Geauga County Disclaimer of Interest (Entity) Form

When a corporation, nonprofit, limited liability company, or partnership refuses an inheritance, the refusal is still a disclaimer under Section 5815.36 of the Ohio Revised Code, but the paper looks different: an officer, member, manager, or partner signs for the organization, and the notary's certificate names the organization and the signer's office. This form prepares that disclaimer of interest for an entity named to receive Ohio real estate under a will, trust, or transfer on death designation affidavit, signed by its authorized representative.

An organization as the disclaimant

Section 5815.36(A)(1) defines a disclaimant as any person who is an heir, devisee, legatee, grantee, or beneficiary under a testamentary or nontestamentary instrument, and Section 1.59(C) of the Revised Code reads the word person, wherever a statute leaves it undefined, to include a corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, and association. Section 5302.23(B)(3) says the same from the owner's side: a transfer on death beneficiary may be a natural or legal person.

What the entity gives up and what it never holds

Under division (N)(2) a disclaimer is not a transfer or conveyance by the disclaimant, so the organization never takes the interest and conveys nothing. Division (G) sends the refused interest where the donative instrument provides, and otherwise as though the entity had died first. The form's declaration states that the entity makes no direction as to disposition, retains no power to revoke, has accepted no benefit, and has not transferred or encumbered the interest: the statements divisions (E) and (J) make decisive and that 26 U.S.C. Section 2518 also examines for a qualified disclaimer.

One signature, one certificate, and the words after by

The signature block is headed DISCLAIMANT (by authorized representative) and carries the representative's printed name, the date, and a title line for the office held. One acknowledgment certificate follows. Every statutory short form in Section 147.55 opens with the same words, The foregoing instrument was acknowledged before me this (date) by, and the individual, corporation, limited liability company, and partnership forms part ways only in what follows. The certificate prints that shared opening and leaves the by-line for the applicable pattern: for a corporation, the officer's name and title, of the corporation's name, an Ohio corporation, on behalf of the corporation; a limited liability company or partnership follows its own subsection in the same way. Under Section 147.53(B)(3) those words mean the signer acknowledges holding the stated position, signing by proper authority, and executing the instrument as the organization's act.

Two destinations, then the recorder

Under division (F)(1) an interest created by a transfer on death designation affidavit is disclaimed by delivery to the person holding title or possession and by filing with the county recorder; under division (F)(2) an interest under a will or by intestacy is disclaimed by filing in the probate division, with a copy to the personal representative. Division (F)(4) then adds, for any interest in real estate, recording of an executed copy with the county recorder, a description of the land sufficient to identify it, and a reference to the record of the instrument that created the interest; the form carries a blank for each. The recorded copy is laid out to the margin and type standard of Section 317.114.

What this configuration recites

The form recites exactly one disclaimant, and that disclaimant is an entity: Section 1 states as fixed text that the disclaimant is not a natural person and acts through the authorized representative who signs on its behalf, with the entity's name, type, jurisdiction, and mailing address as the blanks. Section 4 describes the interest refused and its extent in open text, whole or part. No marital status recital, spousal line, or dower release appears, because an organization has none of those. A nonprofit housing corporation declining a transfer on death designation of a Cincinnati house, as the completed example shows, presents the pattern this form recites. A natural person refusing in that person's own right, a trustee disclaiming for a trust's beneficiaries, and two organizations refusing on a single instrument are not what this form sets out.

The package includes the fillable entity disclaimer form, a completed example filled in for a Hamilton County nonprofit corporation refusing a transfer on death interest, and the guide that explains each numbered section, the by-line pattern for each kind of entity, and the filing and recording steps. This description and the guide describe the form and the governing Ohio statutes in general terms; they are not legal advice.