Defiance County Trustee Deed (LLC Grantee) Form

An Ohio trustee deed to a limited liability company moves real property out of a trust and into a company name in one recorded instrument: the trustee signs once, in the trustee capacity only, and the deed carries the fiduciary covenants of Ohio Revised Code Section 5302.10 rather than a warranty of title. This form prepares that deed, in the statutory fiduciary deed form of Section 5302.09, for one trustee of a disclosed trust conveying to one limited liability company organized in Ohio or elsewhere.

Covenants about the trustee, not about the title

The words that do the legal work in this deed are grants, with fiduciary covenants. Section 5302.10 gives fiduciary covenants a fixed meaning: the grantor covenants that the grantor is duly appointed, qualified, and acting in the fiduciary capacity the deed describes, is duly authorized to make the sale and conveyance, and has complied with the statutes governing the sale. Those covenants concern the trustee's office and authority, not liens or competing claims, which is what separates a trustee deed, sometimes searched as a fiduciary deed, from a warranty deed.

One trustee signing, one company taking title

The form fixes its configuration as deed text. Section 1 recites that the grantor acts solely as Trustee of the identified trust and not individually. Section 3 recites that the grantee is a limited liability company organized under the laws of the jurisdiction stated, taking title in its own name as the separate legal entity Section 1706.04 makes it, with the company's exact registered name and tax-mailing address as entries. One signature block and one acknowledgment certificate, in the Section 147.55(F) short form for a trustee, follow. A trust selling a rental property to a buyer that holds real estate in a company, a family trust contributing a parcel to a newly formed family LLC, and a trustee selling commercial land to an investor's acquisition entity each present the single-trustee, company-grantee pattern this deed recites. The form is not set up as a deed by two co-trustees, a deed to natural persons, or a deed to a series of a company.

The memorandum of trust the 2026 amendment requires

Ohio changed the trustee's recording obligation on June 16, 2026. Senate Bill 101 amended Section 5301.255 so that a memorandum of trust, or another instrument meeting that section, shall be of record when any interest in real property is conveyed by the trustee of a disclosed trust. The memorandum states the trustee's name and address, the trust's execution date, and the trust's powers over selling or conveying real property, with any restrictions. Section 2 of this deed identifies the trustee's power to convey, drawn from the trust instrument and Sections 5808.15 and 5808.16 of the Trust Code, and carries the recording reference of the memorandum of trust. A certification of trust under Section 5810.13 is prepared separately and is not included in this package.

Why no spouse signs a trustee deed

Ohio still has dower, and most Ohio deeds by a married individual carry a spouse's release. A trustee holds title for beneficiaries. Section 2103.021 provides that where the word trustee followed the grantee's name in the deed into the trustee, a conveyance by that trustee to a bona fide purchaser passes title free of any dower claim of the trustee's spouse unless the spouse recorded an affidavit claiming the interest first, and Section 5301.03 frees the same conveyance from the claims of undisclosed beneficiaries. The statutory fiduciary deed form prints no dower release, and this deed carries no spouse line and no marital status entry.

Auditor first, then recorder

A trustee deed to a company is, in the ordinary case, a sale for consideration, so it passes through the county auditor with a DTE 100 conveyance fee statement and the state fee of ten cents per hundred dollars of value, plus any county transfer tax, before Section 317.22 lets the recorder accept it. The deed carries the tax-mailing address and prior instrument reference Section 319.20 requires and is built to the Section 317.114 format across four recorded pages.

The package includes the fillable trustee deed, a completed example filled in for a Franklin County trust selling a Worthington lot to an Ohio limited liability company, and the guide that walks through every numbered section and the auditor and recorder steps. This description and the guide describe the form and the governing Ohio statutes in general terms; they are not legal advice.