Ohio Grant Deed

In Ohio the word grant does all the conveying and makes no promise at all. Section 5302.03 of the Ohio Revised Code provides that grant is a sufficient word of conveyance without more words and that no covenant is implied from it, and this Ohio grant deed is built on that rule: a present conveyance of real property from one or two grantors to one or two grantees, with grant as its operative word and no warranty covenants of any kind.

The word that conveys without a promise

The Revised Code prints no grant deed form. Chapter 5302 supplies statutory forms for the general warranty, limited warranty, fiduciary, quitclaim, and survivorship deeds, and section 5302.01 adds that those forms may be altered and that their authorization does not prevent the use of other forms. Every one of them conveys with the same word, grant; what separates them is the phrase that follows it. A deed that grants with general warranty covenants picks up the four promises of section 5302.06, a deed that grants with limited warranty covenants picks up the narrower promises of section 5302.08, and the quitclaim deed grants with no covenant phrase at all. This grant deed takes that last path and says so on its face: the deed is made without covenants of any kind on the part of the Grantor. Section 5301.02 carries the grantor's entire lawful interest through the conveyance unless the deed clearly shows a lesser estate.

Readers who know the grant deed from states where a statute attaches implied covenants to the word will find the Ohio result reversed: the grantee takes the grantor's interest as it stands.

One or two grantors, one or two grantees

The form recites nothing about marital status, ownership, or capacity. Its grantor block is a free-form entry for one or two natural persons conveying in their own right, each named with the marital status every Ohio statutory deed form places after the grantor's name; its grantee block receives one or two grantees and whatever designation of ownership follows their names, from the tenancy in common section 5302.19 supplies by default to the words for their joint lives, remainder to the survivor of them that create a survivorship tenancy under section 5302.17. Two signature blocks, headed GRANTOR and SECOND GRANTOR, and two acknowledgment certificates follow; on a deed with a single signer the second block and its certificate stay empty. Parents transferring a home to an adult child and spouses placing a residence in survivorship form present the one-and-two person patterns this deed recites; a corporation, a trustee, an attorney-in-fact, or a third owner on either side presents a different signing structure the form is not set up for.

Dower and the second signature line

Ohio keeps dower. Under section 2103.02 the spouse of an owner holds a life interest in one third of real property the owner was seized of during the marriage, which is why the statutory forms carry a dower release line. This deed carries the release as operative text: each spouse of a Grantor who signs the deed releases all rights of dower in the Property. A spouse who holds no title and signs only for that purpose is named in the grantor block with that statement and signs in the second block.

Auditor first, then recorder

An Ohio deed is recorded in two stops. The county auditor receives it with the conveyance fee statement, form DTE 100, or the exemption statement, form DTE 100EX, collects the state conveyance fee and any county transfer tax, and endorses the deed as transferred; section 317.22 keeps the recorder from recording a deed without that endorsement. Section 319.20 is the reason the deed carries the grantee's tax-mailing address and a Prior Instrument Reference to the deed the grantor took title under. The recorder then records it under the section 317.114 format this form follows, with the preparer's name section 317.111 requires and each signature acknowledged in the section 147.55 short form.

The package includes the fillable grant deed, a completed example filled in for a realistic Franklin County fact pattern, and a guide that walks through every numbered section, the ways Ohio grantees may hold title, the dower release, and the auditor and recorder steps. This description and the guide describe the form and the governing Ohio statutes in general terms; they are not legal advice.