This application allows for searching and displaying property ownership and location information for all 55 counties in West Virginia. The application is a collaborative effort of the WV Property Tax Division and WV GIS Technical Center. As a professional courtesy, we would like to acknowledge the Comptroller of the Treasury, State of Tennessee, for its model assessment and map application which this Viewer emulates.
Please contact WV GIS Techical Center with questions or comments about this site.
To see parcel boundaries, you need to first zoom in closer to an area. Once the map scale reaches 1:18,056, the parcel boundaries will show up and you can therefore click on the map to identify a parcel. If only one result is returned, the Basic Information panel will show up; if multiple results are returned (ususally applies to a few areas with stacked parcels), a popup window with a Parcel ID will first be displayed, with arrows to scroll through the results and a link to open up the Basic Information panel.
Basic Information:The Basic Information panel shows up when you click on a parcel. The panel header displays the GIS ID of selected parcel, with a button to turn on/off highlight effect on map, a button to generate a map link that automatically zooms to the selected parcel to share, a button to show/hide the Details Information panel, a button to zoom to selected panel and a button to close the panel. This panel displays basic information of the selected parcel: owner(s), physical address, property class type, legal description and communnity information. In addition, it provides external links to Google Maps, Google Street View, Bing Maps and OpenStreetMap. Quick links to the non-spatial IAS Assessment database site, WV Flood Tool (with a primary flood zone detection) and E-911 addresses within this parcel are also included.
Detail Information:The Detail Information panel is made up of two parts: On the left, detailed parcel information is displayed insix sections: Description, Property Owner, Physical Address, Building Information, Cost Values and Appraised Values. You can fold/expand each section by clicking on the by clicking the - (minus) / + (plus) icon. On the right is a list of E-911 addresses located within the parcel. Each address is an individual panel with header that displays the full street address. The detail information of each address will be expanded/folded by clicking on its panel header. External links to Google Maps, Google Street View and Zillow are available for each address.
You can search for parcels three different ways: E-911 street address, parcel attributes and geometry. The data source for the address search is the Statewide Addressing and Mapping System (SAMS) while the source for the parcel number and owner name searches is the Integrated Assessment System (IAS).
E-911 Address: This search is an address matching search based on the E-911 street address (no rural routes, postal office box numbers). The input format is as follows: street address, city, state abbreviation. An example is 98 Beechurst Ave, Morgantown, WV.
Parcel Attributes: This search will ask you to first select a county, and then choose one from the following options: parcel number, property owner and property address.
- Full Parcel ID: If you already know a parcel's full ID, click the "Already know the full parcel ID?" link and a search bar will show up. Type in the full ID of parcel (with or without hyphens) and hit Enter or click on the Search icon on the right to search. To resume Guided step-by-step-search, click on the "Prefer step-by-step search?" link above the search bar.
- Parcel Number: This option will search for all or part of a parcel number in the selected county. You first must specify the county, district, and map number to reduce returned results. Entering the parcel number will further narrow the search results.
- Owner Name: This option will search the parcels in the selected county for an owner's name. You do not need to enter the entire name to search. A search value of "Smith" and a search value of "Smith J" will both return Smith John in the results. The more information you provide, the narrower the result set will be. If you are entering first and last name, enter them in the format of LASTNAME FIRSTNAME.
- Property Address: This option will search the parcels in the selected county for a property address. Please note that the addresses recorded in the IAS database are often incomplete, and it is advised to only use street name as input (e.g. High St). To locate a precise address location, please use the E-911 Address search.
Geometry: This search will ask you to first select one of the following drawing methods to define your search area: Point, Rectangle and Polygon. Once a drawing method is selected, the user can start drawing the search area by clicking on the map following the instruction that shows up with the mouse. To cancel a drawing session, click on the Eraser button. In addition, you can define a buffer size to your drawing, which is essential if the selected geometry is Point.
Parcel search results are limited to 1000 records and will be displayed on the Search panel after submitting your search criteria. Each row of the results table will display the GIS ID, owner name(s) and address information of one matching parcel. By hovering the mouse onto a row, the selected record will be highlighted on the map; By hovering the mouse out of the row, the highlight effect will be cancelled. By clicking on a row, the map will be automatically zoomed to that selected parcel, and tht basic information panel will show up. Sometimes a record does not have a valid matching geometry available, and you will be notified when you cilck on such parcel result.
If the parcel you are looking for can not be found, an empty table will be displayed. Please click "Start Over" and try refining your search.
Zooming in:
Zooming out:
Full Extent: Clicking the West Virginia button above the zoom buttons on the map will reset the map to its full extent that includes the whole state of West Virginia.
