Delaware County, OH Probate Information

Before you file anything in Delaware County, know exactly what is in the estate and how each asset is titled. Which Ohio route fits depends on whether there is a will, on who inherits, and on the value of the assets that actually pass through the estate, because a full administration, a release from administration and a summary release are three different filings with different forms, different notice steps and different court costs. Those routes and their dollar ceilings are statewide and are explained on the Ohio state page. Delaware County adds a fourth, smaller route of its own, a short form release for an estate of not more than $1,000 with no titled vehicles or real estate, so the value you establish before filing can move you between four different price points on the court's schedule, from $35.00 to $200.00.

Identify every bank and credit-union account, retirement plan, brokerage holding, life-insurance policy, vehicle, business interest and parcel of Delaware County real estate, along with every debt, before you file. The court expects the proof, not just the numbers: its release, summary release and short form release checklists all require documentation establishing the value of every asset listed on the application, and Loc.R. 75.5 requires documentation supporting the valuation and ownership of the assets to be released at the time the application is filed. Titling also decides whether an asset reaches the court at all, because property held jointly with right of survivorship, accounts with a named beneficiary, and Delaware County land covered by a transfer on death designation affidavit recorded with the Delaware County Recorder before death (R.C. 5302.22) pass directly to the survivor or beneficiary. Sunset's asset-discovery work, searching more than 2,300 financial institutions, exists for this step, so the application you take to the 3rd floor describes the estate accurately the first time.

Delaware County Probate Court in the city of Delaware is the single probate filing office for the whole county. There is no branch or satellite office: everything is filed with the one court, on the 3rd floor of the Rutherford B. Hayes Building at 145 North Union Street, through the building's single ground-floor entrance under the portico off the North Union Street parking lot. The court serves every community in the county. Per the county's own list of cities, villages and townships, that means the cities of Delaware, Powell, Sunbury and the Delaware County portions of Columbus, Dublin and Westerville; the villages of Ashley, Galena, Ostrander and Shawnee Hills; and the townships of Berkshire, Berlin, Brown, Concord, Delaware, Genoa, Harlem, Kingston, Liberty, Marlboro, Orange, Oxford, Porter, Radnor, Scioto, Thompson, Trenton, Troy and Washington, together with the unincorporated communities inside those townships.

Venue for an Ohio estate is the county where the decedent was a resident at the time of death (R.C. 2113.01). If the person lived anywhere in Delaware County, the estate is opened in Delaware County Probate Court, whichever municipality or township within the county that was, and even if the death occurred in a hospital in Franklin County. Ohio's statute says resident, not domiciled, and the probate court in which a will is admitted to probate is the court that grants letters. Note that this court's own full-administration checklists word the test as the county where the decedent was domiciled at the time of death, and add that where the decedent was a non-resident with property in Ohio the estate may be commenced in a county where the property is located, which is the ancillary route under R.C. Chapter 2129 on Form 4.1. Ohio has no probate district, circuit or regional overlay: each of the 88 counties has its own probate court seated at the county seat (R.C. 2101.01(A)).

Getting the county right matters more here than almost anywhere in Ohio, because Delaware County is where the Columbus suburbs cross a county line. The county's own list of municipalities includes Columbus, Dublin and Westerville, all of which are mostly in Franklin County, while the city of Powell and the villages of Galena and Shawnee Hills sit wholly in Delaware County, and the county's eastern townships border Licking and Knox counties. A Columbus, Dublin or Westerville mailing address does not by itself put an estate in either county, so confirm which county the decedent's home actually sat in before you file, because filing in the wrong county costs a deposit and a restart. Note too that the Delaware County Probate Court is not the Delaware County Clerk of Courts and is not at the county's Historic Courthouse at 91 North Sandusky Street: in Ohio the elected probate judge has care and custody of the probate court's records and is authorized to perform the duties of its clerk (R.C. 2101.11(A)(1)(a)), so estates are opened with the Probate Court itself, on the 3rd floor at 145 North Union Street.

One judge, two divisions, two phone lines, one building. Delaware County is one of the roughly one third of Ohio counties where the same elected judge presides over both the Probate Division and the Juvenile Division of the Court of Common Pleas. The court's own site describes the judge as Judge of the Probate/Juvenile Division, and Loc.R. 55.2 refers to the Delaware County Probate/Juvenile Court. Practically, though, the two divisions run separate offices with separate websites and separate main lines in the same building: the Probate Court is on the 3rd floor at (740) 833-2680, and the Juvenile Court's main line is (740) 833-2600. For an estate, call the probate line.

