Tuscarawas County, Ohio Eviction Risk: Low

Tuscarawas County, Ohio eviction laws carries an average eviction-risk score of 2.5/10 (Low), placing it at rank 41 of 88 Ohio eviction laws counties, meaning 40 counties are riskier and 47 are more landlord-friendly. That puts Tuscarawas squarely in the state's middle third, a reasonably stable operating environment where vacancy pressure and tenant-payment stress exist but are not as acute as in the state's urban cores. With an average rent of $902, a rent-burden rate of 27.5%, and a renter share of 38.5% across the county's roughly 58,147 residents, the fundamentals are modest but workable for investors focused on cash flow over appreciation.

The more important planning number is the intra-county spread. Scores across the county's 22 cities run from 2.7/10 to 4.6/10, a nearly two-point range that reflects meaningfully different risk profiles within the same tax and statute environment. Landlords who treat Tuscarawas County as a single homogeneous market are leaving money on the table, or absorbing risk they did not price in.

The cities inside Tuscarawas County

The highest-risk location in the county is Dennison at 4.6/10. Its population of 2,449 is small, but its score sits a full 0.8 points above the county average, signaling elevated delinquency and turnover pressure relative to peers. Right behind it is Uhrichsville at 4.3/10 (population 5,189), where a higher poverty rate and renter concentration push the risk index up. Investors targeting these two communities should underwrite tighter screening criteria and budget for the possibility of contested proceedings.

New Philadelphia, the county seat and largest city at 17,520 residents, scores 4/10, above the county average but not dramatically so. Dover, the second-largest city at 13,053 people, scores a more comfortable 3.7/10. At the low-risk end, Sugarcreek posts a 2.7/10, the most landlord-favorable reading in the county, while Strasburg comes in at 3.5/10. Risk here is genuinely hyper-local: a landlord owning units in Sugarcreek and Dennison simultaneously is operating in two substantially different tenant-risk environments despite sharing the same county courthouse.

State-level laws that apply here

Every eviction in Tuscarawas County proceeds under Ohio eviction laws state law, specifically ORC § 5321 (Landlords and Tenants). Nonpayment of rent and material lease violations each require a 3-day notice under ORC § 1923.04. Month-to-month holdovers require 30 days' notice under ORC § 5321.17; an expired fixed-term lease requires no additional notice under ORC § 1923.02. Ohio eviction laws does not require just cause to terminate a tenancy, and state law preempts any local rent-control ordinance, so neither new Philadelphia nor any other Tuscarawas municipality can impose rent caps. For a full walkthrough of timelines and paperwork, the Ohio eviction laws eviction process guide covers each procedural step in detail.

Cost exposure runs from court filing fees of $160 to $250 plus sheriff lockout fees of $50 to $175, with attorney fees ranging $500 to $3,000 depending on whether the case is contested. An uncontested matter can resolve in 21 to 45 days; a contested case stretches to 45 to 120 days. Ohio eviction costs can therefore reach several thousand dollars before accounting for lost rent during vacancy. Landlords entering this market should treat those ranges as a reserve requirement, not an edge case.

With a county poverty rate of 14.8% and renters making up 38.5% of households, Tuscarawas County sits in a range where collection risk is real but manageable, and the city-level scores in the grid above show precisely which communities carry the most of that burden.