7/1/2017Amended by Chapter 345, 2017 General Session2017Adjoining landowners -- Partition fences -- Contribution. If two or more persons agree to a fence enclosure or to the construction of a partition fence, the cost of construction and maintenance of the fence shall be apportioned between each party to the agreement based upon the amount of land enclosed. A person who is a party to an agreement described in Subsection (1) and who fails to maintain such person's part of the fence is liable in a civil action for any damage sustained by another party to the agreement as a result of the failure to maintain the fence. If a person has enclosed land with a fence and the owner of adjoining land desires to enclose land adjoining the fence so that the existing fence or any part of it will become a partition fence between such tracts of land, the owner of the adjoining land shall, before making the enclosure, pay to the owner of the existing fence one-half of the value of all that part of the fence that will become a partition fence. If a person whose land is enclosed, in whole or in part, by a partition fence ceases to improve or cultivate that person's land or opens the enclosure, the person: shall give notice to the other owner of the partition fence and an opportunity to pay for the person's reasonable value of the fence; may not remove any part of the partition fence until the earlier of: 30 days after the day on which the person gave notice to the other owner, as described in Subsection (3)(b)(i); or the day the other owner pays the person for the person's reasonable value of the fence; and notwithstanding Subsection (3)(b)(ii), may not remove the partition fence if the crops enclosed by the fence will be exposed to injury.