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Erie County, OH Probate Information
Quick facts
| Category | Current rules |
|---|---|
| Court | Erie County Probate Court, the probate division of the Erie County Court of Common Pleas under the Ohio Revised Code (R.C. 2101.01). Its formal name in the Supreme Court of Ohio's trial-court directory is the Erie County Court of Common Pleas, Probate Division. This is not a combined probate and juvenile court: the county's Common Pleas Court page lists a separate Juvenile Division judge, and the judge who presides over the Probate Division also sits in the General Division. Erie County has four common pleas judgeships (R.C. 2301.02, quoted on the court's own page) |
| Filing office | The probate court's own office, 2nd floor of the courthouse at 323 Columbus Avenue. The elected probate judge is also the clerk of the probate court (R.C. 2101.11(A)(1)(a)), and the court's own Law and Procedure page puts it plainly: with the exception of the juvenile court judge, the probate judge is the only judge who is clerk of his own court. Every employee of the court is sworn as a deputy clerk and can accept filings and certify records. The Erie County Clerk of Courts, (419) 627-7706, is a different office on the 1st floor of the same building: it keeps the records of the general, criminal and domestic relations dockets and the 6th District Court of Appeals, and it does not open estates |
| Courthouse | 323 Columbus Avenue, 2nd Floor, Sandusky, OH 44870. The General Division, the Juvenile Division, the Clerk of Courts and its Title Department are in the same building, so check the floor and the office name before you queue |
| Mailing address | The court publishes no separate post office box, so mail filings go to the Erie County Probate Court, 323 Columbus Avenue, 2nd Floor, Sandusky, OH 44870. Call (419) 627-7750 before mailing an original will or another original document |
| Phone | (419) 627-7750, the number the Erie County Probate Court publishes on its own pages and on its own forms (verified July 2026). The county's toll-free switchboard, 1 (888) 399-6065, appears in the court's page footer. Do not use (419) 627-7732, which is a General Division judge's court administrator, or (419) 627-7706, which is the Clerk of Courts |
| Fax | (419) 626-9120, published on the court's Staff page and on the letterhead of the court's own Probate Estate Searches form (verified July 2026). Note the digits: the fax prefix is 626, not the 627 of the phone number. The fax line matters here because Local Rule 24.2 makes facsimile the court's only electronic filing route, and the rule directs that it be limited to filings of an emergency or time critical nature |
| Office hours | Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., per the court's own Probate Court page and the county's Common Pleas Court hours listing (verified July 2026). Those are probate's hours specifically: the Clerk of Courts, the General Division and the Juvenile Division all publish different hours from probate's in the same building. Local Rule 18.1 of the court's filed local rules still prints older hours of 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Thursday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday (revised July 1, 1991); the published web hours are the current ones, and the court is closed on Saturday, Sunday and legal holidays. Call (419) 627-7750 to confirm before you drive to Sandusky |
| Filing fee | Ohio sets most probate fee items by statute: $35.00 to appoint a fiduciary and $15.00 to probate a will (R.C. 2101.16(A)), $60.00 to relieve an estate from administration or grant a summary release, and $1.00 per page for certified copies. On top of those items each probate court sets its own deposit by local rule, and R.C. 2101.16(E) caps at $125.00 the advance deposit a court may require at the time of an application for appointment or when a will is presented for probate, with optional computerization and dispute-resolution charges (R.C. 2101.162, R.C. 2101.163). Erie County publishes its own dollar deposits and frames them as the deposit for the costs of the case: $175.00 for a full administration with or without a will, $85.00 for a release from administration, $60.00 for a summary release from administration, $50.00 for a short form release with a will and $35.00 without one, and $30.00 to probate a will only (court's Schedule of Fees, verified July 2026; the court's own forms page prints the with-will short form deposit as $60.00, so confirm that one). Unused deposit is refunded when the case closes, and no case closes until all costs are paid. The schedule carries no amendment date, so confirm the current figure at (419) 627-7750 before you file |
| Local forms | Yes, and there are many. The court publishes filing packets by route on its own Estate Forms page, mixing the statewide Standard Probate Forms with local forms of its own, among them Estate Searches, Prob. 1-DF (Fiduciary's Acceptance), Prob. 5.0 A (Application for Short Form Release of Administration), Prob. 39 (Statement in Lieu of and for an Account), Prob. 39L (Report of Newly Discovered Assets), Prob. 40-W (Authority to Transfer Title of Automobile), Prob. 91532 (Judgment Entry, Inventory and Appraisal), the Executor's and Administrator's Fee Computation Form, the Counsel Fee Computation, a General Waiver and a Waiver of Right to Reimbursement. The court's instruction is explicit: forms must be typed, and it does not accept handwritten documents |
| E-filing | None for probate. Erie County Probate Court has no electronic-filing portal. Its local rules do permit filing by facsimile under Local Rule 24.2 (revised January 1, 1995), which limits electronic filing to matters of an emergency or time critical nature, requires you to get a case number from the court first and include it on every paper you fax, taxes copying costs, and lets the court require paper copies afterward. The county's e-filing system belongs to the Clerk of Courts, is labelled for attorneys only, and its published rules cover civil, domestic, criminal and appeals cases, not probate |
| Case search | Yes. Erie County Probate Court runs its own online record search on its own site. The court warns that its computer record information is current only within the limitations of the data retrieval system, that there is a delay between a filing or judicial action and its posting that can be twenty-four hours or longer, and that any reliance on the data displayed is at your own risk. This is not the Clerk of Courts' Public Information Case System, which does not carry probate cases. For copies of what is in a file, use the court's public records process or its own Probate Estate Searches form |
| Remote appearance | Nothing is published. The court's local rules set notice requirements for hearings but say nothing about telephone or video appearances, so ask the court at (419) 627-7750 whether a particular hearing can be handled remotely |
| Website | https://probaterecords.eriecounty.oh.gov/ (the court's own site, with its record search, fees, forms and estate information) and https://www.eriecounty.oh.gov/ProbateCourt.aspx (the court's section of the county site, which carries the same Schedule of Fees, Estates, Estate Forms, Public Records and Law and Procedure pages). The Supreme Court of Ohio's trial-court directory lists only the second of these for Erie County probate |
Before you begin — know the assets and liabilities
Before you file anything in Erie County, know exactly what is in the estate. Which Ohio route fits depends on whether there is a will, on who inherits, and on the value and titling of the assets, because a full administration, a release from administration and a summary release are different filings with different forms, different notice steps and, in Erie County, different deposits. Those routes and their statewide dollar ceilings are explained on the Ohio state page. Erie County adds a fourth, its own Short Form Release from Administration for very small estates, so an accurate asset list is what tells you which of four packets to download from the court's forms page.
