Ohio Affidavit of Confirmation and Survivorship Affidavit

Introduction

Key Things to Know

1. 1

   Affidavit of confirmation is the name ORC 5302.222 gives this, and it is the Ohio version that is not optional. The statute reads that the transfer of a deceased owner's property as designated in a transfer on death designation affidavit shall be recorded by presenting it to the county auditor and filing it with the county recorder. It must be executed by any transfer on death beneficiary to whom the transfer is made, so where several beneficiaries are named, one of them signing is enough.

2. 2

   The survivorship tenancy version is a different document under a different section, it has no statutory name at all, and it is permissive. ORC 5302.17 says the transfer of the decedent's interest may be recorded, by either a certificate of transfer under ORC 2113.61 or an affidavit accompanied by a certified copy of a death certificate. Its four recitals are the names of the other survivorship tenant or tenants, their address, the date of death of the decedent, and a description of the real property.

3. 3

   Ohio does not call it joint tenancy. ORC 5302.20(A) provides that where an interest is conveyed or devised to two or more persons for their joint lives and then to the survivor or survivors of them, those persons hold title as survivorship tenants and the interest created is a survivorship tenancy. Subsection (B) is why the filing is about the record rather than the transfer: upon the death of any of them, the title of the decedent vests proportionately in the surviving tenants as survivorship tenants.

4. 4

   A certified copy of the death certificate is mandatory on both paths, and on the transfer on death path you may need more than one. ORC 5302.222 requires one for the deceased owner, and division (B) requires a certified copy of the death certificate for each transfer on death beneficiary who has not survived the deceased owner. Division (A)(4) also makes you name those beneficiaries, so a person who died before the owner has to appear in the affidavit rather than be quietly left out.

5. 5

   The medicaid estate recovery form is the step people miss, and the recorder is the one who hands it to you. ORC 5302.221(C) requires a county recorder to provide a copy of the state prescribed form to a transfer on death beneficiary or the beneficiary's representative before recording the transfer. You then have to send a completed copy to the program administrator unless you can answer that neither the deceased owner nor any predeceased spouse had ever been a medicaid recipient. Answering that you do not know triggers the filing too.

6. 6

   Budget 34 dollars for a two page affidavit, plus 8 dollars a page after that. ORC 317.32, as amended effective October 24, 2024, sets a base fee of 17 dollars for the first two pages and a housing trust fund fee of 17 dollars, then a base fee of 4 dollars and a housing trust fund fee of 4 dollars for each subsequent page. Watch the counting rule: the caption page counts, and a fraction of a page counts as a page. A recorder may also add a document preservation surcharge of up to 5 dollars.

7. 7

   If the property was held by a trustee rather than by an individual, Ohio has a third instrument. ORC 5302.171 is triggered by the death, resignation, removal or other event terminating a trustee's appointment, and requires the successor trustee or any co-trustee to file an affidavit with the county auditor and the county recorder as soon as is practical. It is excused entirely where the trust instrument itself, or a memorandum of trust under ORC 5301.255 containing the succession facts, is already recorded.

Ohio Requirements for Affidavit of Death

• The Name and Address of Each Beneficiary Who Survived

  The first of the four recitals ORC 5302.222(A) prescribes: the name and address of each transfer on death beneficiary who survived the deceased owner, or that is in existence on the date of death of the deceased owner. Addresses, not just names. Where a beneficiary was designated solely in that person's capacity as trustee of a trust and that trustee has since been replaced, this item expands: give the successor trustee's name and address, and attach a copy of the recorded successor trustee affidavit described in ORC 5302.171.

• The Name of Each Beneficiary Who Did NOT Survive

  The fourth recital, and the one most often left out because it feels counterintuitive. ORC 5302.222(A)(4) requires the name of each transfer on death beneficiary who has not survived the deceased owner, or that is not in existence on the date of death. Ohio wants the negative list stated in the affidavit, not silently dropped. Division (B) then adds the proof: the affidavit shall be accompanied by a certified copy of the death certificate for each transfer on death beneficiary who has not survived the deceased owner.

• The Date of Death of the Deceased Owner

  The second recital under ORC 5302.222(A), and the same item appears among the four that ORC 5302.17 requires on the survivorship tenancy path. Ohio asks only for the date, not the place, which is narrower than several other states. Take the date from the certified death certificate you are attaching so the two documents agree, because a mismatch between them is a routine reason for a second trip to the counter.

• A Description of the Real Property or Interest

  The third recital under ORC 5302.222(A), worded as a description of the subject real property or interest in real property, and also the fourth of the ORC 5302.17 recitals. Copy the legal description from the recorded instrument rather than from a tax bill. Note that the statute covers an INTEREST as well as the whole property, so where the deceased owner held a fractional share, describe the share and not just the parcel.

• A Certified Copy of the Death Certificate, and Sometimes Several

  Mandatory on both main Ohio paths, unlike some states. ORC 5302.222(A) requires the affidavit of confirmation to be accompanied by a certified copy of the death certificate for the deceased owner, and ORC 5302.17 requires an affidavit accompanied by a certified copy of a death certificate for a deceased survivorship tenant. On the transfer on death path division (B) can multiply it: one certified certificate for the owner plus one for each named beneficiary who did not survive. A photocopy is not what either section calls for.

• Verification Before a Person Authorized to Administer Oaths

  ORC 5302.222(A) provides that the affidavit of confirmation shall be verified before a person authorized to administer oaths, which is broader wording than notarized. ORC 5302.17 is SILENT on verification and we are not treating silence as permission to skip it, so have the survivorship version notarized too. No witness requirement appears on any Ohio path. ORC 5301.252(A) sets the wider rule for who can swear a title affidavit at all: any person having knowledge of the facts or competent to testify concerning them in open court. Both ORC 5302.222(E) and ORC 5301.252(E) make a knowingly false statement falsification under ORC 2921.13(A)(6).

• The Medicaid Estate Recovery Form the Recorder Hands You

  Unique to Ohio among the states in this cluster. ORC 5302.221(B) requires the administrator of the medicaid estate recovery program to prescribe a form on which a surviving transfer on death beneficiary, or the beneficiary's representative, indicates whether the deceased owner had been a medicaid recipient, had never been one, or the beneficiary does not know, and, where the owner's spouse died first, the same three choices for that predeceased spouse. Division (C) makes the county recorder provide a copy of the form before recording the transfer under ORC 5302.222, and requires a completed copy to go to the administrator in four of the six combinations, including both do not know answers. Ask for the form when you arrive. We are not printing a form number because we could not confirm one on a state site.

• The Auditor Step, the Value Statement and the Fee

  Present to the county auditor first, then file with the county recorder. At the auditor, ORC 319.202 requires the grantee or the grantee's representative to submit, electronically or in three written copies, a statement in the form the tax commissioner prescribes declaring the value of the property, except that where the transfer is exempt under ORC 319.54(G)(3) only a statement of the reason for the exemption is required. ORC 319.54(G)(3) names the survivorship case expressly, exempting a transfer to a person who is a surviving survivorship tenant under ORC 5302.17 on or after April 4, 1985; it does not name the transfer on death case, and whether the fee reaches an affidavit of confirmation is a question for an attorney rather than something we will assert. The recording fee under ORC 317.32 is 34 dollars for the first two pages, being a 17 dollar base fee plus a 17 dollar housing trust fund fee, then 8 dollars for each subsequent page, counting the caption page and any fraction of a page, plus a document preservation surcharge of up to 5 dollars.