Pike County, OH Probate Information

Ohio's statewide duties apply here in full: file the inventory within three months (R.C. 2115.02), render a final and distributive account within six months of appointment unless an exception applies (R.C. 2109.301), and deal with claims inside the six-month window running from the date of death (R.C. 2117.06). Pike County adds a handful of duties on top of those that a first-time executor or administrator will not find in the statewide forms, and its local rules give the court a citation track for enforcing them.

Sign your own applications, and serve the account yourself. Local Rule 78.1 requires the fiduciary to sign all applications, expressly including an application to extend the time for filing an inventory, an account or a guardian's report, so an attorney cannot sign a continuance for you. Local Rule 64.1 puts the service work on the fiduciary: file the signed waivers or notices for everyone entitled to be served at the time the account is filed, give notice of the hearing on the account by certified mail with return receipt requested or obtain a waiver of notice, and file the Certificate of Service to Account to Heirs or Beneficiaries together with those notices, the signed certified mail cards and any waivers no later than the date set for the hearing. On a final account, notice goes to all heirs in an intestate estate and to the residuary beneficiaries in a testate estate.

Keep the court's contact information current. Local Rule 57.1 makes a fiduciary's failure to tell the court of a current address grounds for removal, with not less than ten days written notice of the removal hearing sent to the last address in the file. Local Rule 60.3 requires the application for appointment to carry the name, address, telephone number and e-mail address of the attorney representing the fiduciary, if there is one, and requires both the attorney and the fiduciary to notify the court if that attorney resigns and to supply the successor's details in writing; an attorney who applies to withdraw triggers a hearing that the fiduciary must attend unless the court dispenses with it.

Watch the bond rules if you are using a private surety. Local Rule 60.2 permits private sureties, other than a registered bonding or insurance company, only for an administrator or executor who lives in Pike County or a county adjoining it, and requires the combined value of the Ohio real estate of the private sureties to equal double the amount guaranteed, valued at the county auditor's appraised value with proof filed with the court. Private sureties are not accepted for a trustee, for the guardian of an incompetent person, or for the guardian of a minor where the guardianship will run more than five years.

Use the appraisal shortcut where it fits, and get the appraiser approved where it does not. Local Rule 61.2 lets the fiduciary use the county auditor's fair market value for real estate used as the decedent's personal residence, and for other estate real estate whose combined auditor fair market value is $100,000.00 or less, in each case with written evidence of the auditor's value filed with the court. Anything else has to be appraised by a qualified appraiser, which the rule defines as a licensed real estate broker, a licensed appraiser or a licensed auctioneer, or another person the court approves; where an appraisal is required by law there is one suitable and disinterested appraiser, whose compensation the fiduciary may agree with directly on a reasonable amount without a separate application (Local Rule 61.1). The court's own estate page says the judge will approve an appraiser if a business card or letterhead is attached to the filing, and it lists appraisers commonly used in Pike County.

Do not pay yourself or your attorney early. Local Rule 71.1 requires counsel fees in every matter to be set by the court on an application made by the fiduciary and the attorney, supported by written documentation, and provides that neither a fiduciary's compensation nor an attorney's fee is paid before a final account is prepared for filing except with court approval of a partial payment for good cause. Where the fiduciary is also the attorney, the court allows only one fee. Notice of any request for attorney fees goes to the fiduciary or client unless they have already approved it.

Pike County publishes an unusually complete local form library for a county its size, and for a family settling an estate that is good news: almost everything you need is on one page of the court's site. Ohio uses one set of Standard Probate Forms prescribed by the Supreme Court of Ohio in all 88 counties, and Pike County hosts those forms individually, bundles them into complete packets for each estate route, and adds county forms of its own with no statewide number. Confirm the current version of a statewide form on the Supreme Court of Ohio forms page before you file, because numbering and titles are revised from time to time.

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) with Form 2.4 (Certificate of Service of Notice of Probate of 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) with Form 5.11, 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) with Form 12.1, and Form 13.0 (Fiduciary's Account) with its schedules and Form 13.6 (Certificate of Termination). The court's local library adds an Application to Transfer Motor Vehicle, numbered 9.C, which its fee schedule requires for each motor vehicle or mobile home transferred with a summary release.

Three county requirements are easy to miss and will hold up a filing. The court's own route instruction sheets require a Notice to Court of Decedent's Medicaid Status with every estate route, and a full administration also requires a signed Executor or Administrator Fiduciary's Acceptance, in addition to the statewide forms. Local Rule 75.1 requires any person representing themselves in a probate matter to review, sign and file the court's Self Representation Acknowledgment with the initial filings; the court's Estate Administration page dates that rule to August 12, 2021. Other county forms worth knowing about include an Application to Enter Safe Deposit Box, a Motion and Entry to Release Information from Bank Accounts Prior to Opening Estate, a Report of Newly Discovered Assets, an Application to Reopen Estate, an Application and Order Dispensing with Appraisement, an Application to Dispense with the Filing of the Inventory and Final Account, and forms for notice by publication in a newspaper or by posting.

Local Rules 52.1 and 57.1 govern how any of them must look. Filings are typewritten on forms the court provides or approves, on eight and one-half by eleven inch paper without backings, on stock that can be scanned, with no unfilled blanks, no handwritten insertions and no erasures unless the court approves them, with the case number in the upper portion of each page of a multi-page filing, and with the name, address, telephone number and e-mail address of counsel or, where there is no attorney, the name, address and telephone number of the fiduciary. Original wills are excepted from the paper-size rule. A filing that does not comply may be refused.

