Oh I didn’t think of a future neighbor making you pay for a dividing fence.
Ugh at this point I’d just fence ON the property line and power the crap out of it. Maybe make just that part of the fence no-climb and boards, more expensive but more impenetrable and safest, plus hot on top and middle, then signs.
I sympathize with you, OP, because I also recently asked a lawyer for advice about a fence on the property line and the answer was less than helpful.
That would be my big concern. Spitballing here, and this is not legal advice but merely something you might like to look into… Reading the law it sounds like whichever neighbor puts a fence on the property line first essentially gets to control what type of fence it is and prevent the other neighbor from putting up an awful one or putting up a really expensive one then seeking reimbursement. “If no division fence has been built, either one of the adjoining landowners may give notice in writing of his desire and intention to build such fence to the landowner of the adjoining land, or to his agent, and require him to build his half of such fence.” —> if a division fence has been built already, that whole section no longer applies.
So given that OP understandably doesn’t want a shared fence, maybe OP could, after proper notice, erect an inexpensive fence on the property line (with T posts and wire, say—but tidy so it’s not an eyesore) then also put their desired fence a mower’s width inside. At that point there would be a division fence, so the neighbors couldn’t put one up later and seek reimbursement, and OP can control the nature of the division fence. I personally wouldn’t ask the neighbors to pay their share of the T-post fence, to maintain goodwill. If at some point in the future all the neighbors want a better fence on the line, they could still agree to that and replace the T-post fence. One caveat would be to make sure that the T-post fence meets the definition of “lawful fence,” which is a term used later in the section regarding fence maintenance/repair and which seems to be defined here: https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacodefull/title55.1/chapter28/article2/.
Thank you everyone for your input as I wrangle with this decision. I talked to an across-the-road neighbor who knows all of the players and how the land lays.
He said if it were him, he’d put it on the well-marked property line because people are going to use it once it’s there. If it’s a foot or four or eight setback, it is still there: the only barrier between their grass and mine so they are gonna use it, no ill will intended.
Besides, are they supposed to put another fence backed up to it? And he sure would hate to give up any of that pretty green grass. 
He is envious of my pastures and believes grass is for livestock to eat, not for kids to play kick ball.
With your input and his, now I’m thinking to set the fence a foot from the property line “to be d@mn sure it’s on my property” as the lawyer so helpfully advised 
, and plant my privacy trees inside the line with a quick hot wire to keep animals off the seedlings. Totally not what I had planned for the year+ I’ve been waiting to do this.
The fence will be high tensile woven wire with a hot on top. Fence contractor and Soil & Water are coming this week to review fencing and waterer requirements. Posts were dropped on Friday!!! 
After many months waiting, the posts are here! Waterer was just delivered. We are finally ready. 
we put our perimeter fences ON the property lines. We have a fenceline in common with two neighbors with cattle. …no, three! And when they have a bull in there i cannot run my cow/steer herds in my own pasture. Or my bulls by themselves if they have cows in there…or for sure if they have a bull in with their cows. And my ‘good neighbors’ DO use my fence to keep their cattle contained. If i were to fence inside my property lines they would graze their cattle up to my fence wherever i put it. No neighbors have horses, so i’m good there. Nor do they have sheep, so good there too. I’m able to rotate my herds through pastures and have always managed to avoid a way of having animal conflict at my fence line. But, i have little respect for neighbors who do not should their share of fence responsibilities. Such is Life. I have no control over other people, just me.
Oh my gosh! I was walking my dogs around my place and I saw one of the neighbors had two little toddler-aged tikes in the backyard. Their property is a duplex so two families living in an adjoined house. Tenants have been consistent in the year and change I’ve been here. But I have never seen kids this young there before. Might be a new boyfriend… those have been less consistent 
.
Guy was outside on the phone by the house. Tiny tots shrieking and running around in the grass. They see me. Crap. “Doggie! Doggie!!” goes the shouts.
One of my dogs is not good with kids or strangers. I don’t want either of my dogs swirling around kids these little. We detour and avoid them.
I’m envisioning kids hanging off the fence to watch me/the animals. I’m having flashes of tiny hands and arms jutting through the fence meeting doggie teeth. What if I have to get a LGD at one point? I can see kids sticking food items through the fence trying to feed/lure animals.
Yikes! I think the fence just got setback four feet again. This decision is literally keeping me up at night. 
Well, at least you found out the further complications before the fence went up. 
Double fences. I have two short stretches (like 200 ft) where there is a perimeter fence, and where i’ve planted a windbreak, i put in another fence to keep my sheep from eating them down to little nubs. There is a 15 foot span inbetween. So…something like that would keep your people away from your animals. Sort of like a DMZ
You could put a couple strands of hot wire on their side 
wouldn’t have to be an expensive fence. But w/hotwire you’d have to keep the weeds down…
Yep, a double fence along that particular stretch makes the most sense. I’m realizing it doesn’t have to be all or nothing around the entire boundary. Even if it is just T-posts and a couple strands of high tensile slammed in quick like @TheJenners suggested for that section.
I’m thinking woven wire set four feet in, some kind of privacy tree/shrub outside the woven wire this Fall, then high tensile strands on the other side of the seedlings to protect them from mowing or trampling until they are substantial.
I have a push-behind wheel whacker I can use in that narrow alley. It’ll be hard but it can just be that one stretch. I think the extra maintenance work is worth the insurance of a buffer behind the rental properties. Fence contractor comes later this week. We’ll see what they say.
In our area, the recommendation is always have a good fence on the property boundaries, then put other, like a windbreak, double fencing, whatever inside but far enough that you can easily get to the boundary fence for repairs, etc.
Windbreak trees will grow and their canopy expand, be sure you are far enough from the boundary fence to be able to get around them and so they don’t grow into the fence and become a nuisance later, tearing the fence and impossible to get to it for repairs.
The inside fences can be anything, electric tape, regular fencing, doesn’t matter, but the boundary fence needs to be the real good one, insuring that any that is kept on both sides will be protected.
Some that feel the need of two fences on the boundaries of their land make that space a path you can walk, ride, four-wheel thru it, which also helps with maintenance, mowing or grading the path.
The point is, don’t want a boundary fence that to work on it requires permission from the other side to have access to it for maintenance.
Definitely a fence on the surveyed line will protect your rights to your land without compromises or questions.
May lose some usable acres to put a good fence on the line, if a windbreak or second fence are necessary, but peace of mind is … priceless.
I like your new idea (and what @TheJenners suggested). A cheap, easy to install fence at the property line. Step in posts or T-posts with wire is enough.
Then whatever fence you really want on the inside with whatever size gap you want between.
We made our gap big enough to easily mow.
Personally, we have GOOD FENCING …woven wire with two top strands surrounding almost all of our 323 acres. The two places where i have double fencing…it’s the interior fence that is the honkey one. Theory being: Property line will always be the same. My use of various pastures can change. (hay, fallow, grazing sheep/grazing cattle…maybe even the horses…ever changing)
I would absolutely do a cheap (but tidy) fence ON the property line and then set your good fence back the width of your preferred mower deck.
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