An Ohio Assignment Runs Through the Probate Court, and Expenses Need a Bill of Items and Your Own Affidavit

Ohio's assignment statute is older than Texas's and more supervised than either Texas's or Alabama's. It sits in the probate court, it treats liquidation at auction as the default, and it contains the most explicit evidentiary requirement for a contractor's invoice of any statute in this series. If you secure or mothball commercial property in an Ohio assignment, two sections decide when you can start and whether you get paid: R.C. 1313.02 and R.C. 1313.51.

Nothing Happens Until the Probate Judge Has It

R.C. 1313.02 is unusual and worth reading exactly: an assignment for the benefit of creditors "is effective only from the time of its delivery to the probate judge, and the exact time of such delivery shall be indorsed thereon by the judge, who immediately shall note the filing on the journal of the court. Such assignment may be delivered by the assignor to the judge either before or after its delivery to the assignee."

Not signature. Not recording in the county recorder's office. Delivery to the probate judge, timed to the hour and journalised. Texas makes the assignment valid on recording like a deed; Alabama's new act makes it effective when the last required party signs. Ohio hands the clock to a judge.

R.C. 1313.01 then puts the assignee on a ten-day timetable with a condition attached. Within ten days after the assignment is delivered to him, "and before disposing of any property so assigned," the assignee must appear before the probate judge of the county where the assignor resided when the assignment was executed, produce the original assignment or a copy, cause it to be filed in the probate court, and enter into a bond payable to the state, in such sum and with such sureties as the court approves, conditioned for the faithful performance of his duties. The court may demand an additional bond "whenever the interests of the creditors of the assignor demand it."

Note what the bond gates. In Texas the bond gates possession - nothing can be taken in hand until it is filed. In Ohio it gates disposal. An Ohio assignee may hold and protect property during the ten days; what they may not do is dispose of it.

The Default Is the Auction

R.C. 1313.21 states the core duty in a single sentence: an assignee or trustee for the benefit of creditors "shall convert the assets received by him into money, and shall sell the real and personal property assigned, including stocks and such bonds, notes, and other claims as are not due and which probably cannot be collected within a reasonable time, at public auction, either for cash or upon such other terms as the probate court orders."

Convert to money, sell at public auction. R.C. 1313.24 lets the court order a private sale, and R.C. 1313.25 sends property to auction if it is not disposed of privately. R.C. 1313.22 governs sale of real property, R.C. 1313.30 the sale of mortgaged real property, and R.C. 1313.16 provides that real property outside Ohio need not be appraised - the assignee sells it at public or private sale and the sale is confirmed "if the court finds that it has been made in good faith for a fair price."

That orientation explains the shape of the work. An Ohio assignee is not running a business or improving an asset; they are getting it to auction in sellable condition. Securing, weather protection, utility isolation and a clean condition record are what that requires - not refurbishment.

Running the Business Takes Three-Quarters of the Creditors

There is one route to continued operation, and it is a high bar. R.C. 1313.31: "When satisfied that it would be for the advantage of the creditors of the assignor, and on written application therefor by three-fourths in number and amount of such creditors, the probate court may order any business carried on by the assignor at the time of the assignment, to be continued by the assignee or trustee."

Three-fourths in number and in amount - both measures - applying in writing. Where the court instead decides to discontinue, it orders that done "and also allow to the assignee or trustee for the benefit of creditors such compensation for conducting it, as may be just, in addition to the fees allowed by sections 1313.50 and 1313.51 of the Revised Code."

For a vendor the practical reading is that continued operation is the exception. Plan an Ohio engagement around a site being held and sold, not run.

The Commission, and Then the Bill of Items

R.C. 1313.50 sets the assignee's ordinary compensation as a sliding commission on the personal estate collected and accounted for and the proceeds of real property sold under court order: six per cent on the first thousand dollars, four per cent above one thousand and not exceeding five thousand, two per cent above five thousand. That commission "must be received in full compensation of all his ordinary services."

Everything else runs through R.C. 1313.51, and this is the section a contractor should read before quoting. The court may allow what it considers just "for necessary expense, extraordinary expenses, extraordinary services not required of an assignee for the benefit of creditors in the common course of his duty, and such reasonable counsel fees as were necessary for the proper administration of the assignment."

Then the condition: "No such further allowance, extraordinary expenses or services, or attorney fees, shall be made unless a bill of items is filed, showing such actual and necessary or extraordinary expenses and services, or attorney fees, together with the affidavit of the person incurring such expenses or performing such services, that they were done for, and were necessary to, the assignment; that the amount charged therefor is reasonable, and not more than is usually paid for such services."

A bill of items - itemised, not a lump sum. And an affidavit from the person who did the work, swearing to three things: that it was done for and was necessary to the assignment, that the amount charged is reasonable, and that it is not more than is usually paid for such services. That last limb is a market-rate assertion a vendor has to be willing to make under oath.

Where the work was done by someone other than the assignee, the section adds a second affidavit, from the assignee: "stating that such services were necessary for the proper administration of the assignment, that they were performed under his direction, that the charges therefor are fair and reasonable, and that the full amount thereof has been paid to the party performing such services."

Read the final clause carefully, because it reverses the usual order. On the face of R.C. 1313.51 the allowance follows payment: the assignee swears the full amount "has been paid" to the contractor. The assignee funds the work and is reimbursed, rather than the contractor waiting on the estate. How that plays out in a particular probate court is a question for the assignee's counsel, but it is a question worth asking at engagement rather than at the end.

What This Means If You Do the Work

• Confirm the assignment has been delivered to the probate judge - under R.C. 1313.02 it is not effective until then, and the judge indorses the exact time
• The ten-day bond under R.C. 1313.01 gates disposal, not possession, so protective work can begin before it is filed
• The destination is a public auction under R.C. 1313.21; scope the work to getting the site there in sellable, secured condition
• Continued operation needs a written application by three-fourths of creditors in number and amount - treat it as the exception
• Invoice as a bill of items, never a lump sum; R.C. 1313.51 refuses the allowance without one
• Be prepared to swear an affidavit that the work was necessary to the assignment, the charge is reasonable, and it is not more than usually paid for such services
• Expect the assignee to need to certify that you have already been paid in full - agree the funding route before mobilising

For the states that handle this differently, see Texas, where the assignee must reside in the debtor's county and the bond gates possession, Oklahoma, where an unrecorded assignment is void against creditors after twenty days, and Alabama, which adopted the Uniform Assignment for Benefit of Creditors Act on 1 October 2026, and Arkansas, where preservation is the assignee's first statutory duty. Ohio's other regimes over a building someone else holds are covered separately: the R.C. 3767.41 nuisance receiver and its first lien, a chapter 7 trustee and the Ohio homestead exemption, and why an Ohio tax certificate reimburses no preservation costs. For commercial scope see commercial property maintenance and our Ohio page.