Ohio Partial Release of Mortgage

An Ohio partial release of mortgage takes a described piece of land out from under a recorded mortgage while the mortgage keeps its full force on everything else it covers. This form prepares that instrument as the separate instrument of partial release described in Section 5301.32 of the Ohio Revised Code, for one or two mortgagees who hold the mortgage in their own names.

A release that stops at the lot line

A seller who financed the sale of land that is later subdivided, or a private lender whose mortgage blankets several parcels, may agree to let one lot go, usually against a payment on the loan, so the borrower can convey it clear. The partial release is the recorded instrument that does exactly that and nothing more. Its operative paragraph releases and discharges from the lien and operation of the mortgage the real property described in the instrument and no other real property, and a second paragraph states on the face of the document that the mortgage remains in full force and effect on the land not released and that the secured debt is not released, satisfied, or affected. The satisfaction that ends a loan is a different instrument under Sections 5301.34 and 5301.36.

Two Ohio methods, one acknowledged instrument

Ohio law lets a mortgage holder partially release a mortgage by writing the release on the original mortgage or on the margin of the recorder's record under Section 5301.31, a method that needs no acknowledgment. Section 5301.32 supplies the alternative this form follows: a separate instrument of partial release, acknowledged as Section 5301.01 provides, recorded in the county recorder's official records, and charged at the fee Section 317.32 sets for recording deeds. A recorder who keeps records on microfilm may require that every partial release be made by separate instrument.

What the instrument identifies

The form identifies the mortgage by its mortgagor, date, original principal amount, recording reference, and county of recording. A separate section identifies any recorded assignment through which the signer holds the mortgage, since under Section 5301.31 an assignment carries the lien and all interest in the land with it. The property section describes only the land being released and carries the permanent parcel number and the municipal corporation or township, the indexing elements Section 5301.46 names for a release made by separate instrument in a county that keeps sectional indexes.

One or two mortgagees, signing in their own names

The form is the General configuration for this instrument: a free-form mortgagee block that receives the name and mailing address of one person who holds the mortgage, or of two who hold it together, with nothing about status, capacity, or ownership preprinted. It carries a MORTGAGEE signature block and a SECOND MORTGAGEE (if applicable) block, each followed by its own acknowledgment certificate in the Section 147.55(A) short form, so two mortgagees may acknowledge on different dates before different officers; on a single-mortgagee release the second block and certificate stay blank. The two-certificate layout is the form's design; Ohio notarial law does not demand it. A holder signing for an institution, a company, or a trust, through a power of attorney, or as a deceased mortgagee's personal representative presents a representative-capacity pattern this form does not recite, as does a mortgage held by three or more people.

Built for the recorder's counter

The document is laid out to the standard format of Section 317.114: letter size, a three inch blank top margin on the first page for the recorder's endorsement, one inch side and bottom margins, a one and one-half inch top margin on every later page, and twelve point type over the ten point floor, so it records without the twenty dollar nonstandard-format surcharge. A prepared-by block carries the preparer's name Section 317.111 requires on an instrument discharging a lien, and a printed-name line under each signature answers Section 317.11. Because a partial release conveys no title, the auditor's transfer stamp and conveyance fee statement that accompany deeds are not part of its path to the record.

The package includes the fillable partial release of mortgage form, a completed example filled in for a two-mortgagee, seller-financed Franklin County fact pattern, and the guide that walks through every section of the form, the notarization, and the recording rules. This description and the guide describe the form and the governing Ohio statutes in general terms; they are not legal advice.