How to Find out Who Owns a Property

It may be necessary to find out who owns a property for a number of reasons – e.g. you might be interested in purchasing it, renting it, or you might want  to carry out an activity on the property (e.g. hunting), and thus wish to seek the owner’s permission before you do so. Whatever the reason, locating the owner of a property might seem like a difficult task. However, this is not the case, and there are a number of resources and options available to you should you need to find out who owns a particular property.

Contact the town hall

This is the easiest and most obvious way to find out who owns a property. Contact the town hall in the area in which the property in question is located, and ask to be connected to the city clerk’s or assessor’s office. Once you are linked to either of these offices, you may inquire about the location of the town’s property rolls list. You should also make sure you have the address of the property in question, so you can easily locate it.

Search online

One of the most valuable research tools out there, the internet is a great source of information if you are looking to find out who owns a particular property. Visit the website of the city in which the property in question is located – this will generally have a list of list of assessed properties. Access the list by typing phrases like “tax assessor” or “property tax” into the search bar of the website.

Browse through auditor materials

A local library or the city hall can provide you access to auditor materials, which will prove useful in your search for the owner of a property. Look through available voting records, or census findings, in order to find the name of the owner of the property.

Hire an investigation agency or a commercial search company

At times, owners’ names are not easily available, or present in city records, because the owner does not want his/her information to be public. In this case, you can hire an investigation agency or a commercial search company to get the job done – however, keep in mind that these agencies will charge fees for their services, whether they end up finding the required information or not. Consider a couple of agencies and companies, and compare their rates and fees before you settle on one.