FOIA Friday: Looking up property records
One of the ways that journalists tell stories is to go to public records to dig into things that most people can't find easily. Public records are often stored in government filing systems — either hosted on a computer or kept on paper — that are expensive, cumbersome, or simply arcane in their use.
A good example of this is property records. Here's a short guide to understanding how to figure out more about a piece of land, its ownership, and any unusual circumstances surrounding it.
Assessment records
The first place to go to see more about a piece of property is to look at the assessment records for it. These are generally indexed by street name, so that you can track down the owner of a piece of property.
In the City of Ann Arbor, the City Assessor's Office has this data. A sample search shows all of the parcels on Eden Court. Similar systems are in place in Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor Township, and several other townships; I don't yet have a complete list.
In looking at these records, there are several additional pieces of information that will help in the next step of your search. The parcel number, which will look something like 09-12-10-302-999, is an ID for further property and tax records. The legal description, which may look something like LOT 999 ARBOR OAKS SUB NO 1, references a portion of a subdivision plat, which you would need to refer to for further details. Finally, each transaction associated with the property has a liber and page, which will look like 4766/9999; this is an index into the page number in the Register of Deeds records where the transaction was recorded.
Some assessment records also include sketches of the layout of a structure on the property, and many times there is a photograph or two. Many of the Ann Arbor photographs date from 1999, so they inadvertently provide a slice of recent local history.
Note that not all of the assessment information is completely accurate. In particular, if a property's date of construction is listed as 1901, don't believe it; that's the date that is used for pre-World War I construction when the date is not known.
Map Washtenaw and plat books
Washtenaw County GIS department runs an online mapping tool, MapWashtenaw. It has a number of layers available, and can be used to identify a parcel by its location on a map - even if it doesn't have a street address.
Deed records
Look up property records online for free through a Washtenaw County service. Commercial services charge as much as $69.50 for a legal copy of a deed, which the county will sell you for as little as $2.00.
Washtenaw County
If you go into the clerk's office, which is located at 200 N. Main St. in Ann Arbor, the staff will assist you in your search; you'll want to have as much information about the parcel as possible before asking for assistance.
If the office is closed, or if you prefer to search from the comfort of your own home, you can go online with the county's online document ordering system.
It is necessary to register and create an account in order to search online, but it is not necessary to pay any fees unless you want a high resolution copy of the records that you find. Successful searches will return a grainy copy of the original document; in some cases this copy will be quite clear and legible, but in other cases it will look like a very bad fax. In either case, generally the information returned is enough so you can verify that what you have is what you were looking for, suitable for paying for if that is what you need to do to get a proper copy.
Searching for property records is not like searching through most Internet search engines. There are multiple types of records that may be attached to a parcel, including easements, property transactions, liens, mortgages, and various court documents. In some cases the relevant information that you seek is not located in the records for an individual parcel, but is recorded as part of the plat for the subdivision that the parcel is in. At some point you are likely to run into terms or documents that require a professional to interpret, but the further you can get on your own, the more power to you.
Edward Vielmetti knows that the meet will inherit the earth but they won't get the mineral rights. Contact him at edwardvielmetti@annarbor.com.
Comments
snapshot
Tue, Dec 28, 2010 : 12:01 p.m.
I'm curious about the methodology of assesment in Ann Arbor. It seems that the assessments are inflated and when lowered by a board of review are automatically increased to the original amount the following year so that the homeowner must appeal to the board of review again. Another issue is the "billig" of taxes in advance that makes the transfer of taxes upon sale an issue of "whose" paying for what year. I don't believe escrow companies are accounting for this "tax pre billing" when deciding the time frame and transfer of tax liability between seller and buyer. I would also be curious to have the assessed value of all assessor employees homes to ensure there is not any favoritism taking place in assessing value. The consideration of foreclosures, short sales, and tax credits seem to be omitted from any determination of value also. I would like to see an in depth article that covers the above issues.
pooh bear
Mon, Dec 20, 2010 : 12:42 p.m.
One must be careful when using the Assessor's records to find the date of construction. Most pre World War I houses, if the date is not known, are listed as 1901. Many realtors pass on this faulty information. So caveat emptor!
Russ Miller
Fri, Dec 17, 2010 : 7:28 p.m.
Another quick way to find parcel numbers (and lots of other info) is to use the Washtenaw County Online Mapping system. This is especially useful for parcels that don't have an obvious street address but are easy to identify on visually: http://www.ewashtenaw.org/government/departments/gis/MapWashtenaw_Main.htm