Pike County is one of the Ohio counties that publishes its own figures in full, and it publishes them twice with matching numbers, which is a good sign. The court's Probate Fees page carries an effective date of April 6, 2022, and Local Rule 58.1 is footed as amended effective April 18, 2022; the estate figures on the two are identical, and the court's own route instruction sheets repeat the same amounts. Both were verified July 2026. Under Ohio law the underlying fee items are statutory: $35.00 to appoint a fiduciary, $15.00 to probate a will and $60.00 to relieve an estate from administration or grant a summary release (R.C. 2101.16(A)), with each court allowed to add computerization and dispute-resolution charges (R.C. 2101.162, R.C. 2101.163) and to require an advance deposit for costs by local rule, which the statute caps at $125.00 (R.C. 2101.16(E)). What a Pike County filer actually hands over is the court's own deposit below.

Four practical points sit on top of that table. First, the court says in its own words that each case is unique, that the deposit for costs is only an estimation, that additional charges may apply and that costs are subject to change without notice, so treat the figures as the opening deposit rather than the total. Second, the summary release figure is the one most likely to grow: the court warns that $104.00 does not cover any additional forms, that a Form 9.C is required for each motor vehicle at $7.00 apiece, that a certificate of transfer adds $16.00 for each certificate, and that filing or probating a will along with a summary release will cost more, and it tells filers to check with the deputy clerk before filing. Third, if you cannot pay, Local Rule 58.1 provides that an application accompanied by an affidavit of inability to prepay or give security for court costs is accepted without the deposit, provided the applicant makes diligent efforts to free up estate funds and pays the deposit as soon as possible. Fourth, the schedule still carries line items that relate only to deaths before January 1, 2013; they are not live for a current death, and the Ohio state page explains why.

Where an attorney e-files, deposits and fees are paid electronically and the filer has to keep a positive balance on deposit; if the balance runs out, the court can require an additional deposit before it will accept the document (the electronic filing administrative order, Appendix B to the local rules, effective June 21, 2022). Anything payable to a third party such as a court investigator or a guardian ad litem is delivered directly to the court within seven days of the filing that requires it, rather than through the e-filing system.

1. Intestate priority lapses at three months. If a person entitled to administer an intestate estate does not apply for letters of administration for three months after the death without good cause, Local Rule 60.1 treats the right to priority as lost, and the court may commit the administration to the next person in order or to another suitable person on the motion of any interested party after a citation issues.
2. Notice of the hearing on an application to relieve an estate from administration: at least five days written notice to the surviving spouse and the heirs at law, unless the notices are waived or found unnecessary (Local Rule 57.8). Where no heirs are known to the applicant, the court sets the hearing not less than three weeks from the filing date and requires publication.
3. Oral or non-oral hearing. Local Rule 57.3 divides hearings into oral hearings, where the parties and counsel must appear and present their case, and non-oral hearings, where nobody has to appear. If you want a matter set for an oral hearing, the request must be filed at least five days before the hearing date; if an interested person turns up at a non-oral hearing, the court may continue the matter for an oral hearing.
4. Original will after an electronic filing: seven days. Where an attorney e-files a testate estate, the original will or codicil must be submitted to the court within seven days of the filing of the Application to Probate Will, and letters of authority do not issue until the court has the original in hard copy. Certified or authenticated documents also have to be presented within seven days, and a failure to produce them makes the filing deficient (the electronic filing administrative order, Appendix B to the local rules, effective June 21, 2022).
5. Certificate of Service of Notice of Probate of Will, Form 2.4: filed no later than two months after the appointment of the fiduciary unless the court grants an extension (Local Rule 78.1).
6. Medicaid estate recovery notice: not later than thirty days after letters are granted or an application for release or summary release is filed, where the decedent or the decedent's spouse was subject to the program (R.C. 2117.061(B)).
7. Inventory: within three months after appointment unless the court extends the time for good cause (R.C. 2115.02). Local Rule 57.7 states that the statutory schedule will be strictly applied and followed unless extended by court order on a timely motion, and that no account will be accepted for filing until the inventory on which it is based has been formally approved.
8. Creditor claims: presented within six months after the date of death, with the claim forever barred after that, subject to the Medicaid estate recovery exception (R.C. 2117.06, R.C. 2117.061).
9. Final and distributive account: within six months after appointment unless one of the statutory exceptions applies (R.C. 2109.301). Notice of the hearing on an account is served at least fifteen days before the hearing and exceptions are filed at least five days before it (R.C. 2109.33), and Local Rule 64.1 requires the fiduciary to file the Certificate of Service to Account to Heirs or Beneficiaries with the notices, signed certified mail cards and waivers no later than the hearing date.
10. Delinquency track. Local Rule 57.7 sets out what happens if a filing is late: the court first notifies the attorney of record in writing and dockets the notice; if the delinquency is not cured within a reasonable time not exceeding a month, a second notice goes to the attorney and the fiduciary; if it is still unresolved a reasonable time after that, again not exceeding a month, the court may cite both into court to explain and set a date certain, and it reserves the right to remove the fiduciary and the attorney. Each citation adds $5.00 to court costs. Local Rule 78.1 also lets the court bar a delinquent attorney from opening any new case until the missing pleadings are filed.
11. Two years. If an estate is not fully administered within two years, the judge decides whether court intervention is necessary, and where the court sets a status conference the parties may take part by telephone with prior approval (Local Rule 78.1).
12. Medical records applications, which often run ahead of an estate. Under Local Rule 57.12, effective October 7, 2025, an applicant authorized to obtain a decedent's medical and medical billing records has thirty days from the filing of the entry to file the report on receipt of those records, and the court closes the file if it receives no additional filings within ninety days. The court's own page adds that it will wait at least ten days after sending the application to interested parties before acting on it unless all waivers are filed.

Page last reviewed: July 2026.