a contested case can stretch to 45 to 120 days once filed.

On costs, Ohio eviction costs typically include a court filing fee of $160 to $250, a sheriff lockout fee of $50 to $175, and attorney fees ranging from $500 to $3,000 depending on complexity. Ohio eviction laws imposes no just-cause requirement for non-renewal, and state law preempts any local rent-control ordinance, so landlords in Fayette County face no rent caps or local just-cause hurdles beyond what state statute sets. Ohio security deposit limits and Ohio tenant protections are governed uniformly at the state level, giving investors operating across multiple Ohio eviction laws counties a consistent compliance baseline.

With a renter share of 43.6% and a poverty rate of 20.7%, Fayette County carries real underlying economic stress even at a Low risk score; the city-by-city breakdown above shows where that stress concentrates most.