Identify every bank and credit-union account, retirement plan, brokerage holding, life-insurance policy, vehicle, and parcel of real property, along with every debt, before you file. How each asset is titled decides whether it passes through the estate at all: property held jointly with right of survivorship, accounts payable or transferable on death, and land covered by a transfer on death designation affidavit recorded with the Erie County Recorder before death (R.C. 5302.22) go directly to the survivor or beneficiary and never reach the probate court. The court's own Estates page makes the same point and adds a local shortcut: a surviving spouse can take up to two automobiles through the Clerk of Courts Title Department on a spousal affidavit rather than through the estate. Sunset's asset-discovery work, searching more than 2,300 financial institutions, exists for this step, so that the application you hand across the counter in Sandusky lists the estate accurately the first time.
Which court handles jurisdiction
Erie County Probate Court in Sandusky is the single probate filing office for the whole county. Everything is at one address, 323 Columbus Avenue, 2nd Floor, and there is no branch, satellite or district office. The court serves every part of the county, including the cities of Sandusky, the county seat, Huron and Vermilion; the villages of Bay View, Berlin Heights, Castalia, Kelleys Island and Milan; and the townships of Berlin, Florence, Groton, Huron, Margaretta, Milan, Oxford, Perkins and Vermilion. Two geographic facts shape a filing here. Kelleys Island is an inhabited island community in Lake Erie, so an island family should plan to file by mail and phone rather than by repeated trips. And the county's eastern edge runs against Lorain County at Vermilion, so where a decedent lived near that line, confirm the county of residence before you file.
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 in Erie County, file in Erie County Probate Court, even if they died in a hospital in Cleveland, Toledo or Norwalk. Ohio's statute says resident, not domiciled, and the probate court in which a will is admitted is the court that grants letters. Ohio has no probate district, circuit or regional overlay: all 88 counties have their own probate court, seated at the county seat (R.C. 2101.01(A)), and Erie County's sits in Sandusky.
Four judicial offices share the courthouse at 323 Columbus Avenue, and only one of them handles estates. Erie County Probate Court, (419) 627-7750, on the 2nd floor, is where wills, estates, guardianships, trusts, name changes, birth registrations and marriage licenses are filed. The Erie County Clerk of Courts, (419) 627-7706, on the 1st floor, keeps the general, criminal and domestic relations records and the appellate docket, and runs the Title Department; it does not open estates. The General Division and the Juvenile Division are separate benches with separate hours. One published page can mislead you: a General Division judge's page on the county site describes probate matters he oversees and gives his court administrator's number, (419) 627-7732, which is not the probate counter. Use the number the probate court publishes on its own pages and forms.
The jurisdiction process
- Gather the documents. Collect the original signed will if there is one, a certified copy of the death certificate, the applicant's contact details and identification, the names and addresses of the surviving spouse, children, next of kin, legatees and devisees, and a list of the assets and debts with values. A person named in a will to settle the estate is an executor; a person appointed where there is no will is an administrator; Ohio's umbrella term for either, used throughout the Revised Code and the forms, is fiduciary.
- Pick your route, then download that packet. Erie County publishes its estate forms as packets by route on its own Estate Forms page: full administration, full administration for a wrongful death claim, release from administration, summary release from administration, and the county's own short form release. Each packet lists exactly which statewide Standard Probate Forms and which local Erie County forms go with it, and each is headed with its deposit. Do not mix packets: the release packet uses Forms 5.0, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.6 and 5.9, while a full administration runs on Forms 1.0, 2.0, 4.0 and 4.5 and their variants.
- Ask the court to run an estate search first if you are not certain what has already been filed. The court's estate packets for each filing route open with the court's own Estate Searches form: you list each decedent's full name and date of death and give an email address or fax number, and the court returns the date of filing, the estate representative's name and address, and the attorney for the representative. It is the cheapest way to find out whether an estate is already open, whether a prior estate in the family was closed, and who handled it.
- Type the forms. The court's instruction on its own forms page is that forms must be typed and that it does not accept handwritten documents. Local Rule 24.1 adds the format: everything except a will goes on eight and one-half by eleven inch paper without backings, on stock that can be microfilmed; every paper must carry the name, address and telephone number of the attorney representing the fiduciary or, where there is no attorney, of the fiduciary; pleadings must be typed or printed and correctly captioned; and papers that are illegible or that omit the required contact details may be refused for filing.
- File in Sandusky or by mail. Take the completed packet to the probate court's office at 323 Columbus Avenue, 2nd Floor, Sandusky, OH 44870, between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday to Friday, or mail it to the same address. There is no e-filing. Local Rule 24.2 does allow filing by facsimile to (419) 626-9120, but it limits electronic filing to matters of an emergency or time critical nature, requires you to obtain a case number from the court first and include it on every paper you fax, taxes copying costs against you, and lets the court require the paper copies afterward. Call (419) 627-7750 before faxing or before mailing an original will.
- Pay the deposit. Erie County requires a deposit for costs on every case: $175.00 for a full administration with or without a will, $85.00 for a release from administration, $60.00 for a summary release, $50.00 for a short form release with a will and $35.00 without one, and $30.00 to probate a will only (court's Schedule of Fees, verified July 2026; the court's forms page prints the with-will short form as $60.00). Ohio fixes the underlying items by statute, including $35.00 to appoint a fiduciary and $15.00 to probate a will (R.C. 2101.16(A)). Unused deposit is refunded when the case closes and no case closes until all costs are paid, so keep the deposit funded. Confirm the current amount at (419) 627-7750, since the schedule is undated.