Zooming to your current location: Clicking the "Locate" button below the zoom buttons on the map will zoom the map to your current location. The accuracy of the location depends on the capabilities of the device you are using. Please note: You must have your device's Location Services ON to use this feature. In addition, you also need to give the web browser app (Safari, Chrome, etc.) permission to access your location.
Layers: The Layers panel provides the user a list of map layers to turn on/off. There are four categories of layers:
- Property Parcel and Tax District boundaries;
- Address Labels;
- Flood Zones;
- Reference Layers.
Reference layers allows you to adjust its opacity with a slider bar. In addition, you can view the legend of Flood Zones layer once the layer is turned on.
There are also three shortcut buttons for Property Parcel, Address Label and Flood Zone layers located right next to the navigation buttons on the top-left corner of the map. These button provide easier access to the main layers.
Basemap: The Basemap panel provides the user a gallery of basemaps to select from. There are a total of 15 different basemaps available, including both vector (streets, topo, etc.) and raster (satellite imagery) formats.
There is also a basemap toggle button available located above the scale bar on the lower left corner of the map. The button aloows the user to easily switch between Streets and Imagery basemaps.
The Tools panel provides the user the following map tools:
Print: export the current map extent as a PDF map with customized map title and notes;
Share: generate a shared map link based on map click, map center or selected parcel;
Bookmark: create/delete bookmarks of map extents that will be stored in the cookies;
Draw / Measure: choose polygon, line or point to drawing and measuring area, distance and coordinates, with additional options to create buffer and add text label on drawings;
Text Markup: Create text marks with customized text on the map.
In addition, the Clear button on the menu allows you to clear all temporary markers and graphics added to the map.
You should contact your local assessor about any errors you believe exist in your property record information, e.g., misspelled name, wrong street address, etc.
The property record information in the Viewer is updated annually when the WV Property Tax Division releases the new tax assessment information. If you recently purchased an existing piece of property and no property lines were altered (simple change of ownership of an existing piece of property), it is likely that the information has not filtered up to our site yet.
What if my property record is right, but the Viewer still shows the old parcel lines or my property parcel on the map does not exist? The property information available on the Viewer is provided in various forms to the State by the local county assessors. In some cases, the geometry (line work) is maintained electronically by the local assessor and moves quickly to the State and thus into the Viewer. In other cases, the county assessor maintains the geometry in a paper environment and it can take several years to be converted into a digital product and incorporated into the Viewer.
If your recent purchase resulted in new property lines being established (e.g. you purchased five acres out of a ten-acre property), the property will not appear on our site until after the county has submitted the parcel changes to the WV Property Tax Division. For property transfers occurring between July 1st and June 30, assessors are required to have tax maps revised and submitted to the WV Property Tax Division no later than February 1 of the subsequent calendar year. Therefore, contact your local assessor if your parcel lines on the tax map have not been updated after two years of the property transfer.
Many county assessors have their own parcel web viewers which are an alternative source to verify real estate property information. In addition, the assessor’s published full-version tax maps for the entire State can be accessed online.
A PDF file of any full-version tax map in can be accessed by a web browser using the following URL parameters: https://www.mapwv.gov/taxmaps/?m=02-04-037M (County Code - District No. - Map ID). Contact the office of your county assessor if you have questions about the parcel geometry or attributes.
Property maps, maintained by your local county assessor’s office, are a best-fit visualization of how all the properties in a county relate to one another. The property lines are determined by examining detailed property descriptions on deeds and by using surveys created by a licensed surveyor but are not conclusive evidence of property ownership in any court of law.
If you feel your property is drawn in error, you should contact your county assessor’s office and work with them to resolve the discrepancy. If you have a deed or survey of your property, that will be helpful to the assessor's office personnel. You can find the contact information for your local Assessor at this link.
No. The parcels represented here are for property tax assessment purposes only and do not represent legal boundaries of property. As co-custodians of the tax maps, the assessors and the WV Property Tax Division shall have no liability to any third party for any errors or omissions associated therewith or in connection with the use of tax maps for any other purpose.
In West Virginia the county assessor is responsible for maintaining the surface property tax maps. While this Viewer makes every effort to make the best available data accessible to the public, the office of the county assessor is always going to be the most accurate and up to date source for assessment information. Here is a link to contact information for county assessors in West Virginia.
The WV Property Tax Division annually creates a master surface tax parcel file from the GIS parcel files provided by the county assessors and the property attributes from the centralized Integrated Assessment System (IAS). Both the WV Property Tax Division and county assessors are co-custodians of the tax maps and GIS files.
