Ohio Ohio Limited Power of Attorney for Real Property

An Ohio General Durable Power of Attorney (Limited) grants an agent authority over only the subjects the principal marks, and nothing else. The form takes its subject list from the Ohio Uniform Power of Attorney Act, Ohio Revised Code sections 1337.21 to 1337.64, prints a box beside each of the fourteen subjects the statutory form names, and states on its face that the agent has no general authority over any subject left unmarked. One principal signs; one agent is named; the instrument is laid out for recording with the county recorder.

Authority that reaches only what is marked

The Act works by incorporation. Under ORC 1337.43, a power of attorney that refers to general authority over a subject by its descriptive term incorporates the entire section describing that subject. The statutory form in ORC 1337.60 turns that rule into a list with an initial line beside each subject, and this limited form uses the same fourteen subjects with a box in place of the line, from Real Property and Banks and Other Financial Institutions through Taxes and Digital Assets. A marked subject brings in the whole section, ORC 1337.45 for real property, for instance, with its authority to sell, convey, lease, mortgage, and manage. An unmarked subject is not referred to, so no authority over it passes. The statutory form's All Preceding Subjects line, the device for granting every subject at once, is not printed on this limited form; a principal who marks every box reaches the same authority subject by subject.

What stays outside the grant

ORC 1337.42(A) names eight actions an agent may take only on an express grant, among them creating or changing a trust, making a gift, changing survivorship rights or a beneficiary designation, and delegating authority. The form lists those eight actions as the statutory form lists them and states that it grants none of them. It prints no special instructions lines, so every provision on the recorded instrument is fixed text or a factual entry rather than language the principal drafts. One separate box, added to the statutory form in 2017, is the statement that the agent has access to the content of electronic communications; marking it supplies the express grant ORC 2137.08 requires, and left unmarked, the custodian's duty under ORC 2137.09 reaches the catalogue and other digital assets, not the content.

Durable, effective at signing, and governed by Ohio law

The form states that it is effective immediately, that it is durable and not terminated by the principal's incapacity, and that Ohio law determines its meaning and effect (ORC 1337.29, 1337.24, and 1337.27). Optional blocks name two successor agents under ORC 1337.31 and two nominees for guardian under ORC 1337.28.

The one-principal, one-agent configuration

The form recites exactly one principal, an individual acting in the principal's own right, and carries one signature block and one acknowledgment certificate. The agent does not sign; under ORC 1337.33 an agent accepts by acting. No marital status is recited, because a power of attorney conveys nothing and releases no dower; the deed or mortgage the agent later signs is the instrument that addresses a spouse's dower. A parent handing an adult child authority over a rental house and the account that serves it, and an owner placing the sale of Ohio land in a sibling's hands while living out of state, are the patterns this subject-by-subject form records. The form is not set up as a grant of every subject at once, as a coagent arrangement, as a springing power, or as an instrument for a trustee or entity principal.

Signing and recording in Ohio

The principal signs before a notary public or another officer authorized to take acknowledgments, and the certificate follows the ORC 147.55(A) short form. ORC 1337.04 requires the power of attorney to be executed and acknowledged before the real property instrument the agent signs and recorded in the county where the property lies before that instrument, with a supporting affidavit path for a power of attorney placed of record late. The form follows the ORC 317.114 format standard, with a three inch blank top margin on the first page for the recorder's endorsement.

The package includes the fillable form, a completed example filled in for a realistic Ohio fact pattern, and the guide that walks through every section, the fourteen subjects, and the recording sequence. This description and the guide describe the form and the governing statutes in general terms; they are not legal advice.