- Give notice, and expect to prepare it yourself. Under Local Rule 27 the person who files an Application for Letters of Administration must cause written notice of the time and place of the hearing on the appointment to be served on the persons the law requires. Waivers are permitted as the Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure allow, and every written notice must state the time and place of the hearing and be served at least seven days before the hearing date. Where there is no known surviving spouse or next of kin, notice goes to the persons the court designates.
- Take the appointment, sign the court's acceptance, and collect the letters. On an admitted will the court issues letters testamentary to the executor; with no will it issues letters of administration to the administrator (R.C. 2113.05). Either way the appointment is recorded on Form 4.5 (Entry Appointing Fiduciary; Letter of Authority), and Erie County's packet also includes its own Prob. 1-DF Fiduciary's Acceptance. The court's Estates page states that an administrator must file an appropriate bond, which it describes as twice the personal property, on Form 4.2. Certified copies of the letter of authority cost $1.00 per page and authenticated copies $10.00 plus $1.00 per page, so ask for enough copies for every institution the estate deals with while you are at the counter.
- Send the Medicaid estate recovery notice within 30 days where it applies. Ohio requires the person responsible for the estate of a decedent who was subject to the Medicaid estate recovery program, or whose spouse was, to submit a completed medicaid estate recovery notice form to the administrator of that program not later than thirty days after letters are granted or an application for release or summary release is filed (R.C. 2117.061(B)). Compliance is certified to the court on Form 7.0, and Erie County charges a $2.00 deposit item for it. This applies to a release from administration too, which surprises people.
- File the inventory within three months, and transfer nothing before it is approved. The fiduciary must file an inventory of the decedent's real and personal property within three months after appointment unless the court grants an extension for good cause (R.C. 2115.02), on Form 6.0 (Inventory and Appraisal), with Erie County's own Prob. 91532 judgment entry. Local Rule 29.1 then holds the estate still: except for good cause shown, estate assets shall not be transferred or distributed until the inventory, together with the appraisal, has been filed and approved by the court. Where an appraisal is required, Local Rule 28 calls for one suitable and disinterested appraiser.
- Handle creditor claims. In Ohio all claims against the estate must be presented within six months after the date of death, whether or not an executor or administrator was appointed in that period, and a claim presented later is forever barred (R.C. 2117.06). Ohio requires no newspaper advertisement of the grant of letters. The one statutory exception runs to the Medicaid estate recovery administrator, which may present its claim up to ninety days after it receives the recovery notice or one year after death, whichever is later (R.C. 2117.061(D)). Where the estate cannot pay, Erie County's packet includes the insolvency series, Forms 24.0 through 24.6.
- Account, then close. The fiduciary must render a final and distributive account within six months after appointment unless one of the statutory exceptions applies, and where the sole heir or beneficiary is also the fiduciary a certificate of termination may be filed instead (R.C. 2109.301). The account goes in on Form 13.0 (Fiduciary's Account) with Forms 13.1 and 13.2, or on Erie County's own Prob. 39 Statement in Lieu of and for an Account where that fits. If assets turn up after the account, the county has a form for that too, Prob. 39L, and reopening an estate carries a $20.00 deposit. Where Ohio real estate passes through the estate, apply for a Certificate of Transfer on Form 12.0 and record the certificate with the Erie County Recorder.
Executor duties
The statutory duties of an Ohio fiduciary, the inventory within three months (R.C. 2115.02) and the final and distributive account within six months (R.C. 2109.301), are statewide and are covered on the Ohio state page. What follows is what Erie County adds on top of them in its own local rules and published practice. These are the points a fiduciary here gets caught by.
| Local duty | What the rule requires |
|---|---|
| Distribute nothing until the inventory is approved | Local Rule 29.1 states that except for good cause shown, estate assets shall not be transferred or distributed until the inventory, together with the appraisal, has been filed and approved by the court. That is stricter than the statutory deadline alone: the three-month clock in R.C. 2115.02 tells you when to file, and this rule tells you that nothing moves until the court signs off |
| Expect a citation if the inventory runs late | Local Rule 29.3 provides that the court sends a notice to the attorney of record when an inventory becomes delinquent, naming a date, and that unless the inventory is filed on or before that date a citation issues to the fiduciary for removal. The court's own past-due notice form spells out that failure to file is grounds for removal |
| Keep the court informed of your address | Local Rule 24.1 makes the failure of a fiduciary to notify the court of a current address grounds for removal. If you move during the administration, tell the office at (419) 627-7750 in writing |
| Sign the court's own acceptance | Erie County's full administration packet includes Prob. 1-DF, the court's local Fiduciary's Acceptance for an executor or administrator, alongside the statewide Form 4.5. It is a local form, so download it from the court's estate forms page rather than looking for it on the statewide list |
| Post bond where you are an administrator | The court's Estates page states that administrators must file an appropriate bond, which it describes as twice the personal property, and the packet includes Form 4.2 (Fiduciary's Bond). It also notes that only an executor or administrator has the power to sell real estate, while a commissioner appointed in a release from administration can only transfer real estate to the heirs, which is often the reason a family has to run a full administration rather than a release |
| Use one disinterested appraiser, and watch the fee guideline | Local Rule 28 calls for one suitable and disinterested appraiser where an appraisal is required by law, and sets a compensation guideline of $1.00 per thousand dollars of the gross value of the assets appraised in the inventory with a minimum of $20.00, or as the court orders (revised July 1, 1991) |
| Apply in writing for fees, and expect them at the end | Local Rule 40 provides that attorney fees for the administration of an estate are not paid until the final account is prepared for filing unless the court approves otherwise on application for good cause, that fees are allowed only on a written application after proper hearing, and that fees are, except for good cause shown, not allowed where the fiduciary the attorney represents is delinquent in filing accounts required by R.C. 2109.30. The court publishes its own Counsel Fee Computation and Executor's and Administrator's Fee Computation forms |
| Keep the deposit funded to the end | The court's Schedule of Fees states that deposits should be maintained until each case is closed, that unused costs are refunded when the case closes, and that no case is closed until all costs are paid. Budget for certified copies at $1.00 per page as you go rather than at the end |
Forms and documents
Probate forms in Erie County
Erie County publishes a lot of local forms, so this is not a county where you can download the statewide set and stop. Ohio uses one set of Standard Probate Forms prescribed by the Supreme Court of Ohio in all 88 counties, and Erie County Probate Court builds those into filing packets on its own Estate Forms page, adding numbered local forms of its own to each one. The practical rule is to work from the county packet for your route and use the Supreme Court site to confirm you have the current version of each statewide form.
