Highland County Release and Satisfaction of Mortgage (Assignee) Form

When an Ohio mortgage changed hands before it was paid off, the person who releases it is not the lender named in the mortgage. This Ohio Release and Satisfaction of Mortgage (Assignee) is the certificate of satisfaction Ohio Revised Code Section 5301.34 describes, drafted for one assignee of record: a natural person who holds the mortgage under a recorded assignment, or a recorded chain of assignments, and who certifies that the mortgage has been fully paid and satisfied.

The mortgagee's assigns stand in the mortgagee's place

Section 5301.34 provides that a mortgage shall be discharged upon its record by the county recorder when a certificate executed by the mortgagee or the mortgagee's assigns, acknowledged as provided in Section 5301.01, is presented certifying that the mortgage has been fully paid and satisfied. Section 5301.36(H)(1) carries the same idea into the recording timetable by defining the mortgagee to include any successor to or assignee of the original mortgagee, so the assignee holds both the power to release the lien and the ninety day duty to record the release after satisfaction, with the damages of Section 5301.36 resting on the assignee as they would on the original lender.

Ohio prescribes what the certificate says, not the words it uses, so no statutory form exists. This instrument uses the statute's own phrase, fully paid and satisfied, and adds express release words, so the recorded document reads as a release of mortgage, a satisfaction of mortgage, and a certificate of satisfaction at once.

The chain of assignments, recited on the face of the release

What sets the assignee's release apart from the original mortgagee's is the link the record has to show between the signer and the mortgage. The instrument's assignment section recites the recorded assignment, or each link of a chain in order from the original mortgagee to the signer, and the assignee section recites that the signer is the present holder of the mortgage under that assignment of record.

What the configuration carries

The form recites exactly one assignee, signing in that person's own right, and prints that capacity as fixed text rather than leaving it to a blank or a selector. It carries one signature block under the heading ASSIGNEE and one acknowledgment certificate using the Section 147.55(A) short form for an individual acting in the individual's own right. A private lender who sold a seller-financed note and mortgage to a relative, and a family member who took a mortgage by recorded assignment from a parent, present the pattern this instrument recites. An original mortgagee releasing a mortgage that was never assigned, an assignee that is a bank, company, or trust, two or more co-assignees, a fiduciary, an attorney in fact, and a partial release are configurations this form is not set up as, and it does not recite them.

Identifying the mortgage and the land for the recorder

The instrument identifies the mortgage by its mortgagor, original mortgagee, date, principal amount, and recording reference, the reference the recorder uses to enter the discharge upon the record of the mortgage and which Section 317.32(C) treats as a marginal reference carrying its own four dollar fee beside the page fees. The property section carries the county, the legal description copied from the mortgage, the permanent parcel number, and the municipal corporation or township, the items Section 5301.46 names for a release made by separate instrument. Section 5301.291 adds that a recorded release is not defective because an assignee signed individually rather than in a representative capacity.

Built to Ohio's recording standard

The document follows the standard format of Section 317.114: letter size pages, body type at twelve point against the ten point minimum, a three inch blank top margin on the first page for the recorder's endorsements, and one inch side and bottom margins, so the twenty dollar nonstandard format fee never arises. The preparer's name required by Section 317.111 has its place on the form. No auditor transfer stamp or conveyance fee statement is involved, because a release of mortgage conveys no title; the instrument goes to the county recorder directly.

The package includes the fillable release and satisfaction form, a completed example filled in for a realistic Franklin County fact pattern, and the guide that walks through each section, the statutes, and recording. This description and the guide describe the form and Ohio law in general terms; they are not legal advice.