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What if my property info is wrong?
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.
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When are property records updated?
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.
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My parcel lines are old or absent?
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.
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Are there other tax map sources?
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.
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What if my parcel lines are wrong?
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.
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Do parcels denote legal boundaries?
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.
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Who maintains the property maps?
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.
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Who creates the state parcel file?
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.
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Can I download the GIS parcel 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.
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What about privacy concerns?
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.
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What is the Parcel Identification?
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).
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Multiple cards or parcels shown?
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.
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How about mineral parcel maps?
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.
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Is my property in a flood zone?
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
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What if my E-911 address is wrong?
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.
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Difference of Deeded and Calc Acreage?
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.
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How many acres make up my property?
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.
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Are Delinquent Lands on the Viewer?
Yes. The Delinquent Lands are updated weekly on the WV Property Viewer 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.
The web map service for Delinquent Lands can be found here.