After complying with sections 319.202, 315.251, and 319.203 of the Revised Code, and on application and presentation of title, with the affidavits required by law, or the proper order of a court or the county board of revision, bearing the last known address of the grantee, or of any one of the grantees named in the title, and a reference to the volume and page of the recording, or other means of identifying the recording, of the next preceding recorded instrument by or through which the grantor claims title, the county auditor shall transfer any land or town lot or part thereof, minerals therein, or mineral rights thereto, charged with taxes on the tax list, from the name in which it stands into the name of the owner, when rendered necessary by a conveyance, partition, devise, descent, or otherwise. If by reason of the conveyance or otherwise, a part only of a tract or lot, minerals therein, or mineral rights thereto, as charged in the tax list, is to be transferred, the auditor shall determine the tax value of the part of a tract or lot of real estate, minerals therein, or mineral rights thereto, so transferred, and the value of the remaining part compared with the value of the whole.

Whenever a part only of a tract or lot of real estate has been transferred by the auditor and the tract or lot bears unpaid taxes, penalties, interest, or special assessments, the unpaid taxes, penalties, interest, or special assessments shall immediately be apportioned, upon demand or request by the transferee or remaining owner, in the following manner:

(A) The auditor shall allocate to the part so transferred, and to the remaining part, amounts of any current or delinquent taxes, interest, or penalties that have accrued against the parcel as a whole, proportionate to their respective values.

(B) The lien of taxes, penalties, interest, and special assessments, as levied against the original tract, shall extend to the part so transferred and the part remaining only to the extent of the amounts so allocated to the respective parts.

This section does not change the total amount of taxes, special assessments, or other charges as originally levied, or the total amount of the balance due. The auditor shall certify such apportionments to the county treasurer.

Whenever the state acquires an entire parcel or a part only of a parcel of real property in fee simple, the county auditor, upon application of the grantor or property owner or the state, which application shall contain a description of the property as it appears on the tax list and the date of transfer of ownership, shall prepare an estimate of the taxes that are a lien on the property, but have not been determined, assessed, and levied for the year in which the property was acquired. The county auditor shall thereupon apportion the estimated taxes proportionately between the grantor and the state for the period of the lien year that each had or shall have had ownership or possession of the property, whichever is earlier. The county treasurer shall accept payment from the state for estimated taxes at the time that the real property is acquired. If the state has paid in full in the year in which the property is acquired that proportion of the estimated taxes that the tax commissioner determines are not subject to remission by the county auditor for such year under division (D) of section 5713.08 of the Revised Code, the estimated taxes paid shall be considered the tax liability on the exempted property for that year.

Section 319.42 of the Revised Code applies to the apportionment of special assessments.

Complaint against such values as determined by the auditor or the allocation of assessments by the certifying authority may be filed by the transferee or the remaining owner, and if filed, proceedings including appeals shall be had in the manner and within the time provided by sections 5717.01 to 5717.06 and 5715.19 to 5715.22 of the Revised Code, for complaints against valuation or assessment of real property.

The auditor shall endorse on the deed or other evidences of title presented to the auditor that the proper transfer of the real estate described in the deed has been made in the auditor's office or that it is not entered for taxation, and sign the auditor's name to the deed. The address of the grantee, or any one of the grantees, set forth in the deed or other evidences of title shall be entered by the auditor on the transfer sheets and on the general tax list of real property prepared pursuant to section 319.28 of the Revised Code.

Effective Date: 05-08-1996; 09-29-2005; 2008 HB160 06-20-2008; 2008 SB353 04-07-2009 .