Ohio Release and Satisfaction of Mortgage (Personal Representative)

When the person who held a mortgage on Ohio real estate dies before the loan is paid off, the mortgage does not die with them. Ohio Revised Code Section 2113.45 treats the mortgage and the debt it secures as personal assets of the mortgagee's estate, and Section 2113.46 directs the executor or administrator who receives the payoff to release and discharge the mortgage. This Ohio Release and Satisfaction of Mortgage (Personal Representative) is the recordable certificate that fiduciary signs: a satisfaction of mortgage, also called a mortgage release or certificate of satisfaction, prepared for the executor or administrator of a deceased mortgagee's estate.

A mortgage that outlives the lender

Private mortgages are common in Ohio: a parent who finances a child's home, a seller who carries back part of the price, a relative who lends against a property. When that mortgagee dies with the mortgage still of record, the mortgagor keeps paying the estate, and the estate's fiduciary becomes the person who can clear the lien. Section 2113.45 reaches both an original mortgagee and an assignee under a recorded assignment, so the form identifies any assignment of record under which the decedent held the mortgage, or carries the word None where the decedent was the original mortgagee.

The certificate Section 5301.34 describes

Ohio discharges a mortgage upon its record when the county recorder is presented with a certificate, acknowledged as Section 5301.01 provides, certifying that the mortgage has been fully paid and satisfied. The recorder then records the certificate in the official records. Ohio prescribes no statutory form for the certificate, so this form carries the statute's own certification words followed by the instrument's release language: the personal representative certifies that the mortgage has been fully paid and satisfied and that the payoff was received for the estate, and then releases, satisfies, and discharges the mortgage and its lien on the described property in full.

One fiduciary, signing under letters of appointment

The form recites exactly one personal representative, an executor or an administrator appointed by an Ohio probate court, signing alone in that fiduciary capacity and not individually. Section 2 prints that configuration as fixed text and collects the facts that identify the appointment: the probate court, the case number, the office held, and the date the letters of appointment issued. Section 2109.02 makes the letters the threshold of every fiduciary act, which is why the appointment sits on the face of the instrument. A living mortgagee releasing in their own name, an entity mortgagee such as a bank, a trustee, and co-fiduciaries serving together each present a different signer pattern from the one this form recites, and a partial release is a separate instrument under Section 5301.32.

The acknowledgment certificate uses the short form Section 147.55(F) prints for a public officer, trustee, or personal representative, so the notary's certificate names the signer by name and title of position rather than as an individual. Section 5301.291(A) provides that a recorded release signed by an executor or administrator individually rather than in a representative capacity is not deemed defective; the form prints the capacity in the party section, the signature heading, and the certificate so the record never raises the question.

Ninety days, and the county record

Section 5301.36 gives a mortgagee, defined to include any successor to the original mortgagee, ninety days from satisfaction to record a release, with a two hundred fifty dollar damages remedy for the mortgagor and the current owner, a written-notice procedure, and per-day damages after the notice. The certificate is recorded with the county recorder of the county where the property is located, at the fee Section 317.32 sets for deeds (thirty-four dollars for the first two pages and eight dollars per additional page, before any county preservation surcharge) plus the four-dollar marginal-reference fee the recorder charges to index the release against the mortgage. No auditor transfer or conveyance fee statement accompanies a mortgage release. The form is laid out to the Section 317.114 standard, with the three-inch recording margin on the first page and twelve-point type, and carries the preparer statement Section 317.111 requires and the parcel and municipality entries Section 5301.46(B) names for sectional-index counties.

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, the signing and notarization rules, and the recording process. This description and the guide describe the form and the Ohio statutes in general terms; they are not legal advice.