Geauga County Grant Deed (Partnership Grantor) Form

When Ohio real property stands in the name of a partnership, one partner's signature in the partnership name is what conveys it. This Ohio grant deed is built for that transaction: a general or limited partnership as the sole grantor, one signature block for the partner who signs on its behalf, and the partnership acknowledgment certificate of section 147.55(D) of the Ohio Revised Code, with the word grant doing the conveying and no covenants of title.

Title in the partnership name, signed by one partner

Chapter 1776 of the Revised Code, the Ohio Uniform Partnership Act, treats a partnership as an entity distinct from its partners and makes property acquired in the partnership name the partnership's own. Section 1776.32(A)(1) supplies the conveyancing rule: partnership property held in the name of the partnership may be transferred by an instrument of transfer a partner executes in the partnership name. The deed's grantor section recites that the Grantor is a partnership holding title in the partnership name and that the deed is executed in that name by the partner who signs it; the signature section carries the partnership's name above the signature line, a title line, and the partner's statement of authority to sign. Under section 1776.31, an instrument executed in the partnership name for apparently carrying on the partnership business in the ordinary course binds the partnership; an act outside the ordinary course binds it only if the other partners authorized it. A general partner of a limited partnership under Chapter 1782 holds the powers of a partner in a partnership without limited partners, so the same signing pattern reaches a limited partnership.

A deed with no dower release

An Ohio deed signed by a married individual carries a release of dower, the life interest section 2103.02 gives a spouse in one third of the real property the other spouse was seized of during the marriage. This deed carries none, and no spouse signature line, because section 1776.47 provides that a partner is not a co-owner of partnership property and has no interest in it that can be transferred. The partnership owns the land; no partner's spouse holds dower in it. In place of a marital-status recital, the grantor block identifies the partnership, its mailing address, and the state under whose laws it is organized.

The certificate a partner acknowledges

Section 147.55 prints a short form of acknowledgment for each capacity in which a person may sign, and division (D) is the partnership form: acknowledged by the named partner, partner (or agent) on behalf of the named partnership, a partnership. The deed's certificate reproduces that sentence with blanks for the date, the partner, and the partnership, followed by the notary signature, printed name, commission state, expiration date, and seal that section 147.542(F) requires. An acknowledgment taken outside Ohio before an officer the place of signing authorizes has the same effect under section 147.51(B).

Recorded authority and what the grantee can rely on

A partnership may file a statement of partnership authority with the Ohio Secretary of State under section 1776.33 naming the partners authorized to transfer real property held in the partnership name. A certified copy recorded with the county recorder makes that grant conclusive, as to real property in that county, in favor of a purchaser who gives value without knowledge to the contrary, and a recorded limitation is one every person not a partner is deemed to know. The statement is prepared and recorded separately and is not included in this package. The deed passes through the county auditor, with form DTE 100 or DTE 100EX, before the recorder records it at the section 317.114 format with the grantee's tax-mailing address and prior instrument reference of section 319.20.

What the word grant carries

Section 5302.03 makes grant a sufficient word of conveyance from which no covenant is implied, and the deed states that it is made without covenants of any kind on the part of the Grantor. The grantee takes the partnership's interest as it stands, and the grantee block receives one or two grantees with any designation of ownership Ohio recognizes.

The package contains the fillable deed, a completed example in which an Ohio general partnership conveys a platted Franklin County lot to two survivorship tenants, and a guide that explains each numbered section, the partnership authority rules of Chapter 1776, and the dower question. This description and the guide describe the form and the Ohio statutes behind it in general terms; they are not legal advice.