The load-bearing statewide items for a decedent's estate are Form 1.0 (Surviving Spouse, Children, Next of Kin, Legatees, and Devisees), Form 2.0 (Application to Probate Will), Form 4.0 (Application for Authority to Administer Estate), Form 4.5 (Entry Appointing Fiduciary; Letter of Authority), Form 5.0 (Application to Relieve Estate From Administration) with Form 5.1 (Assets and Liabilities of Estate to be Relieved from Administration), Form 5.10 (Summary Release From Administration), Form 6.0 (Inventory and Appraisal), Form 7.0 (Certification of Notice to Administrator of Medicaid Estate Recovery Program), Form 12.0 (Application for Certificate of Transfer) and Form 13.0 (Fiduciary's Account). Erie County's packets also use the numbered variants heavily, including Forms 2.1 to 2.4, 4.1 to 4.4, 5.2, 5.3, 5.6 and 5.9, 6.1 to 6.3, 8.1, 8.2 and 8.6, 13.1 to 13.10, the wrongful-death series 14.0 to 14.3 and the insolvency series 24.0 to 24.6.
The local Erie County forms are the ones you cannot get anywhere else. They include Estate Searches, which the court asks you to run at the start of a case; Prob. 1-DF, the court's Fiduciary's Acceptance; Prob. 5.0 A, the Application for Short Form Release of Administration for the county's own very small estate route; Prob. 39, a Statement in Lieu of and for an Account; Prob. 39L, a Report of Newly Discovered Assets; Prob. 40-W, Authority to Transfer Title of Automobile; Prob. 91532, the judgment entry that goes with the inventory and appraisal; Prob. 129A, Prob. 129 and Prob. 129-B for foreign records and authenticated copies of wills; the Executor's and Administrator's Fee Computation Form and the Counsel Fee Computation; a General Waiver, a Waiver of Formal Record and a Waiver of Right to Reimbursement; a Declination of Executor Named in Will; and applications to reopen an estate, to open a safe deposit box and to release medical and medical billing records.
Two local requirements govern how any of them are presented. The court's own instruction is that forms must be typed and that it does not accept handwritten documents. Local Rule 24.1 requires filings other than wills on eight and one-half by eleven inch paper without backings and on microfilmable stock, requires every paper to carry the name, address and telephone number of the attorney for the fiduciary or of the fiduciary where there is none, and allows the court to refuse papers that do not comply or that are illegible. One caution when you browse the county's form library: it still lists the pre-2013 death-tax forms and schedules. Those apply only to deaths before January 1, 2013. Ohio has no estate tax and no inheritance tax for a current death, so skip that whole block.
| Resource | What it provides |
|---|---|
| Erie County Probate Court forms (probaterecords.eriecounty.oh.gov) | The court's own form library on its own site, organised by subject, including the estate packets and the local Prob. numbered forms |
| Erie County estate forms and filing packets (eriecounty.oh.gov) | The same estate forms grouped by route with the deposit for each: full administration $175.00, wrongful death $50.00, release from administration $85.00, summary release $60.00, short form release $35.00 without a will and $50.00 with one on the Schedule of Fees ($60.00 on the court's own forms page, so confirm), reopening an estate $20.00, safe deposit box $10.00 and medical records $10.00 (verified July 2026). It carries the court's instruction that forms must be typed |
| Erie County Probate Estate Searches form (probaterecords.eriecounty.oh.gov) | The court's own one-page request: list each decedent's name and date of death, give an email address or fax number, and the court returns the filing date, the representative's name and address and the attorney of record |
| Supreme Court of Ohio Standard Probate Forms, decedent's estate (supremecourt.ohio.gov) | The statewide forms you file in Erie County, including Forms 1.0, 2.0, 4.0, 4.5, 5.0, 5.1, 5.10, 6.0, 7.0, 12.0 and 13.0, with the numbered variants and waivers |
| Erie County Probate Division local rules (filed with the Supreme Court of Ohio) | The court's own rules, the set filed July 3, 1991 with revisions dated July 1, 1991 and January 1, 1995: hours (Rule 18.1), examination of files (Rule 20), summons and notice (Rule 21), filings and judgment entries (Rule 24.1), fax filing (Rule 24.2), court costs (Rules 25 and 25.1), application to probate a will (Rule 26), application for letters of administration (Rule 27), appraisers (Rule 28), inventory (Rules 29 to 29.3), claims (Rule 30), accounts (Rules 32 to 32.2) and counsel fees (Rule 40) |
Fees
Erie County is one of the Ohio counties that publishes its own dollar figures, so you do not have to guess what to bring. The court's Schedule of Fees opens by stating that all cases filed in the probate court require a deposit for costs, and it lists a figure for each type of filing. Local Rule 25 sits behind it: deposits in the amount set out in R.C. 2101.16 or in a local rule are required on the filing of any action or proceeding, additional deposits may be required, and the deposit is applied as filings occur. Local Rule 25.1 points to an Appendix A for local court costs. The schedule closes with the rule that matters at the end of a case: deposits should be maintained until each case is closed, unused costs are refunded when the case closes, and no case is closed until all costs are paid.
