Two Ways to Approach Property Lines in Alabama
There are two ways to research your property lines in Alabama: using public records and GIS tools to get an approximate picture, or hiring a licensed Professional Land Surveyor to establish the legal boundary. The right approach depends on what you need the information for.
For general reference, such as understanding roughly where your land sits or identifying parcel neighbors, public tools work well. For anything with legal consequence, including fence placement, building a structure near the lot line, or resolving a dispute, only a survey by a licensed Alabama PLS provides a legally binding answer.
Alabama Parcel Map and GIS Resources
Alabama has several online resources for researching property parcels. None of these replace a survey, but they give you a useful starting point.
Alabama Maps (University of Alabama GIS)
The Alabama Maps portal at the University of Alabama (alabamamaps.ua.edu) provides a statewide GIS viewer with parcel data sourced from county assessors. You can search by address or parcel number and see approximate parcel boundaries overlaid on aerial imagery. Coverage and accuracy vary by county.
County Revenue Commissioner Websites
Each Alabama county has a Revenue Commissioner (or equivalent) who maintains property tax records. Many counties provide online property search tools that show parcel maps, assessed values, and owner information. In Jefferson County, the Jefferson County GIS viewer is one of the more detailed county-level tools in the state. Madison County, Mobile County, and Montgomery County all have parcel search tools on their respective county websites.
County Probate Office Records
Alabama records deeds and plats with the county probate judge. Visiting the probate office or accessing their online records portal gives you access to the actual deed descriptions and any recorded subdivision plats. Plat books show subdivision lot dimensions. For properties described by metes and bounds rather than lot-and-block, the deed itself contains the boundary description.
Many Alabama probate offices have digitized records going back several decades. Older records may only be available in physical books at the courthouse.
Alabama OneStop Online Portal
The state's online services portal includes links to various state and county records. For property research, the most useful path is usually through the county-level resources rather than state-level tools.
How to Read Your Alabama Deed
Before relying on GIS maps, pull your actual deed from the county probate records. The deed contains the legal description of your property, which is the authoritative source for your boundary.
Alabama deeds use three main description types:
- Lot and block: References a subdivision plat recorded with the probate court. Example: “Lot 14, Block 3, Sunset Hills Subdivision, as recorded in Plat Book 22, Page 47, Jefferson County Probate Records.” You find the plat book to see the lot dimensions.
- Metes and bounds: Describes the boundary using distances and bearings from a starting point. Example: “Beginning at an iron pin at the southeast corner of the tract, thence North 45 degrees East 200 feet...” These require a surveyor to translate into physical markers on the ground.
- Section, township, and range: Used in rural areas under the Public Land Survey System. References a specific section of land within a township and range grid. A surveyor can locate the section corners, which are established federal monuments.
Finding Physical Monuments on Your Property
Prior surveys leave physical markers called monuments at property corners. In Alabama, these are most often iron rebar or pipes driven into the ground, sometimes topped with a surveyor's cap showing the firm name and license number. They may also be concrete monuments set flush with the ground.
Search the corners of your lot, especially where fence lines change direction or where the driveway meets the street. A metal detector helps find buried iron pins. If you are in an older neighborhood, prior survey markers may have been disturbed by construction, landscaping, or other activity over the years.
When GIS Maps Are Not Enough
Online parcel maps are drawn from tax records, not surveys. They are useful for general reference but often have inaccuracies ranging from a few inches to several feet. In Alabama's older neighborhoods and rural areas, GIS parcel lines can be significantly off from where the legal boundary actually sits.
Do not build a fence, install a permanent structure, or take legal action based on a GIS map alone. If the legal boundary matters for your situation, commission a survey from a licensed Alabama PLS. Our Alabama land surveyor directory lists licensed professionals by county, all sourced from ALBPELS records.