Legal Description Review

Legal Description Review Guidelines & Submission Form

Ottawa County strives to ensure proper and accurate descriptions of property are available for tax purposes. This includes reviewing of existing and new descriptions as well as assisting to correct errors that are evident. It is the intent of the Ottawa County Legal Description Review Process (as outlined in the guidelines) to provide a standard method of checking legal descriptions for deeds, easements, affidavits, and other instruments that require the use of metes and bounds land descriptions. (ORC 319.203)

Review Process

Any person, company or firm wishing to transfer and/or record an instruments of conveyance, and any surveyors and/or authors of any legal descriptions, are encouraged to have descriptions checked by the Ottawa County Engineer’s Office. It is recommended they be submitted to the Engineer's Office a minimum of 7 working days prior to the actual date of closing. This will help avoid delays and allow time for corrections to be made.

This review process does not ensure clear title to a certain piece of property, but does assure that the legal description meets the Minimum Standard for Boundary Surveys in the State of Ohio, as described in Chapter 4733-37 of the Administrative Code.

The Ottawa County Engineer’s Office and/or the Ottawa County Auditor’s Office bear no liability for any title problems that the reviewed descriptions may cause.

A licensed Professional Land Surveyor will review the legal description. Review submitted to the Engineer’s Office must be accompanied by the Legal Description Submission Form available below or at the top of this page.

Update to Review Procedures as of December 8, 2017

If a legal description contains a parcel number and/or address the description will be forwarded to the Auditor’s Office for verification of this information. This process may add up to an additional 3 days to the review time.