Deed Description and Survey Pre-Approvals

In an effort to expediate the deed submitting process we offer pre-approvals of any deeds and surveys for surface interest within Monroe County. This is highly encouraged in order to check the plats and descriptions for errors and to ensure compliance with the Transfer & Conveyance Standards for Monroe County Ohio.

Effective immediately, the Monroe County Tax Map Department (in coordination with the County Auditor and Engineer) is updating our conveyance review process to align more closely with Ohio Revised Code §319.203 and standard practices across the state. This change deviates from our previous courtesy practice of providing markups, rewrites, or suggested language for non-compliant deeds. Parties preparing the document (including attorneys, title companies, and surveyors) are solely responsible for ensuring that all necessary details are included to accurately convey the context and scope of the intended transfer. For documents submitted for review and recording, our office will provide approval or rejection only—no markups, rewrites, or suggested language will be offered, as the preparation, understanding, and full adherence to the Monroe County Requirements for Conveyance (also referred to as the Transfer and Conveyance Standards, revised effective April 1, 2022, and available HERE , is the submitter's responsibility. To support compliance, we strongly encourage all preparers to familiarize themselves with these standards in advance, including requirements for legal descriptions, parcel references, prior deed citations, survey plats (where applicable), and sufficiency of detail. In the absence of complete and accurate information that allows clear identification of the property and transfer intent, our office will assume a single, basic transfer from the current owner to an external entity. Failure to provide adequate details may result in rejection upon submission if the document deviates from this assumed interpretation. We appreciate your cooperation in this transition, which will help expedite processing for fully compliant deeds and allow our staff to focus on core tax mapping duties. Pre-approval of descriptions is highly recommended (submit to mcmapdept@monroecountyohio.com at least two days prior), and resources such as the full standards document can be accessed on this website. Questions may be directed to the Tax Map Department. Thank you for your understanding and continued partnership.

In order for our office to pre-approve a deed description, the document should be submitted after the deed is prepared where we can see the grantor(s) and grantee(s) of the property because this may have an impact on whether the deed is acceptable for transfer or not.

For new survey descriptions, a copy of the survey plat as well as all associated descriptions should be submitted. These can be signed or unsigned for the pre-approval process but need to be signed copies, once finalized, that we will keep in our records.

Documents can be submitted digitally through email link below or may be mailed to our office at the contact information on our Home page. This office will strive to review the documents in an accurate and timely process and we will usually respond back in your preferred method within 24 hours. However please note that larger or more complex descriptions may take longer, so please allow for a longer review period.

<a href="http://www.monroecountyohio.com/departments/tax_map_department/deed_description_pre-approvals.php">Your Link Name</a>