General Information
Maricopa County's Web Site
On-Line Access

General Information

The Maricopa County Recorder's Office is among the most advanced offices in the country with respect to automation and on-line information.  Like many County Recorder offices, Maricopa County handles real estate instruments such as warranty deeds, release of mortgage, notice of bulk sale, tax liens, and affidavits.

What is typically done at the recorder’s office:

• if the document meets the form requirements, is complete, and the proper fees have been paid, it is accepted and made a matter of permanent public record.
• the Microfilm department films and optically scans the document.
• the data entry department will key in the pertinent information to create an index so that you may locate this document in the future.
• the original document will be returned to the address typed on the document.
• if the original document is ever lost or misplaced, a certified copy may be obtained.

In addition, Maricopa County began implementing electronic digital recording in August 1999.  This enables the Recorder's Office to reduce recording and processing time.

Maricopa County Web Site

The Maricopa County Recorder's Office web site provides a plat map finder.  In order to use the plat map finder, you need to know Book, Page, and Sheet to find the plat you want to view.  The results display a TIF or .PDF file of a plat for the areas searched.

The example plat map on Maricopa County's plat map finder page includes the information shown in the left column of the table below, and corresponds to Cadastral Data Content Standard entities and attributes shown in the right column.  To look at the example plat map referred to in the table below, open a new window in your browser, go to Maricopa County's plat map finder page, and choose Book 457, Page 20.
 

In all, seventeen Cadastral Data Content Standard attributes are found to correspond with information found on the Maricopa County plat map.  This illustrates the following:

1. The Cadastral Data Content Standard offers a significant range of definitions and terminology which may be used for data commonly used by cadastral information professionals.
2. There are likely to be some attributes in the Standard which your data does not cover.   For example, the Maricopa County plat map does not contain information pertaining to the Cadastral Standard entity known as Corner Point.
3. Likewise, there are likely to be elements in your data which have no correspondence to the Standard.  For example, the Maricopa County plat map includes street names, which are not attributes in the Cadastral Standard.
4. If Maricopa County, and neighboring Yavapai, Mojave, and Yuma counties choose to make use of the Standard, then these counties could potentially make use of up to 17 of the Cadastral Standard's attributes to link their data --- which would be especially useful when searching for, linking, and mapping ownership and rights information along county boundaries.

On-Line Access To Recorded Documents

The general public can access recorded documents at Maricopa County Recorder's Office by mean of on-line searches, using such search criteria as: Recording Number, Name, a wide range of Document Codes, Beginning Date, and Ending Date.  Go to the search page for Maricopa County Recorder's Office Recorder's Document Information System to see how that works.

In addition, official documents can be viewed by setting up an account with the Recorder's Office.  The Recorder's Office also sets up accounts for other County Departments.