Geauga County Release and Satisfaction of Mortgage (Corrective) Form

An Ohio mortgage release that cites the wrong instrument number, misstates a name, or leaves out the parcel number sits in the county's official records as a certificate that points at the wrong thing. This form prepares a corrective release and satisfaction of mortgage for Ohio real property: a new certificate of satisfaction under Ohio Revised Code Section 5301.34 that identifies the earlier release, states the error it contains, and releases the mortgage again in full.

A second certificate, stated in full

Section 5301.34 discharges a mortgage upon its record when the mortgagee, or the mortgagee's assigns, presents an acknowledged certificate that the mortgage has been fully paid and satisfied. Ohio has no statute written for a corrective release, so the corrective instrument is simply that certificate made again, completely and accurately, with one addition: it names the release already of record and says what was wrong with it. The instrument restates the whole release rather than amending the earlier recording word by word, so the record carries a complete certificate whatever the status of the first one, and it confirms the earlier release to the extent that release was effective rather than revoking it.

What the earlier release got wrong

Section 4 of the form is the corrective heart of the instrument. It identifies the earlier release by title, date, and recording reference, and it carries a plain statement of the error corrected and the correct information: a mortgage recording reference transposed by two digits, a mortgagor's name misspelled, a legal description or parcel number omitted or copied from the wrong parcel. Stating the change on the face of a corrective instrument is the practice the Ohio State Bar Association's Ohio Title Standards describe for corrective re-recordings, and it lets a later examiner read the two instruments together. The curative statutes stay in the background: Section 5301.291 provides that a release is not defective for a fiduciary's individual signature, a certificate on a separate sheet, or late recording, and Section 5301.07 cures defects of execution after four years of record, but an error in the content of the release is outside those sections, and that is the error this instrument addresses.

One or two mortgagees, each with a certificate

The form carries two signature blocks, headed MORTGAGEE and SECOND MORTGAGEE (if applicable), and a separate acknowledgment certificate for each, so two mortgagees may sign on different dates or before different notaries, and a single mortgagee leaves the second block and certificate blank. A seller who financed a sale and took back a mortgage, and a couple named together as mortgagees, present the patterns this form recites. Section 3 records any assignment of record through which the signer holds the mortgage, and the form prints nothing about marital status or capacity. It is not set up as a first release where none is of record, as a partial release, which Ohio treats as a separate instrument, or for a bank, company, trust, estate, or attorney-in-fact, each of which signs in a representative capacity under a different statutory acknowledgment form.

Recording in the county where the land lies

The signed and acknowledged original goes to the county recorder of the county in which the property is located and is recorded in the official records, where the recorder also discharges the mortgage on its record. A release passes through no auditor transfer and carries no conveyance fee. Section 5301.36 gives a mortgagee ninety days from satisfaction to record a release, with statutory damages for a mortgagee who does not; a release recorded on time but recorded wrong is what the corrective instrument answers. The statewide recording fee under Sections 317.32 and 317.36 is thirty-four dollars for the first two pages and eight dollars for each page after that, plus a county preservation surcharge of up to five dollars and four dollars for each marginal reference the instrument sets out. The form is laid out to the Section 317.114 standard, with the three-inch blank top margin on the first page, one-inch side and bottom margins, and twelve point type, and it carries the preparer's name Section 317.111 requires.

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