Read those county figures alongside the statutory ones. Ohio sets most probate fee items statewide: $35.00 to appoint a fiduciary, $15.00 to probate a will, $60.00 to relieve an estate from administration or grant a summary release, of which $20.00 goes to the county's indigent guardianship fund, $10.00 for an inventory with appraisement, $12.00 for an account and $1.00 per page for certified copies (R.C. 2101.16(A)). Ohio also caps at $125.00 an advance deposit required by local rule where it is taken at the time an application for appointment as executor or administrator is made or a will is presented for probate (R.C. 2101.16(E)), and lets a court add computerization and dispute-resolution charges (R.C. 2101.162, R.C. 2101.163). Erie County's published $175.00 full administration figure is larger than that $125.00 cap. The court's own schedule presents its figures as the deposit for the costs of the case, not as the appointment-time advance deposit the statute describes; this page reports both without drawing any conclusion about how they fit together, so ask the court what the deposit covers rather than assuming it is the total cost of the estate. The court's schedule carries no amendment date, so confirm every figure at (419) 627-7750 before you write the cheque.
| Filing | Deposit published by the court, verified July 2026 |
|---|---|
| Estate, full administration with or without a will | $175.00 |
| Estate, full administration for a wrongful death claim | $50.00 |
| Estate, release from administration with or without a will (R.C. 2113.03) | $85.00 |
| Estate, summary release from administration (R.C. 2113.031) | $60.00 |
| Estate, short form release with a will (the county's own route) | $50.00 on the court's Schedule of Fees; the court's forms page prints $60.00, so confirm with the court |
| Estate, short form release without a will (the county's own route) | $35.00 |
| Probate of a will only | $30.00 |
| Application and entry to suspend a will (Forms 2.A and 2.B) | $10.00 |
| Notice to the administrator of the estate recovery program (Form 7.0) | $2.00 |
| Waiver of service to the surviving spouse of the citation to elect (Form 8.6) | $2.00 |
| Application and entry to reopen an estate | $20.00 |
| Application for appointment for the contents of a safe deposit box | $10.00 |
| Application to release medical and medical billing records | $10.00 |
| Testamentary trust | $50.00 |
| Certified copies | $1.00 each |
| Authenticated copies | $10.00 plus $1.00 per page |
| Change of name | $60.00 deposit |
Two more local money rules are worth knowing. Local Rule 28 sets the court's guideline for appraiser compensation in estates and land sale proceedings: without a special application, a fiduciary may allow an appraiser a reasonable amount agreed between them, or an amount computed on the gross value of the assets appraised in the inventory at the rate of $1.00 per thousand dollars of value, with a minimum fee of $20.00, or as the court may order (revised July 1, 1991, so confirm it is still applied). And Local Rule 40 governs attorney fees: fees for the administration of an estate are not paid until the final account is prepared for filing unless the court approves otherwise on application and for good cause, fees are allowed only on a written application after proper hearing, the court may set a hearing regardless of beneficiary consents, and, except for good cause shown, fees are not allowed to attorneys whose fiduciaries are delinquent in filing required accounts. The court publishes its own Counsel Fee Computation and Executor's and Administrator's Fee Computation forms for these applications.
Local nuance
Erie County-specific considerations
The probate judge also sits in the General Division, and juvenile is a separate court. Many Ohio counties of Erie County's size run a combined probate and juvenile court under one judge. Erie County does not. The county's Common Pleas Court page lists a General Division with three judges, a separate Juvenile Division judge, a Probate Court judge who is also one of the General Division judges, and the Clerk of Courts, and it quotes R.C. 2301.02 for four Erie County judgeships. The practical consequences are small but real: probate keeps its own hours, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., which are different from every other office in the building, and the judge who hears your estate matter also carries a general civil and criminal docket, so scheduling is not driven by probate alone.
Erie County has a fourth estate route of its own invention. Alongside a full administration, a release from administration (R.C. 2113.03) and a summary release (R.C. 2113.031), the court publishes a Short Form Release from Administration on its own local form Prob. 5.0 A, for estates it describes as $1,000 or less, or $6,000 or less with a surviving spouse, with a paid funeral bill required. Those figures are the court's, not the statute's, and the deposit is lower: $35.00 without a will, and with one either $50.00 or $60.00 depending on which of the court's own pages you read. Ask the office which route it wants, and the current deposit, before you fill anything in.
Electronic filing here means a fax machine, and only in a hurry. There is no probate e-filing portal in Erie County. Local Rule 24.2, revised January 1, 1995, permits pleadings to be filed by facsimile under the Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure, but it says filing by electronic means should be limited to filings of an emergency or time critical nature, requires the filer to obtain a case number from the court first and put it on all faxed papers, charges copying costs, and lets the court require the paper copies afterward. The fax number is (419) 626-9120, and note the 626 prefix, which is not the 627 of the phone line. The county's e-filing system is the Clerk of Courts' system, is for attorneys only, and covers civil, domestic, criminal and appellate cases, not probate.
Typed forms only, and a format rule with teeth. The court states on its own estate forms page that forms must be typed and that it does not accept handwritten documents. Local Rule 24.1 requires filings other than wills on eight and one-half by eleven inch paper without backings and on stock that can be microfilmed, requires every paper to carry the name, address and telephone number of the attorney for the fiduciary or, where there is no attorney, of the fiduciary, and allows the court to refuse papers that are illegible or that leave those details out. A self-represented filer should put their own name, address and phone number on every page.
The court runs two websites, and only one of them is in the state directory. Erie County Probate Court publishes at probaterecords.eriecounty.oh.gov, which carries its record search, fees, forms, estate information and location details, and its form PDFs there carry October and November 2024 revision dates. It also keeps a full section on the county government site at eriecounty.oh.gov, with the same Schedule of Fees, Estates, Estate Forms, Public Records and Law and Procedure pages. The county site's own menus now point their Probate Court links at the stand-alone site, but the Supreme Court of Ohio's trial-court directory lists only the county-site version. If a search engine sends you to something called Probate Cases on the county site, check the page: that one belongs to a General Division judge and gives a different phone number.
Some of what the court publishes is out of date, and the dates matter. The court's filed local rules are the set stamped as filed with the Supreme Court of Ohio on July 3, 1991, with revisions dated July 1, 1991 and January 1, 1995, so their hours rule and their fee guidelines are older than the figures on the court's web pages. Where the two disagree, as they do on office hours, the web pages are current. The court's Estates page also still prints pre-2013 death-tax filing thresholds and its form library still lists the old tax forms. Ohio has no estate tax and no inheritance tax for a death on or after January 1, 2013, and the same Estates page says so in its own words, citing House Bill 153, so treat that block as history rather than as a step in your case.
