Certificate of Transfer in Ohio: Filing, Timing, and Recording

A Certificate of Transfer in Ohio is the probate court document that moves a deceased person’s real estate out of the estate and into the names of the heirs or beneficiaries. The executor or administrator applies for it under Ohio Revised Code 2113.61, and once the court issues it, the certificate gets recorded at the county recorder’s office so the public land records show the new owners.¹ Skip it and the property stays stuck in the decedent’s name, which blocks any future sale, refinance, or clean title search.

When You Actually Need One

If someone dies owning Ohio real estate and that property passes through probate, you need a certificate of transfer. It doesn’t matter whether there was a will.¹ The certificate is the court’s formal record that title has shifted from the estate to the people entitled to it.

Three situations take you out of that rule:

The executor sells the property during administration. A new deed from the sale handles the transfer, so no certificate is needed.
The property is registered under Ohio’s Torrens title system (Revised Code Chapters 5309 and 5310). It’s exempt by statute.¹
The owner recorded a transfer-on-death (TOD) designation affidavit before dying. The property passes directly to the named beneficiary outside probate, overriding anything a will says to the contrary. The beneficiary then records an affidavit of confirmation at the county recorder, and that finishes the title change.²

Check the county recorder’s records for a TOD affidavit before filing anything in probate. If one is on file, the entire certificate of transfer process is unnecessary.

Smaller Estates: Release vs. Summary Release

Ohio has two simplified probate paths for small estates, and they treat the certificate differently.

A release from administration under ORC 2113.03 is available for estates valued at $35,000 or less, or up to $100,000 when everything passes to a surviving spouse. Under this path, the court’s order directing transfer of the real property can substitute for the certificate of transfer, so a separate application may not be necessary.³

A summary release from administration under ORC 2113.031 is different. If the estate includes real property, the application for a certificate of transfer must accompany the summary release application. The certificate is still required.⁴

Ask the probate court clerk which path applies before preparing forms. Guessing wrong means either wasted paperwork or a missing filing that will come back to haunt you.

What Goes in the Application

Ohio uses standardized forms for this: Form 12.0 is the Application for Certificate of Transfer, and Form 12.1 is the certificate itself. Both are posted on the Ohio Supreme Court’s website, and local probate courts stock copies.⁵

Under ORC 2113.61(B), the application must state:

The decedent’s full name, domicile at death, and date of death.
Whether the decedent died testate (with a will) or intestate.
Why the property is passing to the named recipients.
Whether any spousal elections have been exercised.
Whether any heirs or beneficiaries have filed disclaimers or assignments affecting the property.
That known debts have been paid or secured, or that the estate is insolvent and the transfer involves the family home to satisfy the surviving spouse’s support allowance.

The court can request anything else it considers relevant.¹

The certificate itself must describe each parcel being transferred.¹ Pull the full legal description from the most recent recorded deed, not from a tax bill or street address, and get the parcel ID number from the county auditor. A wrong legal description means a corrective filing later.

Timing and How Fast the Court Issues It

There’s no hard deadline measured in days. The application has to be filed after the estate inventory listing the real property has been filed, and before the executor or administrator files the final account.¹ That window usually runs several months. Dragging it out just leaves the property in the decedent’s name, which creates problems the moment anyone wants to sell, insure, or borrow against it.

Once a complete application is filed, the court must issue the certificate within five days.¹ That five-day clock only runs on applications that comply with the statute. An incomplete form resets it.

Recording the Certificate at the County

Getting the certificate from the court is only half the job. It has to be recorded at the county recorder’s office in each county where the property sits. If the decedent owned real estate in more than one Ohio county, the probate court issues a separate certificate for each one.¹ Recording is what puts the world on notice that the heirs now hold title.

Recording fees are set by ORC 317.32: $34 for the first two pages, $8 for each additional page, with counties allowed to add a document preservation surcharge of up to $5.⁶ Probate court filing fees for the application vary by county, running from under $10 to nearly $100. Call your probate court before you file.

Transfers to heirs and devisees are generally exempt from Ohio’s real property conveyance fee. When recording, file a conveyance fee exemption form (DTE 100-EX) with the county auditor noting the heir or devisee exemption. On a higher-value property, that saves several hundred dollars.

Skip the recording step and the property stays in the decedent’s name on the land records. Tax bills go to the wrong address, title searches flag a gap in the chain of ownership, and any eventual buyer or lender will require a corrective filing before closing.

What the Transfer Does and Doesn’t Change

The certificate moves title. It doesn’t erase a mortgage. Whoever ends up with the property has to keep making payments or face foreclosure. Federal law does protect heirs on this front: under the Garn-St. Germain Act, a lender cannot invoke a due-on-sale clause when residential property with fewer than five dwelling units passes to an heir after the borrower’s death.⁷ The heir can take over the existing payments without refinancing or requalifying.

On the tax side, inherited real estate takes a stepped-up basis equal to its fair market value on the date of death, not what the decedent originally paid.⁸ If a parent bought a house for $80,000 and it was worth $250,000 at death, the heir’s basis is $250,000. Selling shortly after for $255,000 produces capital gains tax on $5,000, not on the $170,000 of appreciation during the parent’s lifetime. The step-up applies automatically, but getting an appraisal near the date of death is worth doing to document the value, especially if a sale isn’t immediate. Ohio does not impose a state estate tax.

Surviving Spouse and the Family Home

When a surviving spouse is in the picture, the application gets more complicated. Ohio law lets a surviving spouse elect against the will and claim a statutory share of the estate, and the application requires disclosure of any spousal elections, disclaimers, or assignments.¹

The family home (the “mansion house” in Ohio law) gets special treatment. A surviving spouse can elect to take the decedent’s entire interest in it as part of the intestate share or support allowance. When that election is made, both the surviving spouse and the executor must sign Form 12.0, and the application has to include the calculation of the charge against the spouse’s share under ORC 2106.11. This is one spot where paying a probate attorney for an hour of review is cheaper than fixing a bad filing later.

1
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Code 2113.61 – Application for Certificate of Transfer of Real Property
2
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Code 5302.22 – Transfer on Death Deed Form
3
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Code 2113.03 – Court May Order Estate Released From Administration
4
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Code 2113.031 – Summary Release From Administration
5
Supreme Court of Ohio. Probate Forms
6
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Code 317.32 – Recording Fees
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 12 U.S. Code 1701j-3 – Preemption of Due-on-Sale Prohibitions
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 1014 – Basis of Property Acquired From a Decedent