Wayne County, IN Fence Regulations: Fence Permit Requirements (2026)

Section 151.04 sets the scope of the county Building Code, which applies only to occupancy in unincorporated Wayne County and is administered by the Building Commissioner under § 151.03. Subsection (B) lists what the chapter does not reach, and fences are named outright at item (4), alongside agricultural buildings used to house farm implements, hay, grain, poultry or livestock; alterations, additions or repairs costing $1,000 or less; and industrialized building systems or mobile structures certified under I.C. 22-15.4. Because a fence falls outside the chapter's scope entirely, none of the building-permit machinery in § 151.06, such as the one-year permit term, the $35 minimum fee schedule in § 151.09, or the footing, foundation and framing inspections in § 151.10, applies to fence construction.

The exemption is narrower than it sounds: it only removes the county building permit, and it applies only within unincorporated Wayne County, since incorporated cities and towns such as Richmond, Centerville, Cambridge City and Hagerstown administer their own separate building codes. A private landowner building a new home still needs a location improvement permit under Chapter 156 even though fences are exempt, showing the county still tracks other land-use permits even where the building code itself steps back. Work that is not exempted, such as a new accessory structure, remains subject to the general building-code penalty framework in §§ 151.15 and 151.99 if built without the required permit.