Ohio Partial Release of Mortgage (Individual)

When one person holds an Ohio mortgage, a partial release of that mortgage takes one signature and one notarial certificate. This form prepares an Ohio partial release of mortgage for exactly that configuration: a single mortgagee who is an individual, holds the mortgage in the mortgagee's own name, and signs in the mortgagee's individual capacity, releasing a described part of the mortgaged land under Ohio Revised Code Section 5301.32 while the lien stays on the rest.

One name on the mortgage, one name on the release

The form is the Individual configuration of this instrument. Section 1 prints a fixed recital that the mortgagee named below is an individual who holds the mortgage in the mortgagee's own name and executes the partial release in the mortgagee's individual capacity; the only entries in that section are the mortgagee's name and mailing address. The instrument carries a single MORTGAGEE signature block and a single acknowledgment certificate, with no signature line for anyone else: not a co-holder, not an officer signing for a company, not a trustee, not an attorney-in-fact, and not a spouse of the mortgagee. The person who lent the money and took the mortgage as security, and the person who later acquired it by recorded assignment, both present the one-holder pattern this form recites. A mortgage held by two people, an entity, or a trust presents a different signer and recital that this form does not carry.

The acknowledgment short form for a person acting alone

Ohio prints its statutory acknowledgment short forms in Section 147.55 of the Revised Code, keyed to the capacity of the person acknowledging. This certificate uses the Section 147.55(A) form for an individual acting in the individual's own right: The foregoing instrument was acknowledged before me this (date) by, followed by the mortgagee's name. The separate forms for a corporation, a limited liability company, a partnership, an attorney-in-fact, or a trustee do not come into play, because the signer acknowledges nothing but the signer's own act. Section 5301.32 requires the separate instrument to be acknowledged as Section 5301.01 provides, and the venue lines record where the act takes place, which Section 147.51 allows to be outside Ohio.

Holding by assignment

An individual mortgagee is not always the person named in the mortgage. Under Section 5301.31 an assignment of a mortgage, however it is made, transfers both the lien and all interest in the mortgaged land to the assignee. Section 3 of the form identifies any recorded assignment through which the mortgagee holds, so the record shows the path to the individual signing the release; where the signer is the original mortgagee, that section reads None.

Released, not satisfied

Section 5301.36 defines satisfaction as payment in full of the secured obligation with the underlying obligation terminated, and attaches a ninety-day recording deadline to that event. A partial release leaves the debt in place. The operative paragraph of this form releases and discharges from the lien and operation of the identified mortgage only the real property described in Section 4, and its second sentence confirms on the instrument's face that the lien continues in full force on every part of the mortgaged land not released and that the debt is not released, satisfied, or affected. The released land is described with the parcel number and the city or township the recorder uses to index a separate-instrument release under Section 5301.46.

Fees at the recorder's counter

Section 5301.32 directs the recorder to charge the fee Section 317.32 sets for recording deeds: $34 for the first two pages and $8 for each page after that, half of each amount going to the Ohio Housing Trust Fund, plus a document preservation surcharge of up to $5 in counties that have adopted one. A release that refers to the recorded mortgage may also draw the Section 317.32(C) marginal reference fee, $4 for each reference the recorder indexes. The instrument runs three pages at the Section 317.114 standard format and names its preparer, which Section 317.111 requires on an instrument that discharges a lien. No auditor's transfer stamp attaches, because Section 317.22 reaches deeds of absolute conveyance of land and mineral conveyances, not releases of mortgages.

The download includes the fillable form, a completed example filled in for an individual mortgagee releasing one lot from a Hamilton County mortgage, and the guide that walks through each section, the acknowledgment, and recording. This description and the guide describe the form and the governing Ohio statutes in general terms and are not legal advice.