Not every probate record is public, and copies come from the court. The court's Public Records page lists estates, guardianships, trusts, birth registrations and corrections, name changes, marriage licenses and birth and death records before 1908 as public, and adoptions, adult protective services matters, mental commitments, documents protected by health-privacy law and documents prepared or collected by the court's investigator as sealed. It publishes a public records request policy and a request form. Certified copies are $1.00 each, authenticated copies $10.00 plus $1.00 per page, and a certified copy of a birth or death record from before 1908 is $15.00 (verified July 2026).
Small-estate Alternatives
Erie County publishes a small-estate route that does not exist in the Ohio Revised Code, and it is the single most county-specific thing about filing here. The court calls it a Short Form Release from Administration. On the court's own Estates page, it is available where probate assets total $1,000 or less, or $6,000 or less where there is a surviving spouse, and a copy of the paid funeral bill must be submitted or the assets will be ordered transferred to the funeral home up to the amount of the bill. It is filed on the court's own local form, Prob. 5.0 A, with Form 1.0. The deposit is $35.00 without a will; with a will, the court's Schedule of Fees prints $50.00 while its forms page prints $60.00, so confirm the current figure when you call (both pages read July 2026).
Treat the $1,000 and $6,000 figures as the court's published practice, not as law. R.C. 2113.03, the statute that lets a probate court relieve an estate from administration, contains no $1,000 or $6,000 figure: its ceilings are $35,000, or $100,000 where a valid will leaves everything to the surviving spouse or the spouse takes everything by intestacy. The statutory summary release under R.C. 2113.031 is a different route again, capped for a non-spouse applicant at the lesser of $5,000 or the amount of the decedent's funeral and burial expenses. So the short form is best understood as how this court handles the very smallest releases within R.C. 2113.03, with its own form and its own reduced deposit. Because the figures are the court's rather than the statute's, ask the office at (419) 627-7750 which route it wants before you fill anything in, and note that the court's Estates page also prints an older qualifier on the $100,000 spousal ceiling, a date-of-death cut-off, that the current statute does not carry.
Recent updates
| Change | What it means for a filing here |
|---|---|
| The court now publishes its own website, with an online record search | Erie County Probate Court maintains probaterecords.eriecounty.oh.gov, carrying its record search, location, estate information, fees and its form library, whose PDFs carry October and November 2024 revision dates. The county site's own menus now link their Probate Court entries to that site, but neither the court-contact data behind this page nor the Supreme Court of Ohio's trial-court directory lists it: the directory points only at the court's section of eriecounty.oh.gov, which carries the same Schedule of Fees, Estates, Estate Forms, Public Records and Law and Procedure pages. Use either, and take the record search's own warning seriously, that posting can lag a filing by twenty-four hours or longer |
| Erie County Clerk of Courts title office hours expanded, announced July 21, 2025 | This is not the probate counter, but it is the office a surviving spouse uses for the two-automobile transfer that the probate court's own Estates page describes. The Clerk announced that the title office is open on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon starting August 2, 2025, following an earlier extension of weekday hours from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. to 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in April 2025. Probate's own hours are unchanged at 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday to Friday |
Erie County Probate Court's filed local rules remain the set filed with the Supreme Court of Ohio on July 3, 1991, with revisions dated July 1, 1991 and January 1, 1995. Where those rules disagree with the court's current web pages, as they do on office hours, the web pages are current. Confirm any dollar figure at (419) 627-7750, because the court's Schedule of Fees carries no amendment date.
Page last reviewed: July 2026.
Scenarios
| Situation | Likely path in Erie County | Where Sunset helps |
|---|---|---|
| Surviving spouse, co-owned home | If the Sandusky or Perkins Township home was held jointly with right of survivorship, or was covered by a transfer on death designation affidavit recorded with the Erie County Recorder before death (R.C. 5302.22), it passes to the survivor outside probate and the court is not involved in the house itself. Vehicles are often easier than people expect: the court's own Estates page tells a surviving spouse that up to two automobiles can be transferred through the Clerk of Courts Title Department on a spousal affidavit rather than through the estate. If other assets stood in the decedent's sole name, the spouse files in Erie County Probate Court, using the county's full administration packet with a will (Forms 2.0 and 4.0, leading to letters testamentary) or without one (Form 4.0, leading to letters of administration). Where the spouse inherits everything, the estate may qualify to be released from administration instead (R.C. 2113.03), an $85.00 deposit rather than $175.00. | Asset discovery to confirm how the home, the vehicles and the accounts are titled and what actually has to reach the court. Packet generation for the Erie County route, whether a full administration or a release. A vetted attorney referral if title or a claim turns out to be contested. |
| Out-of-state adult child, small estate | Where the whole estate is worth $35,000 or less, or $100,000 or less where a surviving spouse inherits everything, an interested party can apply to relieve the estate from administration on Forms 5.0 and 5.1 instead of running a full administration (R.C. 2113.03), and Erie County adds Forms 5.2, 5.3, 5.6 and 5.9 to that packet. For a very small estate, ask the court about its own Short Form Release on Prob. 5.0 A. A release still requires the Medicaid estate recovery notice within thirty days where it applies (R.C. 2117.061) and does not shorten the six-month creditor window (R.C. 2117.06). Because Erie County has no probate e-filing, an out-of-state child files by mail to 323 Columbus Avenue, 2nd Floor, Sandusky, OH 44870, types every form, and calls (419) 627-7750 to confirm the packet and the deposit rather than flying in to file. | Asset discovery to establish the estate's value from out of state and confirm which of Erie County's four routes it qualifies for. Packet generation for the release or the full administration, assembled so it can be mailed to Sandusky and accepted the first time. |
