Updated September 7, 2026. Quick answer: In Ohio, if notice is never published, the absolute deadline is 6 months from the date of death; and a creditor who is personally mailed notice gets 30 days.
What is the creditor-claim deadline in Ohio?
| Once notice to creditors is published | No separate publication-triggered period; see note below |
| If notice is never published (absolute deadline) | 6 months from the date of death |
| Creditor personally mailed notice | 30 days |
“All claims shall be presented within six months after the death of the decedent … A claim that is not presented within six months after the death of the decedent shall be forever barred as to all parties, including devisees, legatees, and distributees.”
What makes Ohio different
Ohio’s 6-month bar runs automatically regardless of whether any notice is ever published; there is no publication-triggered acceleration at all, only an optional 30-day personal-notice track.
Does this deadline apply the same way if the estate never opens probate?
These deadlines are creatures of the probate process itself; they run once an estate is opened (by publication, mailing, appointment, or the grant of letters, depending on Ohio’s own rule above). A creditor of a decedent whose estate never enters probate at all is not cut off by this particular statute, though the underlying debt’s own ordinary statute of limitations still applies.
Sources
| Statute | Ohio Rev. Code §§ 2117.06, 2117.07 |
| Ohio courts (general reference) | Ohio judicial branch |
| Confidence | High |
Every statute quoted on this page was read directly from the state’s own legislature/code site this session, or, where that site blocked automated access, from a reputable legal-citation mirror quoting the same official text with its official citation (disclosed below). General information, not legal advice; the exact deadline in a given estate can turn on facts (whether a personal representative was appointed, whether notice was ever published or mailed) that only your own probate court file can confirm.