You inherited an interest in Ohio, or you are about to. Here is what the state actually requires to put it in your name, what can take it away if you do nothing, where the money goes when the operator cannot find you, and the order to do things in. Written by a mineral buyer who pays for the probate on a committed deal, so read it with that in mind.
Updated November 2026. Written by Stephen Clayman, career landman and owner of Berlin Royalties. Statutes were checked against primary sources; this is general information from a buyer, not legal advice, and the state-specific details are the reason to call a Ohio attorney, not a substitute for one.
Yes, in nearly every case. Ohio moves real property, which includes severed minerals, through a probate court certificate of transfer recorded in each county where the land lies. A release from administration is available for small estates and can direct the transfer of real property, and an out-of-state executor can apply for the certificate directly if no Ohio ancillary proceeding is open. The larger question in Ohio is whether the interest still exists at all, because two separate statutes can extinguish it.
Severed minerals are real property. Title passing by will or intestacy moves through probate: the executor or administrator applies for a certificate of transfer under R.C. 2113.61, the court must issue it within five days of a compliant application, and it is recorded in each county where the land lies. If the fiduciary was discharged without filing one, an heir, devisee or successor may apply, and a foreign executor may apply if no Ohio ancillary proceeding is open. Release from administration under R.C. 2113.03 is available for estates of $35,000 or less, or $100,000 or less where the surviving spouse takes everything, and the court's order may direct the transfer of real property, so it reaches minerals.
An affidavit of facts relating to title under R.C. 5301.252 may be recorded by anyone with knowledge and may state birth, death, heirship and family history; once recorded it is evidence of those facts to the extent they affect title, but it is evidence, not a conveyance. For a nonresident decedent, ancillary administration under R.C. 2129.04 may be opened in any Ohio county where the decedent's property is, and the first grant covers the whole Ohio estate.
Yes. Under R.C. 5302.22 an individual who owns real property or any interest in real property may designate all or part of it transferable on death by a transfer on death designation affidavit, recorded like a deed before the owner's death. The statute's operative text is any interest in real property, which includes a severed mineral interest.
Yes, two of them, and together they are the most dangerous pair in the country for an absentee heir. The Dormant Mineral Act, R.C. 5301.56 as amended effective January 2014, lets a surface owner serve notice by certified mail, or publish if service fails, on the holder of a severed mineral interest that has had no saving event in the 20 years before the notice. Saving events include a recorded title transaction, actual production including under a recorded pooling or unitization instrument, use in gas storage, a drilling permit with a recorded affidavit, a recorded claim to preserve, and a separately listed tax parcel. The holder has 60 days from service or publication to record a claim to preserve or an affidavit identifying a saving event; a claim to preserve filed inside the 60 days defeats the abandonment even with no saving event in the prior 20 years (Dodd v. Croskey, 2015). If nothing is filed, the surface owner records a notice of failure to file and the interest vests in the surface. Corban v. Chesapeake (2016) held the 1989 version was not self-executing and that post-2006 claims follow the notice procedure. Separately, the Marketable Title Act, R.C. 5301.47 and following, extinguishes a severed interest 40 years after the surface owner's root of title absent a saving event, with no notice at all, and West v. Bode (2020) held both statutes apply to minerals and that an interest extinguished under the MTA no longer exists to be preserved under the DMA.
Ohio has no statute setting a royalty payment deadline or late-payment interest for private leases. R.C. 1509.30 only lets a gas royalty holder demand a report of volume, price and metered volume, due within 15 days or by the end of the payment period. Bills to require royalty statements have stalled in committee more than once. The lease governs, so get a payment clause into any Ohio lease you sign. Our letter generator writes the statutory demand, and the full state table is on royalty payment laws by state.
Search Ohio Division of Unclaimed Funds under the decedent's name and every spelling of it. Ohio's dormancy period for royalties and oil and mineral proceeds is one year from the date payable under R.C. 169.02, the shortest in the country, so suspended heir royalties reach the state quickly. Our unclaimed royalties hub covers the search in every state we buy in, and we run it free whether or not you sell.
Ohio's estate tax was repealed for deaths on or after January 1, 2013, and there is no inheritance tax. Inherited minerals take a federal stepped-up basis at date of death. The arithmetic is on our capital gains and depletion page, and a date-of-death appraisal is what documents the basis.
The printable version of that list, with the title path for every state, is our executor's checklist for mineral rights.
Send a photo of whatever you have. We will tell you what the family owns, what it pays, whether any money is sitting in suspense or with the state, what the title needs, and what it is worth, in writing and with the reasoning shown. Free, and the answer is the same whether or not you sell.
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Yes, two ways. Under the Dormant Mineral Act, R.C. 5301.56, a surface owner's notice starts a 60-day clock to record a claim to preserve, after which the interest vests in the surface. Under the Marketable Title Act, 40 years without a recorded saving event extinguishes the interest with no notice, and West v. Bode (2020) confirmed both apply to minerals.
Yes in nearly every case, because the certificate of transfer under R.C. 2113.61 is what moves real property. Release from administration under R.C. 2113.03 covers small estates and can direct the transfer, and a foreign executor can apply for the certificate directly if no Ohio ancillary proceeding is open.
One year from the date payable under R.C. 169.02, the shortest dormancy period in the country for mineral proceeds. Search the Division of Unclaimed Funds under the decedent's name before assuming the operator still has the money.