How to Read an Ohio Title Commitment: Schedule A, Schedule B, and the Mineral Rights Your Policy Won't Cover

An Ohio title commitment is the title company's written promise to issue an owner's and lender's title insurance policy at closing, and in Northeast Ohio the exceptions on that promise routinely exclude oil, gas, and mineral rights under the home. The report splits into Schedule A, which describes the deal and the property, and Schedule B, which lists the requirements a seller must satisfy and the exceptions the policy will not cover. In counties across the Cleveland market, the items that most often surprise buyers are recorded utility and railroad easements, oil and gas lease exceptions tied to the Utica Shale, and a blanket mineral exception that removes every oil, gas, and coal interest under the property from coverage. Ohio title insurance rates also increased for the first time in 24 years on January 1, 2026, so the premium in your closing estimate deserves a second look.

This matters more in Northeast Ohio than in most markets because the region sits on the Utica Shale and Point Pleasant formations. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources lists Geauga and Columbiana counties among its core Utica counties, and the northern tier of the play, which covers Columbiana, Mahoning, and Trumbull counties, has been in what industry reporting calls a "Utica 2.0" oil boom since about 2023. Columbiana County alone produced 1.494 million barrels of oil in 2024, up 54 percent year over year, and 543,905 barrels in the first quarter of 2026, its largest quarter on record, plus 26.4 billion cubic feet of gas. EOG Resources bought operator Encino Energy in mid-2025 for about $5.6 billion. The practical effect for a homebuyer east of Cleveland is simple: whoever owns the house may not own the minerals beneath it, and the title commitment is where that shows up.

What Is an Ohio Title Commitment, and Why Does It Have an Expiration Date?

A title commitment is not a policy. It is a written commitment to issue one, based on a title search of the public records that ended at a specific date and time, the effective date stamped on Schedule A. The commitment expires six months after that effective date. If closing runs past it, the title company re-runs the search and issues a new commitment with a new effective date. That is why a commitment you review early in the fall may not be the same document the closing agent relies on in the spring.

Inside the cover, the report is divided into two schedules. Schedule A states the proposed insureds, the policy amount and type, the property address, the legal description, the current owners, and the deed reference showing how they took title. Schedule B has two sections. Section I lists requirements, the conditions that must be satisfied before a policy will be issued, usually payoffs and releases of existing mortgages, judgments, liens, unpaid taxes, and any open matters. Section II lists exceptions, the risks the policy will not cover. Most Northeast Ohio buyers could read Schedule A on their own in five minutes; it is Schedule B that produces the phone calls to our office.

Part of the report	What it says	What to check
Effective date	The date and time through which public records were searched	If closing is more than six months later, ask for a reissue
Proposed insureds	The names of the buyer and/or lender the policy will protect	Confirm spelling and vesting names match the deed you will sign
Policy amount and type	Coverage amount and whether it is an owner's or lender's policy	Confirm the amount matches the contract price and the loan
Property description	Address, legal description, and often a parcel number	Compare against the survey and the contract
Current owners	Who holds title and the deed reference showing how they acquired it	Confirm the seller matches; look for added or deceased names
Schedule B, Section I: Requirements	Payoffs, releases, taxes, and other items to clear before a policy is issued	Ask about anything you have never seen before; these drive closing delays
Schedule B, Section II: Exceptions	Recorded matters and standard exclusions the policy will not cover	Read the full list, not a summary, and ask what each item permits

Why Do Northeast Ohio Title Commitments Exclude Oil, Gas, and Minerals?

The short answer is that someone else may own them. In Ohio, a landowner can sever the mineral estate from the surface estate in a deed, and it stays severed until it is later merged or cleared. When a warranty deed from 1918 reserved "all oil, gas, and coal" to the grantor, that reservation followed the grantor's heirs and assigns, not the house. Title companies in Ohio generally will not insure ownership of minerals below the ground, and many Northeast Ohio commitments carry a blanket mineral exception along these lines: the company does not insure title to oil, gas, and other minerals of every kind and character, in, on, and under the property, or the right to use the surface for ingress and egress to reach them.

Once you see that language, the questions become who holds the minerals and whether the interest is active. Under the Ohio Dormant Mineral Act, Ohio Revised Code Section 5301.56, severed oil and gas interests that have seen no saving event for 20 years can be reclaimed by the surface owner, but the procedure is not automatic. The Ohio Supreme Court held in Corban v. Chesapeake Exploration (2016) that the act is not self-executing, so the surface owner must run the 20-year look-back, give notice to the mineral holder, and file an affidavit of abandonment with the county recorder. And in Chesapeake Exploration v. Buell (2015), the court held that a recorded oil and gas lease counts as a title transaction that resets the clock. A property with a recorded lease, a filed instrument, or actual production can have mineral interests that are very much alive.

Exception on Schedule B	What it means	Where buyers see it most
Blanket mineral exception	Policy excludes oil, gas, coal, and other minerals plus surface access rights; it is standard form language in Ohio	Expect it on nearly any property east and south of Cleveland
Specific oil and gas lease exception	A recorded lease names the lessor, lessee, date, and recording reference; the lease often carries pipeline and surface rights with it	Geauga, Portage, Trumbull, Mahoning, and Columbiana counties
Severance by deed reservation	A prior deed kept minerals out of the chain of title for the surface estate	Rural townships with century-old estate deeds
Dormant Mineral Act filing	A recorded affidavit of abandonment or preservation that reflects the 20-year clock	Any county where surface owners have pursued ODMA filings
Royalty assignment or pooling agreement	A third party holds a share of production income from the property	Northern Utica tier near active wells and units

What Easements Appear on Schedule B, and Which Ones Are Most Common in Northeast Ohio?