| Parent settling a predeceased child's estate, home must be sold | Because real property has to be sold, this goes through a full administration: only an executor or administrator has the power to sell real estate, as the court's own Estates page notes, while a commissioner in a release from administration can merely transfer it to the heirs. With no will the parent files Form 4.0, is appointed administrator, posts the bond the court describes as twice the personal property, and receives letters of administration; with a will the parent probates it on Form 2.0 and receives letters testamentary. The inventory follows within three months (R.C. 2115.02) on Form 6.0 with the county's Prob. 91532 entry, and under Local Rule 29.1 nothing can be distributed until the court approves it. Where the property goes to heirs rather than to a buyer, the route is a Certificate of Transfer on Form 12.0, recorded with the Erie County Recorder. Any hearing is at 323 Columbus Avenue in Sandusky. | Asset discovery for the child's accounts, insurance and real property. Packet generation for the administration and the inventory. Attorney referral where the sale, a mortgage payoff or a dispute among heirs makes counsel worthwhile. |
Self-help resources
| Resource | What it offers |
|---|---|
| Erie County Probate Court (probaterecords.eriecounty.oh.gov), (419) 627-7750 | The filing office for estates, and the court's own website: location, general information, estates, fees, forms and the record search. Deputy clerks can accept filings, certify records and explain procedure, but the court's own Law and Procedure page notes they are barred by law from practising law and are limited in the advice they can give |
| Erie County probate record search (probaterecords.eriecounty.oh.gov) | The court's own online record search. The court warns that its data is current only within the limits of its retrieval system, that posting can lag a filing or judicial action by twenty-four hours or longer, and that reliance on what is displayed is at your own risk. It is not the Clerk of Courts' Public Information Case System, which carries no probate cases |
| Erie County probate schedule of fees (eriecounty.oh.gov) | The court's deposit figures for every filing type, from the $175.00 full administration down to the $2.00 items, with the rule that unused deposit is refunded at closing and that no case closes until costs are paid. The page is undated, so confirm figures with the office |
| Erie County probate estates information (eriecounty.oh.gov) | The court's own plain-language explanation of the routes it recognises, including the county's Short Form Release from Administration and the note that a surviving spouse can transfer two automobiles through the Title Department. Read past the pre-2013 death-tax paragraphs, which no longer apply |
| Erie County estate forms and filing packets (eriecounty.oh.gov) | Every estate form the court wants, grouped by route, with the deposit at the head of each packet and the instruction that forms must be typed |
| Erie County probate public records (eriecounty.oh.gov) | The court's public records request policy and form, the list of which probate records are public and which are sealed, and the estate search route for finding a prior filing |
| Erie County Probate Division local rules (filed with the Supreme Court of Ohio) | The court's own filed rules, a scan of the set filed July 3, 1991 with revisions dated July 1, 1991 and January 1, 1995: hours, notice, filing format, fax filing, court costs, appraisers, inventory and account practice, and counsel fees |
| Supreme Court of Ohio Standard Probate Forms, decedent's estate (supremecourt.ohio.gov) | The statewide forms used in every Ohio county, including Erie, with the numbered variants and waivers |
| Supreme Court of Ohio Ohio trial courts directory (supremecourt.ohio.gov) | The official court names and links for every county's Court of Common Pleas divisions, useful for confirming you are dealing with the Probate Division and not another division of the same court |
| Supreme Court of Ohio local rules of court (supremecourt.ohio.gov) | The statewide index that links each county's probate-division local rules, useful if an estate touches more than one county |
| Erie County Clerk of Courts, Title Department (eriecounty.oh.gov) | Not the probate counter, but the office a surviving spouse uses for the two-automobile transfer on a spousal affidavit. Its title office is open weekdays to 4:30 p.m. and on Saturday mornings |
| Ohio Legal Help (ohiolegalhelp.org) | Plain-language Ohio probate guides, including release from administration and summary release, from a statewide non-profit. Not a government site, so confirm court contact details with the court itself |
| Legal Aid of Western Ohio, Sandusky office (lawolaw.org), (877) 894-4599 | Free civil legal help for eligible low-income residents. LAWO serves 32 northwest and west central Ohio counties and its Sandusky office is at 109 W. Water Street in the Erie County seat. Confirm it covers your county and can take a probate matter before relying on it |
| Ohio Legal Help: find your legal aid (ohiolegalhelp.org) | Confirms which legal-aid program covers a given Ohio county and how to apply |
| Ohio State Bar Association lawyer referral (ohiobar.org) | Referrals to Ohio probate attorneys, useful if no local firm has capacity |
When to hire an attorney
Many Erie County estates are uncontested and can be handled without an attorney, particularly where a surviving spouse inherits everything and the estate qualifies to be relieved from administration rather than fully administered. The court is set up for that: it publishes its packets, its deposits and its forms, and every employee is a deputy clerk who can accept a filing. Consider counsel when a will is contested or a dispute among heirs is likely, when real property has to be sold rather than transferred to heirs, when the estate is insolvent or a creditor is pressing a claim inside the six-month window (R.C. 2117.06), when a wrongful-death or injury claim is part of the estate, when the estate includes a business, a trust or out-of-state property, or when a guardianship has to run alongside the estate. Two local factors push toward counsel more than they would elsewhere. Erie County's local rules put the drafting of notices and the seven-day service schedule on the filer (Local Rule 27), and its delinquency rules let the court issue a citation for removal when an inventory runs late (Local Rule 29.3). The court's own Law and Procedure page is candid that deputy clerks cannot give legal advice. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Ohio probate attorney serving Erie County and the surrounding lakeshore counties.
How Sunset helps
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, Erie County real estate and unclaimed property, so you know the estate's value for estate settlement and which of the court's four routes fits before you drive to Sandusky.
Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, whether a full administration or an application to relieve the estate from administration, on the statewide Standard Probate Forms that Erie County builds its packets around, typed and ready to file with the Erie County Probate Court at the counter or by mail.
Find a local probate attorney. When a matter is contested or otherwise calls for counsel, Sunset connects families to a vetted Ohio probate attorney serving Erie County.
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).
Frequently asked questions
Where do I file for probate in Erie County?
