Defiance County Warranty Deed (Individual Grantor) Form

An Ohio general warranty deed passes real property with the fullest title promise the Revised Code defines, and this version of the form is arranged for a single individual owner: one grantor conveys, a spouse signs only to release dower, and each signer has a separate notary certificate. The package prepares the deed under Ohio Revised Code sections 5302.05 and 5302.06, formatted for recording in any Ohio county.

Six words that carry the whole warranty

Ohio compresses the general warranty into a statutory phrase. A deed that grants, with general warranty covenants, picks up the full set of promises section 5302.06 spells out: that the grantor is lawfully seized in fee simple, that the premises are free from all encumbrances, that the grantor has good right to sell and convey, and that the grantor does warrant and will defend the title against the lawful claims and demands of all persons. Those covenants reach the entire chain of title, not only the years the grantor held it, which is what distinguishes a general warranty deed from Ohio's limited warranty and quitclaim patterns. The form carries the statutory phrase verbatim, and its encumbrances section defines what the conveyance is subject to, such as taxes not yet due and payable or an easement of record.

One grantor, and a dower release when the grantor is married

The form recites a single individual grantor holding record title alone, with the marital status line the statutory form opens with. Marital status matters in Ohio because of dower: under section 2103.02, the spouse of an owner holds a dower interest in real property of which the owner is seized during the marriage, and a deed from a married grantor customarily carries the spouse's release. This form builds the release in. A spouse signature block, with operative language releasing all rights of dower to the grantee and its own acknowledgment certificate, is used only when the grantor is married; an unmarried grantor signs alone and the spouse blocks stay blank. Because the deed carries a separate acknowledgment certificate for each signer, the grantor and a releasing spouse may acknowledge on different dates or before different notaries.

Written for the auditor's counter as well as the recorder's

Ohio deeds pass two county desks before they reach the record. The county auditor transfers the parcel first, and section 319.20 makes two entries on the deed's face part of that transfer: the grantee's tax-mailing address and a reference to the prior recorded instrument by which the grantor claims title. The form carries a labeled line for each, plus the survey statement described by section 5301.25(B) for a conveyance where a survey was made. The layout follows the recording format statute, section 317.114: a three inch blank top margin on the first page for the recorder's and auditor's certifications, one inch margins elsewhere, and print at ten point or larger.

From the auditor's endorsement to the record

The guide walks the whole recording path in order: the conveyance-fee statement filed with the auditor, the state conveyance fee of ten cents per one hundred dollars of value under section 319.54(G)(3) plus any county permissive transfer tax of up to thirty cents per one hundred dollars, the transfer endorsement section 317.22 requires before a deed of absolute conveyance is admitted to record, and the recorder's statewide base fee of thirty-four dollars for the first two pages. Recording matters beyond fees: under section 5301.25, an unrecorded deed is fraudulent as to a later bona fide purchaser without knowledge of it, so the deed goes on record promptly after transfer.

What arrives in the download

The purchase delivers the blank general warranty deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example filled in for a realistic Franklin County transaction, and a plain language guide that walks through every numbered section, the dower release, notarization, the auditor's transfer, and county recording. The materials describe Ohio law in general terms and are not legal advice; an Ohio attorney can apply these rules to a particular title.