Easements are the most common exceptions on a home title commitment in this region. Utility easements for electric, gas, water, sewer, and telecommunications lines appear across Cuyahoga, Lake, Geauga, Portage, and Summit counties. Railroad right-of-way easements show up on properties near the region's rail corridors, and Ohio law protects them: Ohio Revised Code Section 5301.53 exempts easements created or held for railroad and public utility purposes, and easements observable by physical evidence of use, from being barred by the Marketable Title Act. Shared driveways, drainage and storm sewer easements, road right-of-way lines, and, in the rural parts of Geauga and Portage counties, oil and gas surface easements round out the list buyers actually see.

All of these are recorded in the county recorder's office for the county where the land sits, indexed by grantor and grantee, often by book and page or instrument number. Under Ohio Revised Code Section 5301.25, deeds and instruments that convey or encumber an interest in real property must be recorded to be valid against later bona fide purchasers. So when Schedule B cites an easement by instrument number, you can pull the actual document online and read what it permits. A narrow utility line easement along the rear lot line is routine on almost any suburban lot. A 30-foot-wide pipeline easement across the backyard is a different conversation.

Exception type	How it typically reads	Practical effect
Utility line easements	"Easement to [utility] for gas, electric, water, or sewer lines," with an instrument reference	The utility can enter to install and maintain lines; rear-yard lines are routine
Railroad right of way	"Right of way granted to [railroad]"	Rail corridor rights survive under ORC 5301.53; affects lots adjacent to tracks
Shared driveway or access	"Non-exclusive easement for ingress and egress over the described strip"	Neighbors share drive access and maintenance; check the recorded terms
Drainage and storm sewer	"Drainage easement over a portion of the lot"	Water flows across the lot by recorded right; keep the swale clear
Road and street right of way	"Public road right of way"	The municipality holds the edge of your lot; setbacks matter for additions
Oil and gas surface easement	"Rights to use the surface for well operations, pipelines, and access"	An operator can reach a defined pad or line area; scope is set by the recorded instrument

What Changed With Ohio Title Insurance Rates in 2026?

Ohio uses a filed-rate system: the Ohio Title Insurance Rating Bureau sets the rates, the Ohio Department of Insurance approves them, and the same base rates apply across the state at every agency. Those rates had not changed since 2002. A new schedule took effect for orders placed on or after January 1, 2026, the first increase in 24 years. For an owner's policy, the new rate works in tiers per $1,000 of coverage: $5.80 per $1,000 on the first $250,000, plus $4.10 per $1,000 from $250,000 to $500,000, plus $3.20 per $1,000 from $500,000 to $1,000,000, with lower tiers above that. The minimum owner's policy premium rose from $175 to $225, and the minimum homeowner's policy premium is $250. A lender's policy issued at the same closing gets a simultaneous-issue discount.

Run the math on a typical Northeast Ohio purchase to see the change. An owner's policy on a $300,000 home comes to about $1,650 under the new schedule before credits: $5.80 per $1,000 on $250,000 is $1,450, plus $4.10 per $1,000 on the next $50,000 is $205. Industry guidance puts Ohio title insurance in the range of roughly 0.5 percent to 0.8 percent of the purchase price. Ohio law does not require title insurance, and the purchase contract decides who pays for it. Ask your title company for the exact premium on your policy amount before you rely on the closing estimate.

Coverage tier	Rate per $1,000	Example premium
First $250,000	$5.80	$1,450 on a $250,000 policy
$250,001 to $500,000	Add $4.10	About $1,650 on a $300,000 policy ($1,450 + $205)
$500,001 to $1,000,000	Add $3.20	About $3,275 on a $750,000 policy ($1,450 + $1,025 + $800)
$1,000,001 to $5,000,000	Add $3.10	Rates ease further above $5 million
Minimum owner's policy premium	$225	Up from $175 under the prior schedule
Minimum homeowner's policy premium	$250	Separate minimum for the Homeowner's policy form

Source: Ohio Title Insurance Rating Bureau rate schedule effective January 1, 2026, accessed October 6, 2026. Examples before any reissue, simultaneous-issue, or other credits. Confirm your exact premium with your title company.

How Should a Buyer Handle a Title Commitment Before Closing?

Give the commitment the same attention as the inspection report, and read both schedules. Read Schedule B, Section I for requirements: if the commitment says the seller must deliver releases of two old mortgages and pay current taxes, those items belong to the seller, but you want them done on time, because a release that is not recorded is a delayed closing. Read Section II for exceptions, and ask about anything you do not recognize. A blanket mineral exception is one of the most common items a title company will decline to remove, and in most cases it is not a deal-breaker: the house, the garage, the yard, and the insurable surface estate are still covered, it is the dirt below and the right to drill through it that the policy leaves out. When an exception surprises you, ask your title company what the underlying document permits, then ask your attorney whether it matters for how you plan to use the property.

In our experience walking Northeast Ohio buyers through commitment reviews, the most common misunderstanding is that a title company will fix an exception just because it looks alarming. A title company reports the recorded record; it does not rewrite history. If you want a specific easement or an old lease clarified, the path is an attorney who can order the underlying documents, review the reservation language, and tell you whether a Dormant Mineral Act filing or a revised commitment is worth pursuing. That review belongs in your due diligence period, not at the closing table.

If you are weighing a home in the region, our Northeast Ohio region guide maps the eight-county Greater Cleveland market, and our guide to moving to Northeast Ohio compares Cleveland and Akron housing, costs, and commutes side by side. Once the title part checks out, our buyer resources walk through the rest of the closing process, from inspections to financing. Reading Schedule A and Schedule B before you sign is the difference between closing with confidence and closing with a surprise.