Defiance County Survivorship Deed (LLC Grantor) Form

On this Ohio survivorship deed the grantor is a limited liability company, and the one person who signs holds no title at all: a member, manager, or other authorized signer who signs for the company and acknowledges in the short form Ohio Revised Code Section 147.55(C) prints for a limited liability company. Two natural persons take as survivorship tenants under Section 5302.17, and the whole title vests in the survivor at the first death. The package prepares that deed for Ohio real property, carrying general warranty covenants.

A signature for the company, not for a spouse

The statutory survivorship deed form opens with the grantor's marital status and closes with a line on which the grantor's spouse releases dower. Neither attaches to anything when the grantor is a company: Section 2103.02 gives a spouse dower in land of which the other spouse was seized during the marriage, and a limited liability company, a separate legal entity under Section 1706.04, has no spouse. This deed drops both. Section 1 recites, as fixed text, that the grantor is a limited liability company organized under the law of the jurisdiction entered beside it; Section 2 recites that the person named signs on the company's behalf, in the capacity entered, and not individually. One signature block and one acknowledgment certificate follow.

Where the signer's authority comes from

Under Section 1706.18 of Ohio's Revised Limited Liability Company Act, no person can bind the company except under the operating agreement, under the members' decision described in Section 1706.30, under a statement of authority filed with the Secretary of State under Section 1706.19, or under other law. A sale of the company's land is often treated as an act outside the ordinary course, for which Section 1706.30 requires every member's consent, and a filed statement of authority is conclusive in favor of a buyer who gives value in reliance on it. The deed carries none of those documents; it names the signer and the capacity, and the guide describes where the authority behind that signature lives.

The Section 147.55(C) certificate

Ohio prints a separate acknowledgment short form for each kind of signer. The one for a limited liability company names the member or manager and title, the company, its jurisdiction of formation, and the words on behalf of the limited liability company, and the certificate on this deed carries that sentence with a blank for each element. An acknowledgment taken in another state is recognized under Section 147.51.

Two grantees, one surviving owner

The granting clause conveys to the first grantee and the second grantee for their joint lives, remainder to the survivor of them, the words Section 5302.17 prescribes, and Section 5302.20 supplies the rest: equal shares while both live unless the deed says otherwise, and the whole title in the survivor at the first death. The grantees need not be married; a company selling a renovated house to an unmarried couple, and a family holding company distributing a lot to two siblings, present the pattern this deed recites. What other states call a joint tenancy deed with right of survivorship, Ohio calls a survivorship deed; an LLC deed of this kind is that instrument with an entity on the granting side. The general warranty covenants of Section 5302.06 are the company's, carved back by the matters listed in Section 5. The form is not set up as a deed from a corporation, a partnership, a trustee, or an individual, or to one grantee or to three or more.

Auditor, then recorder

A sale by a company for a price is a fee-paid conveyance: form DTE 100, the conveyance fee statement, is filed with the county auditor under Section 319.202, and the company pays the fee Section 319.54(G)(3) sets together with any county permissive transfer tax levied under Chapter 322. The deed carries the grantees' tax-mailing addresses and the prior instrument reference Section 319.20 requires, the survey statement of Section 5301.25(B), and the preparer's name under Section 317.111. Under Section 317.22 the recorder accepts it only after the auditor's stamp and transfer endorsement are on its face.

The package includes the fillable survivorship deed form in this limited liability company grantor configuration, a completed example filled in for a Summit County sale by an Ohio company, and the guide, which walks through each section, a signer's authority under Chapter 1706, 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.