Geauga County Trustee Deed Form

An Ohio trustee deed moves real property out of a trust. The trustee, acting in a fiduciary capacity rather than as an individual owner, conveys the parcel to a buyer or distributes it to a beneficiary. This form prepares that deed for Ohio real property held by the trustee of a disclosed trust, with room for one trustee or two co-trustees to sign.

A covenant about authority, not about the whole chain of title

The deed uses the words grants, with fiduciary covenants, the phrase Ohio Revised Code Section 5302.09 prints in its statutory deed of a trustee and Section 5302.10 defines. Those words carry a covenant 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. That is a different promise from the covenants of a general warranty deed: the trustee covenants about the trustee's own office and authority, and the grantee takes the title the trust held, with whatever history that title already carries. The deed names the trust instrument and the Ohio Trust Code as the source of the trustee's power.

The memorandum of trust the recorder expects to see

Since June 16, 2026, Section 5301.255 has provided that a memorandum of trust, or an instrument with the same content, shall be of record when any interest in real property is conveyed by the trustee of a disclosed trust. The memorandum is signed and acknowledged by the trustee and states the trustee's name and address, the date the trust was executed, and the trust's powers over buying, selling, encumbering, and conveying real property, with any limits on those powers. It gives notice only of what it contains. The deed asks for the memorandum's recording reference in its trust section; the memorandum itself is recorded separately and is not included in this package.

One trustee or two co-trustees

The form recites a single disclosed trust, identified by name and by the date of the trust instrument, and names the trustee or co-trustees who convey as its grantor. Two signature blocks follow, headed TRUSTEE and SECOND TRUSTEE (if applicable), each with its own acknowledgment certificate in the short form Section 147.55(F) prints for a trustee, so co-trustees can acknowledge on different days or before different officers; where a sole trustee conveys, the second block and its certificate stay blank. Spouses serving as co-trustees of a family revocable trust and selling the trust's house, and a successor trustee distributing a parcel to the beneficiaries, present the pattern this deed recites. The form prints no marital status and no spousal signature line for the trustee, who holds title for the trust rather than beneficially, and the guide walks through Section 2103.021, the Ohio statute on dower claims against a grantee named of record as trustee. A trust with three or more co-trustees who must all join, a conveyance into a trust by its settlor, and an executor or guardian conveying under a will or court order follow patterns this deed is not set up as.

From the auditor's counter to the recorder's

An Ohio deed is endorsed by the county auditor before the county recorder accepts it. The grantee's tax-mailing address and the prior instrument reference sit in the deed because Section 319.20 requires them for the auditor's transfer; a conveyance fee statement on form DTE 100, or the exemption form DTE 100EX, accompanies the deed, and the state conveyance fee of ten cents per hundred dollars, plus any county transfer tax, is paid at that step. Section 319.54 exempts several trust transfers, including a distribution to beneficiaries under trust provisions that became irrevocable at the grantor's death; a sale to an outside buyer pays the fee. The form is laid out to the Section 317.114 margins and carries the preparer statement Section 317.111 requires.

The package includes the fillable trustee deed form, a completed example filled in for a realistic Franklin County sale by two co-trustees, and the guide that describes every numbered section, the memorandum of trust, and the auditor and recorder steps. This description and the guide describe the form and the governing law in general terms; they are not legal advice.