With the Erie County Probate Court on the 2nd floor of the courthouse at 323 Columbus Avenue, Sandusky, OH 44870. It is the probate division of the Erie County Court of Common Pleas (R.C. 2101.01), and because the elected probate judge is also the clerk of the probate court (R.C. 2101.11(A)(1)(a)), estates are filed with the probate court itself, not with the Erie County Clerk of Courts on the 1st floor. File in Erie County if the person was a resident of the county at the time of death (R.C. 2113.01).
What are the hours and the phone number for the Erie County Probate Court?
The probate court is open Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., and its own line is (419) 627-7750 (verified July 2026). Those hours are probate's alone: in the same building the Clerk of Courts, the General Division and the Juvenile Division all publish different hours, and the court's filed local rules still print an older 8 a.m. schedule from 1991. The court is closed on Saturday, Sunday and legal holidays. Two numbers to avoid for an estate: (419) 627-7732, a General Division judge's court administrator, and (419) 627-7706, the Clerk of Courts.
Is there e-filing for probate in Erie County?
No. Erie County Probate Court has no electronic-filing portal, so you file typed paper forms in person or by mail. Its Local Rule 24.2 does allow pleadings to be filed by fax to (419) 626-9120, but it limits electronic filing to matters of an emergency or time critical nature, requires you to get a case number from the court first and include it on every paper you fax, charges copying costs, and lets the court require paper copies afterward. The county's e-filing system belongs to the Clerk of Courts, is for attorneys only, and covers civil, domestic, criminal and appellate cases, not probate.
How do I look up an Erie County probate case online?
Erie County Probate Court runs its own record search on its own site at probaterecords.eriecounty.oh.gov. The court's own warning is worth reading first: the information is current only within the limits of its retrieval system, posting can lag a filing or judicial action by twenty-four hours or longer, and any reliance on what is displayed is at your own risk. Do not use the Clerk of Courts' Public Information Case System for an estate, because it carries the general, criminal and domestic relations dockets rather than probate. For copies of documents in a file, use the court's public records request form or its own Probate Estate Searches form, or call (419) 627-7750.
What forms do I need for probate in Erie County?
The statewide Standard Probate Forms prescribed by the Supreme Court of Ohio, plus a set of Erie County local forms. The court publishes filing packets by route, so start from the packet for a full administration, a release from administration, a summary release or the county's short form release, and you will see exactly which statewide forms and which local ones go with it. The local forms include Estate Searches, Prob. 1-DF (Fiduciary's Acceptance), Prob. 5.0 A (short form release), Prob. 39 (Statement in Lieu of and for an Account), Prob. 39L (newly discovered assets), Prob. 40-W (automobile title) and Prob. 91532 (the inventory entry). One hard rule: the court states that forms must be typed and that it does not accept handwritten documents.
How much does it cost to file probate in Erie County?
The court publishes a deposit for each type of case: $175.00 for a full administration with or without a will, $85.00 for a release from administration, $60.00 for a summary release, $50.00 for a short form release with a will and $35.00 without one, and $30.00 to probate a will only (Schedule of Fees, verified July 2026; the court's forms page prints the with-will short form as $60.00, so confirm that one). Certified copies are $1.00 each. Behind those county numbers Ohio fixes the fee items by statute, including $35.00 to appoint a fiduciary and $15.00 to probate a will (R.C. 2101.16(A)), and caps at $125.00 the advance deposit a court may require at the time of an application for appointment (R.C. 2101.16(E)); Erie County's larger figure is framed as the deposit for the costs of the whole case. Unused deposit is refunded when the case closes and no case closes until all costs are paid. The schedule is undated, so confirm at (419) 627-7750.
What is a Short Form Release from Administration in Erie County?
It is Erie County's own route for the very smallest estates, filed on the court's local form Prob. 5.0 A with Form 1.0. The deposit is $35.00 where there is no will; with a will, the court's Schedule of Fees prints $50.00 and its forms page $60.00, so confirm the current figure. The court's Estates page describes it as available where probate assets total $1,000 or less, or $6,000 or less where there is a surviving spouse, and requires a copy of the paid funeral bill or the assets are ordered transferred to the funeral home up to the amount of the bill. Those dollar figures are the court's own practice, not statutory thresholds: R.C. 2113.03 sets the release ceilings at $35,000, or $100,000 where the surviving spouse takes everything, and R.C. 2113.031 sets the separate summary release at the lesser of $5,000 or the funeral and burial expenses for a non-spouse applicant. Ask the office which route it wants.
Can I file probate papers by mail in Erie County?
Yes. The court publishes no post office box, so mail filings go to the Erie County Probate Court, 323 Columbus Avenue, 2nd Floor, Sandusky, OH 44870. Type everything, put your name, address and telephone number on each paper as Local Rule 24.1 requires, and call (419) 627-7750 first if you are sending an original will or another original document. Mail is the practical route for a Kelleys Island family, for a filer near the Lorain County line and for anyone out of state, since there is no e-filing.
Do I have to travel to Sandusky to settle an estate in Erie County?
Not usually just to file. An uncontested estate can largely be run by mail and phone, and the court's own estate search and public records requests can be returned by email or fax. Plan on Sandusky for a hearing and for picking up certified copies of the letter of authority, which cost $1.00 per page and are what banks and title companies ask for. Nothing about telephone or video appearances is published in this court's local rules, so ask at (419) 627-7750 whether a particular hearing can be handled remotely.
Is the Erie County Probate Court the same as the Erie County Clerk of Courts?
No, and the distinction matters because they share a building. The probate court is on the 2nd floor at 323 Columbus Avenue and runs its own clerk's office under the elected probate judge (R.C. 2101.11(A)(1)(a)); that is where wills, estates, guardianships, trusts, name changes and marriage licenses are filed, at (419) 627-7750. The Clerk of Courts is on the 1st floor at (419) 627-7706 and keeps the records of the general, criminal and domestic relations dockets and the 6th District Court of Appeals, plus the Title Department. It does not open estates, and its online case system and its attorney e-filing do not cover probate.
Shaped by the families we've helped
Thank you to the thousands of families who have trusted Sunset to help settle their loved ones' estates. This page is shaped by the questions they actually asked and the obstacles they actually hit — and that hard-won experience is what keeps it accurate, current, and genuinely useful to the families who come next.