How to Fill Out and File the Ohio Conveyance Form (DTE 100)

Ohio’s DTE 100, the Real Property Conveyance Fee Statement of Value and Receipt, is the form a buyer files with the county auditor before a deed can be recorded. You fill it out with the parties’ names, the parcel number, and the full purchase price, then take it with the deed to the auditor’s transfer desk. The auditor calculates the conveyance fee, collects payment, and stamps the deed so the recorder will accept it. Without that stamp, the transfer never enters the public record.

When You Need DTE 100 (and When You Need DTE 100EX Instead)

Ohio Revised Code 319.202 requires a conveyance fee statement before the county auditor endorses any deed presented for transfer.¹ Standard sales with warranty deeds, quitclaim deeds, and land installment contracts all trigger the form. So do transfers of used manufactured or mobile homes that have been classified as real property.

DTE 100 is the version for taxable transfers. If your transaction is exempt from the conveyance fee — a gift between spouses or between a parent and child, a transfer into a trust, an inheritance, a deed correcting a prior recording, a transfer to or from a government body — you file DTE 100EX instead, checking the box that matches the statutory exemption.² Even with no fee due, the auditor still has to stamp the deed before the recorder will take it.

Where to Get the Form

The Ohio Department of Taxation publishes DTE 100 as a downloadable PDF.³ Blank copies are also available at the county auditor’s office. Ohio law requires either an electronic submission or three written copies, so if you’re printing, print extras.

What to Gather Before You Start

Pulling these together first will save you a second trip to your closing folder:

Grantor and grantee full legal names exactly as they appear on the deed, plus the grantee’s current mailing address.
The permanent parcel number, found on the current tax bill or the county auditor’s online parcel search.
The legal description from the deed. A street address alone is not enough.
Total consideration: cash paid, new mortgage amount, and any existing loan balance the buyer is assuming.
Your settlement statement or closing disclosure, which breaks down those numbers.

Two supplemental forms may travel with the DTE 100. If the seller received a homestead exemption for senior citizens, disabled persons, or surviving spouses, the grantor completes Form DTE 101 and the grantee files it with the conveyance form. If the property carried a Current Agricultural Use Valuation, Form DTE 102 goes with the conveyance form instead.³ The auditor also has authority under ORC 319.202 to request additional documentation to verify accuracy.¹

Filling Out the Form

The form has ten numbered lines. Most are routine copy-work from the deed. A few deserve attention.

Parties and Parcel

Lines 1 and 2 ask for the grantor’s name as shown on the deed and the grantee’s name and mailing address. Copy them exactly. A mismatch between the form and the deed will get flagged at the transfer desk.³ The permanent parcel number goes in the account field near the top. If the transfer covers more than one parcel, each parcel number needs its own entry, and the total consideration has to be allocated across them.

Line 7: The Consideration

Line 7 is where most errors happen because it breaks the purchase price into parts:

7a: new mortgage amount
7b: balance assumed from the seller’s existing loan
7c: cash paid
7d: total of 7a through 7c
7e: portion of the price covering personal property (appliances, equipment) rather than real estate
7f: 7d minus 7e — the number the conveyance fee is calculated on³

Ohio law defines “value” as the full consideration paid or to be paid, including any mortgage or vendor’s lien on the property.¹ Don’t enter the down payment alone. The auditor wants the whole transaction. For a partial-gift transaction, value means the estimated fair market price the property would bring in an open sale between a willing buyer and seller.

Signature

The grantee or an authorized representative signs the form under penalties of perjury, certifying the information is true, correct, and complete.³

What the Fee Will Be

The mandatory statewide conveyance fee is ten cents per hundred dollars of value, which works out to one dollar per thousand of the sale price, with a one dollar minimum.⁴ On a $250,000 home, that base fee is $250.

Most counties add a permissive real property transfer tax. Ohio allows up to three additional mills, or three dollars per thousand.⁵ In a county charging the maximum, the total runs four dollars per thousand. On that same $250,000 sale, that comes to $1,000. Call the auditor’s office or check its website for your county’s rate before closing.

Filing: Auditor First, Then Recorder

Filing is a two-stop process at the county building.

First, the auditor. Bring the completed DTE 100 (or DTE 100EX), the original deed, and any DTE 101 or DTE 102 to the auditor’s transfer desk. A clerk reviews the form, verifies the parcel information, and calculates the fee. Payment methods vary: most offices take certified checks and cash, and policies on personal checks and cards differ by county. Once the fee is paid, the auditor stamps the deed.¹

Second, the recorder. Take the stamped deed to the recorder’s office. The recorder charges a separate recording fee and keeps the original deed for processing, returning it once recording is complete.

Many Ohio counties now accept electronic filing. ORC 319.202 specifically allows electronic submission, and title companies routinely file this way on behalf of buyers, which is why most buyers never handle the form themselves.

Land Contract Transfers

Land installment contracts change how value is calculated. If property sold under a land contract is later conveyed by the seller to a third party, and the contract has been recorded for at least twelve months before the conveyance, “value” for fee purposes is the unpaid balance owed under the contract at the time of conveyance rather than the original purchase price. The statement still has to disclose the total amount already paid under the contract.¹

Manufactured and Mobile Homes

Whether a manufactured home transfer uses DTE 100 depends on classification. If the home has been permanently affixed to land owned by the homeowner and converted from personal property to real property, it’s treated like any other real estate transfer and requires the standard conveyance form. ORC 319.54 explicitly includes used manufactured and mobile home transfers in the conveyance fee calculation.⁴

If the home still has a certificate of title and has not been converted, the transfer goes through the title system, similar to a vehicle. When both the land and an unconverted manufactured home sell together, the transaction splits: a deed and conveyance form for the land, and a title transfer for the home.

Penalties for a False or Missing Form

The DTE 100 warns in bold that every question must be completed to comply with ORC 319.202. Anyone who willfully fails to comply or falsifies the form is guilty of a first-degree misdemeanor under ORC 319.99(B).³ Beyond the criminal exposure, understating the sale price to shave the fee distorts the county’s assessed value in ways that create problems on later sales, refinances, and tax disputes. Title companies will not close a transaction with a form that does not match the settlement figures.

Skipping the form entirely does not save time. No county recorder in Ohio will record a deed without the auditor’s stamp, and the auditor will not stamp without a completed DTE 100 or DTE 100EX. An unrecorded deed is valid between buyer and seller but invisible to everyone else, which means the seller still appears as the owner of record and the buyer’s ownership sits exposed to the seller’s creditors. Recording the conveyance form and deed promptly after closing is the step that makes the transfer real to the outside world.

1
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Code 319.202 – Statement Declaring Value of Real Property Conveyed
2
Ohio Department of Taxation. DTE 100EX Statement of Reason for Exemption From Real Property Conveyance Fee
3
Ohio Department of Taxation. Real Property Conveyance Fee Statement of Value and Receipt
4
Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Ohio Code 319.54 – Fees and Charges by County Auditor
5
Ohio Department of Taxation. Real Property Conveyance Fee