The passing of SB 588 in July 2017 permitted the WV Property Tax Division to allow all digital surface tax maps and GIS files to be downloaded at no charge. These digital files can be downloaded from an authorized tax map distribution site located at the State Data Clearinghouse.
What about privacy concerns that your property information is posted on the Viewer? Recent court case decisions and approved legislation in West Virginia have deemed that property record information and maps are not private information. This includes the collection, storage, retrieval or aggregation of information about an individual that is publicly available from legal information found in deeds, property records, and property maps. Sensitive information such as telephone numbers and security alarm systems are redacted from the property records before released to the public.
The Parcel ID is a unique number that is the basis for identifying all parcels. The Parcel ID consists of six elements: County code, District code, Map number, Parcel Prefix, Parcel Suffix, and Special ID. All the elements are alpha-numeric characters except for the county and district codes which are numeric. The Root Parcel ID (e.g., 31-05-0007-0031-0015-0000) consists of all six elements separated by hyphens.
GIS Parcel ID: 31-05-0007-0031-0015
County: 31 (Monongalia County)
District: 05 (Clinton District)
Map: 7
Parcel Number: 31
Parcel Suffix: 15
The Viewer displays various formats of the Parcel ID. The GIS Parcel ID consists of all elements minus the Special ID (e.g., 31-05-0007-0031-0015) while the CAMA/IAS Parcel ID consists of all elements minus the county code (e.g., 05 7003100150000). The Viewer also displays abbreviated Parcel IDs in which leading zeros or spaces are removed. Examples include the parcel number search results that consist of the District-Map-Parcel (e.g., 05-7-31.15) or the parcel map labels denoted by Map-Parcel (e.g., 7-31.15).
Presently the Viewer does not display property assessment information for multiple cards of a unique parcel. Nor does the Viewer always correctly display stacked GIS parcel geometries representing multiple floors or levels.
The Viewer only displays surface parcels and not mineral parcels. Contact the Mined Minerals GIS Section of the WV Property Tax Division regarding the availability of mineral tax maps and digital mineral parcels. Mineral tax maps and parcels are available for select counties.
The Viewer displays the 100-yeaf effective flood hazard areas. It also includes high-risk Advisory A and Updated AE flood zones based on better topographic data and stream flood models. For more information about flood zone determinations, refer to the WV Flood Tool. The WV Flood Tool also has contact information for the local and state floodplain managers.
Flood Zone Legend:
Floodway – black diagonal lines
Effective Flood Zone (AE, AO, AH, A) - red
Advisory A / Updated AE - orange
The municipal and county addressing offices periodically submit up-to-date E-911 addresses to the Statewide Addressing and Mapping System (SAMS) maintained by the WV Division of Homeland Security & Emergency Management. Contact your local E-911 addressing office if your street address is not correct.
Deeded Acreage: The official acreage listed in the deed which is the historic record of conveyance for property ownership and the primary legal record defining the property and its boundaries.
Calculated Acreage: Derived from using mapping software or geographic information systems (GIS) to calculate the area or acreage of the geometry of a digital parcel. A calculated acreage provides a general estimate only. It is not the legally recognized acreage and should not be used for assessment purposes.
Since the tax map parcels are not mapped to “surveyor” scale, the calculated acreage should only be used as a reference or estimate. The deeded acreage is the authoritative source for tax assessment purposes in West Virginia. Paragraph 7.6.e.2. of the WV 189 CSR 3 "Statewide Procedures for the Maintenance and Publishing of Surface Tax Maps" states that if the deeded acreage does not match the calculated acreage, then the deeded acreage shall take precedence. If there is a large discrepancy between the deeded and calculated acreages, then contact the assessor.
A legal deed or certified survey records the dimensions or number of acres of real property. Typically, this information is recorded in the legal description of the property. Refer to this link for more information.
Yes. The Delinquent Lands are updated weekly on the WV Property Viewer (www.mapwv.gov/parcel) and viewable when the map layer for Delinquent Lands is made visible, or when adding "?dp=1" to the end of website URL. The West Virginia State Auditor's Office Delinquent Land Database also has a map link to the WV Property Viewer for viewing delinquent land parcels. The West Virginia State Auditor serves as Commissioner of Delinquent and Nonentered Lands, Ex-Officio. In this capacity, the State Auditor keeps records of lands nonentered to the State, sold for delinquent taxes and redeemed. Property owners have approximately eighteen months to redeem property before it is sold on the auction block. Refer to Delinquent Land FAQ for more information.