Somerset County Property Records

Somerset County property records are filed with the Circuit Court Clerk in Princess Anne and date back to 1665, making this one of the oldest recording jurisdictions in all of Maryland. The county sits on the lower Eastern Shore between the Chesapeake Bay and the Virginia line, and its land records reflect centuries of waterfront and rural property activity.

Circuit Court Clerk - Somerset County

Charles T. Horner serves as the Circuit Court Clerk for Somerset County. The clerk's office at 30512 Prince William Street in Princess Anne handles all land record filings, deed recordings, and document requests. The office can pull records going back to 1665. That is not a typo. Somerset County has one of the deepest deed archives in Maryland, and staff can help locate older documents that may have been microfilmed or digitized by the State Archives.

The office phone number is (410) 845-4840. Spanish language assistance is available at this location. That is a practical resource for residents and property owners who are more comfortable working in Spanish. If you need to request documents, have the property address or parcel number ready before you call. The clerk can also help you understand what forms you need before you come in for a recording appointment.

The Somerset County visitor information site has background on the Circuit Court and local services. Visit Somerset's court listing has contact details and directions to the courthouse.

The courthouse on Prince William Street is easy to find in the center of Princess Anne. Parking is available nearby.

Multi-Step Pre-Recording Process

Somerset County requires contact with three separate offices before a deed can be recorded. This is not optional. All three offices must sign off on the document before the Circuit Court Clerk will accept it for recording. Missing any one of these steps will result in the deed being turned away. Plan extra time if you are recording a deed in Somerset County.

The three required pre-recording contacts are: the County Treasurer, the Planning Department, and the Sanitary District. Each one reviews the property transfer for its own purposes. The Treasurer checks for outstanding tax balances. The Planning Department reviews zoning and any land use conditions tied to the parcel. The Sanitary District verifies utility account status and any special assessments. You must collect stamps or sign-offs from all three before you bring the deed to the clerk's office.

This multi-step requirement is more involved than what you find in most Maryland counties. If you are working with a title company or settlement attorney in Somerset County, they will typically handle these contacts on your behalf. If you are recording on your own, call the clerk at (410) 845-4840 first to get the current contact info for each department and confirm the order in which to approach them.

Recordation tax in Somerset County is $3.30 per $500 of consideration. That rate applies to the full purchase price or the stated consideration in the deed. The state also imposes a transfer tax of 0.5% of the sale price, reduced to 0.25% for first-time buyers. These amounts are due at the time of recording.

Search Somerset County Property Records Online

Maryland Land Records gives online access to deed books, plats, and other instruments recorded in Somerset County. The main portal is at landrec.msa.maryland.gov. This replaced the old mdlandrec.net site, which now redirects there. You can search by grantor or grantee name, by instrument type, or by date range. Most records from the last several decades are available as scanned images.

The Maryland Land Records portal is free to search, though some documents require a login to view full images. Historical Somerset County records going back to colonial times are also held at the Maryland State Archives in Annapolis. The Archives at msa.maryland.gov has finding aids for older deed books and land grants. Call the Archives at (410) 260-6400 to ask about accessing early Somerset County records.

The portal covers all Maryland counties and lets you narrow your search to Somerset County specifically.

PLATS.net also covers Somerset County for plat maps and survey documents. Log in with username plato and password plato# at plats.net to access plat images. This is a separate resource from the deed index and is useful when you need to see lot boundaries or subdivision layouts for Somerset County parcels.

Property Assessment in Somerset County

The Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation handles property valuations for Somerset County. SDAT assigns each parcel a value every three years as part of the state's triennial assessment cycle. The local SDAT office can be reached at the main state line: (410) 767-1184. You can also email sdat.411@maryland.gov with questions about Somerset County assessments.

The SDAT Real Property search at dat.maryland.gov lets you look up any Somerset County parcel by address, account number, or parcel ID. Note that SDAT does not search by owner name. Use the address or account number instead. The search results show the assessed value, land use code, ownership record, and legal description.

Select Somerset County (SDAT code 20) from the county dropdown before searching.

Somerset County property owners can appeal their assessment within 45 days of receiving the assessment notice. The appeal goes to the local Property Tax Assessment Appeals Board. If you miss that window, you can still file an appeal at the next triennial review. Homestead tax credit applications and Homeowners Property Tax Credit applications are also handled through SDAT. These credits can significantly reduce the tax bill for owner-occupied homes in Somerset County.

Under Maryland Real Property Article § 3-101, all deeds and instruments conveying an interest in real property must be recorded. Under § 8-703, transfer tax applies at the time of recording. Both statutes govern how property records are created and what fees are due in Somerset County.

Historical Land Records in Somerset County

Few counties in Maryland can match Somerset's depth of recorded history. Land records begin in 1665, which predates most American institutions. These early records document land grants, colonial-era transfers, and the original surveys of the lower Eastern Shore. The Maryland State Archives in Annapolis holds microfilm and digital copies of the earliest Somerset County deed books.

The University of Maryland Eastern Shore is located in Princess Anne. The campus has resources related to local and regional history, some of which touch on land ownership patterns in Somerset County. For researchers looking into historic titles or family land claims, combining the State Archives holdings with the court clerk's older deed books can provide a fairly complete chain of title going back several centuries. This kind of deep historical record is rare and valuable for title work on older properties in Somerset County.

Waterfront parcels along the Chesapeake Bay and Tangier Sound appear frequently in the historical record. Many of these tracts were laid out in the 17th and 18th centuries and have been subdivided multiple times since. Understanding the chain of title on waterfront land in Somerset County often requires pulling original grant documents from the Archives alongside the more recent deed books at the courthouse.

Cities in Somerset County

Somerset County is a rural county on Maryland's lower Eastern Shore. Princess Anne is the county seat and home to the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. Other communities include Crisfield and Deal Island. No cities in Somerset County meet the population threshold for a dedicated page. All property filings for the entire county are handled by the Circuit Court Clerk in Princess Anne.

Nearby Counties

Somerset County borders two other Maryland counties on the Eastern Shore. Both have Circuit Court Clerks that handle property records under the same Maryland state framework.