Guernsey County Special Warranty Deed Form

An Ohio special warranty deed conveys real property with a title promise that stops at the grantor's own front door: the grantor warrants against anyone claiming by, through, or under the grantor, and against none other. Ohio's statutes call it a limited warranty deed, and this form prepares that deed under Ohio Revised Code Section 5302.07 for one or two grantors conveying to one or two grantees.

A warranty that reaches back only as far as the grantor

Section 5302.08 gives the words limited warranty covenants a fixed meaning: the grantor covenants that the premises are free from all encumbrances made by the grantor, and warrants and will defend the title forever against the lawful claims of all persons claiming by, through, or under the grantor, but against none other. A mortgage the grantor placed on the land and did not disclose breaches that covenant; a defect rooted in a deed recorded decades before the grantor bought the property does not. That is the difference between this deed and a general warranty deed, which warrants against all persons, and a quitclaim deed, which carries no covenant.

The form takes its operative words from the statutory form: the grantors grant, with limited warranty covenants, the described property, subject to the encumbrances and exceptions of record they list, which are carved out of the covenants. Under Section 5302.03 the word grant alone implies no covenant, so the warranty lives entirely in that phrase. The deed also carries the statutory form's dower release, so a spouse who signs releases the dower Section 2103.02 gives a married person in the other spouse's real property.

One or two grantors, one or two grantees

This form is the general configuration of the Ohio special warranty deed. The grantor and grantee blocks are open entries that receive one or two natural persons in their own right, with the marital status entry the statutory form calls for after each grantor's name. Nothing about marital status, existing ownership, or the grantees' form of co-ownership is preprinted, so the same instrument records a single owner selling to a buyer, a married couple conveying their home, and a seller conveying to two buyers who take for their joint lives, remainder to the survivor of them, the survivorship words of Section 5302.17. The deed carries two signature blocks and a separate acknowledgment certificate for each signer, so two grantors may sign on different days before different officers; a single grantor leaves the second block blank, and a spouse who signs only to release dower takes it. Conveyances by an entity, a trustee, an attorney-in-fact, a fiduciary, or three or more grantors follow different patterns and are not what this instrument recites.

Built for the auditor's counter and the recorder's standards

An Ohio deed is transferred by the county auditor before the county recorder accepts it, and the form carries what that trip requires: the grantee tax-mailing address and prior instrument reference of Section 319.20, the survey line of Section 5301.25(B), the preparer statement of Section 317.111, and a printed name beneath every signature under Section 317.11. The page layout follows the standard format of Section 317.114: a three inch blank top margin on the first page for the endorsements, one inch side and bottom margins, and twelve point body type over the ten point minimum. The DTE 100 conveyance fee statement, the fee of ten cents per hundred dollars of value, and any county transfer tax are handled at the auditor's office, as the guide describes.

Acknowledgment the Ohio way

Ohio requires no deed witnesses. Section 5301.01 asks for the grantor's signature and an acknowledgment before a notary public, a judge or clerk of a court of record, a county auditor, a county engineer, or a mayor, and each certificate on this form prints the Section 147.55(A) short form, the foregoing instrument was acknowledged before me, with the venue, date, printed name, seal, and commission lines of Section 147.542. A grantor outside Ohio acknowledges before an officer of that place under Section 147.51(B), and Sections 147.60 through 147.66 permit online notarization.

The package includes the fillable special warranty deed, a completed example filled in for a Franklin County fact pattern with two married grantors conveying to two survivorship tenants, and a guide that walks through every section, the covenants, the dower release, and the auditor and recorder steps. This description and the guide describe the form and the Ohio statutes in general terms; they are not legal advice.