The local rules are brand new, effective July 1, 2026. This court adopted a fresh 100-page set of local rules by judgment entry in Case No. 2401 0001 PMO, effective July 1, 2026, published on its own site rather than through the Supreme Court of Ohio's local rules index. That matters for anyone relying on older guidance, because the rule numbers, the deposit provisions and the estate case-management rules are all current as of that date. The court also publishes its administrative orders on the same page, including a standing administrative order on electronic filing dated April 22, 2025.

E-filing is optional here, and it does not cover a full administration with a will. The contrast with Franklin County next door is sharp. Franklin makes e-filing mandatory; Delaware's standing administrative order of April 22, 2025 says pleadings and other papers may be filed electronically, and requires anyone who wants to e-file to register with the e-services platform first, with the portal offering separate attorney and public registration so a self-represented filer can use it. Coverage is partial: the portal's published e-file checklists cover special administration of an estate, adult guardianship, release from administration without a will, special needs trusts, testamentary trusts and wrongful death trusts, and the court's counter checklist for a full administration with a will states that it cannot be e-filed and that the original will must be filed with the initial opening documents. Confirm your route at (740) 833-2680 before you plan on filing online.

Fax filing is a real channel, with a fifteen-page ceiling and a list of things it cannot do. Every page of the court's site carries a line pointing readers to Local Rule 57.1 for fax filing limitations and requirements, and the rule is substantive. Loc.R. 57.1 adopts the Supreme Court of Ohio Model Facsimile Filing Rule, accepts a faxed document as the effective original filing without requiring the source document to be filed, requires a cover page carrying specified information, caps a filing at fifteen pages excluding the cover page, and requires the filer to keep the signed source document until the case is closed and all opportunities for post-judgment relief are exhausted. Fax cannot be used to commence a proceeding requiring service of summons, to deposit or file a will or trust, to obtain a Certificate of Transfer of Real Estate, or where the cost deposit is insufficient, and no extra fee is charged because a filing came by fax.

There is a short form release for a truly tiny estate, and it costs $35.00. Delaware County publishes a route that has no counterpart in the Revised Code and no counterpart in most Ohio counties. Its Short Form Release checklist covers an estate where the assets to be released do not include titled vehicles or real estate, the assets have an established value at the date of death of not more than $1,000, everyone who would inherit consents to the proposed distribution, the funeral bill has been paid by the applicant or prepaid or the payor consents, and creditors will not be prejudiced. It is filed on the court's own local forms 5.20A, 5.20B and 5.20C, and the schedule prices it at $35.00 against $88.00 for a regular release. The checklist prints no statutory cite for the $1,000 ceiling, so confirm eligibility with the court.

An unrepresented applicant has to show up with identification. Three local rules combine into an in-person step. Loc.R. 60.3 requires an applicant for authority to administer an estate who is not represented by an attorney admitted in Ohio to exhibit current government-issued photo identification and proof of current residence and mailing address in a form satisfactory to the court. Loc.R. 78.5 requires an applicant without an attorney to exhibit a certified copy of the death certificate at the initial filing, with the deputy clerk making and redacting a copy, and accepts a published obituary only where the certificate is not reasonably available. Loc.R. 75.5 repeats both requirements for a release or summary release. The court's checklists also ask for a copy of the applicant's photo identification in the filing itself.

A non-resident cannot be the administrator, and a non-resident executor needs an Ohio attorney. R.C. 2109.21(A) provides that an administrator shall be a resident of this state, and the court's own full-administration checklists state flatly that a non-resident of Ohio cannot be appointed as the administrator of an Ohio estate. A non-resident named as executor in a will can qualify within the statute's categories, chiefly a person related to the testator by blood or marriage (R.C. 2109.21(B)(1)(a)), but Loc.R. 60.2 layers local conditions on top: the non-resident applicant must comply with R.C. 2109.21 and have an attorney of record permitted to practice by the Supreme Court of Ohio, and must place assets of the decedent into a restricted-access Ohio depository account under R.C. 2109.13 using the court's local form 60.2A, post a bond, or have an Ohio-resident co-executor or co-trustee named in the will. A non-resident applicant must also give the court current photo identification with proof of current residence and mailing address.

Get the county engineer's stamp before the certificate of transfer reaches the court. Loc.R. 78.3 is the step that catches out-of-town filers and out-of-town lawyers. A Certificate of Transfer (Form 12.1) for real property in Delaware County should be submitted in duplicate and must first go to the Delaware County Engineer for review of the legal description, and must be stamped Approved, Approved for Estate Transfer Only, or Approved for Closing Purposes before it is submitted to the court. Because the case file has to keep a certificate bearing an original stamp, the rule suggests getting the stamp on two copies so a recordable certificate comes back to you. Where the parcel is outside the county, the rule encourages compliance with that county's own pre-approval process. For an actual sale, Loc.R. 65.2 requires a statement from the Map Department of the county engineer's office on whether the legal description is acceptable for deed transfer, filed with the complaint, and warns that non-compliance may be grounds for dismissal after notice and hearing.

