Geauga County Disclaimer of Interest (Personal Representative) Form

When the person entitled to an inheritance dies before deciding whether to accept it, the decision survives. Section 5815.36(B)(4) of the Ohio Revised Code lets the executor or administrator of the deceased person's estate, with the consent of the probate court, disclaim on that person's behalf whatever the deceased could have disclaimed if living. This Ohio disclaimer of interest form prepares that post-death refusal for an interest in Ohio real estate: one personal representative, one court order, one described interest.

A refusal made for someone who can no longer make it

The statute's definition of a disclaimant reaches past the heir or devisee to any personal representative of a person or of a person's estate, including any fiduciary appointed by and accountable to the probate court under Section 2109.01. Under division (G) the refused interest passes as the first decedent's will or affidavit directs or, where that instrument is silent, as if the deceased person had died before the first decedent.

The order comes first

Division (B)(4) makes the probate court's consent the condition. The personal representative, or any interested person, applies to the probate division of the court of common pleas that has jurisdiction of the estate, and the court orders the disclaimer after a hearing on notice, on findings that it is in the best interests of those interested in the estate and of those who will take, and that it would not materially, adversely affect the beneficiaries of the estate. The form recites the court, the case number, and the date of that order and carries a fixed sentence identifying the order as the source of the authority to sign.

What the fiduciary configuration recites

The form recites exactly one personal representative, identified by name, mailing address, fiduciary title, appointing court, estate case number, and date of letters, and exactly one deceased person on whose behalf the disclaimer is made. The donative instrument and the record of the instrument that created the interest occupy their own section, as divisions (B)(3)(a) and (F)(4) require, and the interest disclaimed and its extent are written in an open block, whole or fractional. The declaration performs the act on behalf of the deceased person and the estate, retains no power of revocation, and makes no direction as to where the interest goes. An executor disclaiming a house devised to a son who died while his mother's estate was still open, an administrator declining an intestate share for an heir who outlived the decedent by a few months, and a personal representative refusing a transfer on death interest that vested days before the beneficiary died present the pattern this form recites. A living heir refusing in that person's own right, a guardian acting for a ward, and an attorney-in-fact under a power of attorney follow different patterns.

Signed as executor, acknowledged as executor

The single certificate carries the statutory short form Section 147.55(F) prints for a public officer, trustee, or personal representative, naming the person and title of position, and the printed name line under the signature holds the name with the fiduciary title. No witnesses are named in Section 5815.36, and none appear on the form.

Where the paper goes

Division (F) sends the instrument to the probate court administering the first decedent's estate for a will or intestate succession, to the trustee or title holder for a trust or deed, and to the county recorder as well for a transfer on death designation affidavit; for real estate, an executed copy is also recorded with the recorder of the county where the land lies. A disclaimer is not a conveyance under division (N)(2), so no conveyance fee statement accompanies it, though auditor routing before recording varies by county.

Two timing rules

Ohio ties the court-ordered disclaimer to the time within which the deceased person could have disclaimed if living. The federal qualified disclaimer rule in 26 U.S.C. Section 2518 runs its own nine month period from the transfer that created the interest, which for a transfer at death is the first decedent's death, and the Treasury regulation accepts a writing signed by the disclaimant's legal representative.

The package includes the fillable form, a completed example filled in for a Hamilton County fact pattern in which an executor disclaims a devised residence, and the guide that walks through every numbered section, the court order, 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.