Property Records

Property records are official documents that establish ownership, value, and legal history for a piece of real estate. In Allegheny County, these records include deeds, mortgages, property assessment cards, owner history, tax information, and building details such as square footage and construction year.

Appraisers play a key role in this system by determining a property’s assessed value, which affects how much the owner pays in taxes. Allegheny County’s Office of Property Assessments handles this valuation process, and property owners can access their assessment records to review tax information, comparable properties, and appeal status through the county’s Real Estate Portal.
Property transfers and liens are also an important part of the record-keeping process. When a property changes hands, the transfer is documented and recorded with the Division of Real Estate. Liens—legal claims against a property due to unpaid debts—are similarly recorded and can affect a property’s marketability until resolved. Anyone searching property records should check for outstanding liens before entering into a transaction, since unresolved claims can complicate or delay a sale.

What Are Deeds and How to Look Them Up

A deed is the legal document that transfers ownership of real property from one party to another. It outlines who owns a property and often provides a history of previous transfers. Deeds are essential for confirming legal ownership and are required whenever a property is sold, gifted, or inherited.

Allegheny County maintains deed records dating back to 1914, including both deed indexes and imaged deeds. You can search these records for free through the county’s Land Records Database, regardless of the date range you’re searching.You can access the Land Record Database and search by name or document type to find the indexed record, then view the imaged deed itself. For historical deeds dating from 1792 to 1857, the county also offers a separate Historical Search tool at no charge for search and images. Casual users with a credit card are charged $1.00 per page for the first 10 pages of a document, with no charge for additional pages beyond that. Commercial users with a draw-down account pay 50 cents per page for the first 10 pages, also with no cost for pages beyond the tenth.

Costs and Methods for Obtaining Property Records

Pricing for property records in Allegheny County varies depending on the type of document and how you access it. For property assessment records, hard copies cost $0.25 per page for standard property record cards and historical record cards. Assessment records from 1994 to 1999 cost $5.00, while older records (1989–1993) run $7.50, and anything prior to 1989 is $10.00 per record. All hard copy purchases are subject to 7% tax, payable by cash or check.