Inventories and accounts are both set for hearing. Many Ohio courts waive a hearing on an uncontested inventory. This one does not: Loc.R. 78.1 provides that hearings shall be scheduled for the inventory filed in an estate, with notice served on all interested persons and local form 78.2A filed as the certificate of service, unless the waiver on local form 78.2B is used. Loc.R. 64.9 does the same for accounts, adding that the court directs a copy of the account be sent to heirs and beneficiaries three days before the account is filed and that Form 13.9 be filed with it. Waivers, priced at $1.00 per sheet on the court's schedule, are how families avoid certified mail on both.

Executor compensation has a local calculation form and a local commission rule. Loc.R. 60.4 provides that unless the court approves otherwise, compensation is not paid to an executor or administrator until the final account is prepared for filing and the court's Calculation of Executor/Administrator Compensation form (local form 60.4A) has been filed setting out the basis of the calculation. The same rule sets a local commission of 1 per cent of the value of property not subject to administration that would have been includable for the purpose described in the rule, excluding joint and survivorship property, for a fiduciary appointed on or after January 1, 2014. The court also publishes a consent to attorney fees, local form 71.4A.

Bonds are corporate only, and reviewed at every milestone. Loc.R. 75.4 provides that attorneys may not act as sureties, that the court will not accept personal sureties, that a bond required by law or court order shall be not less than double the probable value of the personal estate and all sources of income during the next accounting period, and that bond premiums must be paid within the later of sixty days of the bond being filed or the premium billing date, with the fiduciary personally liable and removable for non-payment. Loc.R. 78.1 adds that the inventory prompts the court to review whether the existing bond is sufficient, and Loc.R. 75.4 that adequacy is reviewed on the inventory, on each account and on a consent to the sale of real estate.

The older half of the county's estate records is not at the courthouse. The court's Record Search page draws a line at January 20, 1950: estate records from that date forward are at the Probate Court, some on the court's imaging system since 2003 and some on microfiche or microfilm, while earlier records are held at the Delaware County Records Center, 2079 US 23 North, Delaware, OH 43015, (740) 833-2140. Marriage records run from 1996 forward at the court and earlier at the Records Center. If you are researching an old family estate, start with the year.

Ohio does not require an attorney to open an estate, and Delaware County Probate Court plainly expects families to file on their own: several of its local rules exist specifically for an applicant not represented by counsel, its checklists list exactly what the deputy clerk wants to see, and its short form release exists for the smallest estates. Counsel makes sense when a will is contested or a dispute among heirs is likely, and note that a will contest carries its own $160.00 deposit here; when a surviving spouse is electing against the will after the citation is served under Loc.R. 60.5; when the estate is insolvent or a creditor is pressing a claim inside the six-month window measured from death (R.C. 2117.06); when Delaware County real estate has to be sold, because Loc.R. 65.1 and Loc.R. 65.2 put a title commitment and a county engineer's description statement on a deadline and Loc.R. 65.2 warns that non-compliance may be grounds for dismissal; when the estate holds a business interest, out-of-state property, or a wrongful-death or injury claim; when a guardianship, a special needs trust or a testamentary trust has to run alongside the estate; or when the final account cannot be filed within six months because the fiduciary is a party in a civil action (R.C. 2109.301). One local factor makes counsel mandatory rather than advisable: a non-resident applying to serve as executor or trustee must have an attorney of record permitted to practice by the Supreme Court of Ohio (Loc.R. 60.2), and a non-resident cannot serve as administrator at all (R.C. 2109.21(A)). Sunset can connect families to a vetted Delaware County probate attorney when the situation calls for counsel.

Find the accounts and assets. Sunset searches more than 2,300 financial institutions and public records to surface bank and credit-union accounts, retirement plans, brokerage holdings, life insurance, Delaware County real estate, business interests and unclaimed property, so you know the estate's value and which Ohio estate settlement route fits before you open a filing, with the documentation of value the court's checklists require.

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, whether a full administration, an application to relieve the estate from administration or a summary release, on the statewide Standard Probate Forms, ready to take to the Delaware County Probate Court's 3rd-floor counter or to upload where the court has opened the route to electronic filing.

Find a local probate attorney. When a matter is contested, involves a property sale, or otherwise calls for counsel, Sunset connects families to a vetted Ohio probate attorney serving Delaware County and the north Columbus suburbs.

Sunset is free for families. Revenue comes from bank partners that pay Sunset while estate funds sit in an FDIC-insured estate account ($3M coverage).