Monroe County WV Tax Map: Parcel ID, Viewer, and Corrections

Monroe County, WV tax maps are parcel drawings kept by the county assessor to track ownership, boundaries, and assessed value for property tax purposes. You can view them free online through the state’s WV Property Viewer and WV Property Assessment portals, or inspect the authoritative hard copies at the assessor’s office in Union. Before you rely on anything you find, know this: the parcel lines on a tax map are not legal property boundaries.

Searching Monroe County Parcels Online

West Virginia runs two free lookup tools, both built by the WV Property Tax Division and the WV GIS Technical Center from the same underlying assessment data. The WV Property Assessment portal at mapwv.gov/assessment is a text-based search. The WV Property Viewer at mapwv.gov/parcel puts parcels on an interactive map.¹² Neither requires an account.

On the Property Assessment page, select Monroe County and search by full parcel ID, owner name, map number, parcel number, street name, property class, or tax class. Check the boxes for “Display legal description” or “Display GIS parcel ID” if you want those fields included in your results.³

On the Property Viewer, you can type an address in E-911 format (street address, city, state — no PO boxes or rural routes), or open Parcel Attributes for Monroe County and search by full parcel ID, parcel number, owner name entered as LASTNAME FIRSTNAME, or property address. A geometry search lets you drop a point, rectangle, or polygon on the map with a buffer distance and return every parcel inside it.²

If you don’t have the parcel ID, owner name or street address will get you there in a few seconds. The full ID gives the fastest exact match.

Reading the Monroe County Parcel ID

Every parcel in the county carries a six-part Root Parcel ID separated by hyphens: county code, district code, map number, parcel prefix, parcel suffix, and special ID. A full string looks like 31-05-0007-0031-0015-0000. County and district codes are numeric; the other four elements are alphanumeric.² You’ll find this number printed on your tax receipt and on any recorded deed.

The final segment, the special ID, is where severed interests get flagged. In Monroe County, as across much of Appalachia, mineral rights and surface rights often belong to different owners, and that sixth element is how the system keeps them straight. If your receipt shows a sub-parcel designation, look at the end of the ID.

What the Viewer Shows for Each Parcel

Click any parcel polygon and the Basic Information panel pulls up owner name, physical address, property class, legal description, and community information. The Detail Information panel breaks that out further into six sections: description, property owner, physical address, building information, cost values, and appraised values.²

The appraised and cost figures reflect West Virginia’s assessment standard: property is valued annually as of July 1 at 60 percent of its true and actual value, meaning the price it would fetch in a normal voluntary sale rather than a forced one.⁴ If the acreage shown doesn’t match your deed, or the record still lists a structure you tore down, that error is flowing straight into your tax bill.

A Draw/Measure tool lets you sketch polygons, lines, or points to estimate area, distance, and coordinates, add buffers, and label your drawings. Useful for rough planning. Not a substitute for a survey.

Layers Worth Turning On

The Layers panel groups overlays into property parcels and tax districts, address labels, flood zones, and reference layers such as USGS quadrangle indexes, streams, WV DOT highway routes, and survey marks. Toggling the flood zone layer is worth doing before you buy or build, though for insurance or permitting decisions you should verify against FEMA’s National Flood Hazard Layer, which lets you search by address and download a full Flood Insurance Rate Map or a smaller FIRMette.²⁵ Satellite basemap views help you see tree cover, structures, and terrain that don’t show up on a street map.

Tax Maps Are Not Legal Boundaries

Read this before you plan anything based on what you see. The WV Property Viewer states plainly that “the parcels represented here are for property tax assessment purposes only and do not represent legal boundaries of property,” and the state disclaims liability for anyone relying on the maps for other purposes.²

Assessors draw parcel lines as a best-fit visualization built from deed descriptions and existing surveys. It is an approximation of how properties relate to each other, not a determination of who owns what. Building a fence, siting a structure near a line, settling a dispute with a neighbor, or closing on land all require a boundary survey from a licensed professional surveyor. Skipping that step in favor of the tax map is how encroachment claims, setback violations, and title problems start.

Getting Records from the Assessor in Union

The Monroe County Assessor maintains the authoritative physical tax maps. The office is at 350 Main Street, Union, WV 24983, reachable at 304-772-3096 ext. 2, open Monday through Friday from 8:30 AM to 4:20 PM.⁶ You can walk in to inspect hard-copy tax maps or request reproductions, and you can call ahead to have specific map pages pulled for pickup. Fees vary by document size, so confirm pricing when you call.

Physical copies from the assessor carry more weight than a screenshot when you’re filing a building permit application or working through a discrepancy in recorded acreage. If you submit a formal written records request under West Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act, the custodian has five business days (excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays) to either produce the records, tell you when and where you can inspect them, or issue a written denial with reasons.⁷

Fixing an Error on the Tax Map

Start with a phone call or visit to the assessor. Clerical problems, outdated owner names, wrong square footage, buildings that no longer exist, often get corrected informally. If that doesn’t resolve it, the formal appeal path has two levels, and both are governed by hard deadlines.

Board of Equalization and Review

The Monroe County Commission sits as the Board of Equalization and Review starting no later than February 1 of the tax year. The board examines property descriptions and valuations, corrects errors, and enforces the 60-percent standard, adjusting assessments up or down where needed. No assessment can be increased without at least five days’ written notice to the taxpayer. The board cannot recess more than three business days at a time, may adjourn as early as February 15, and must finish by the last day of February. If you don’t apply for relief during that window, you waive the right to challenge the assessment for that year through the board.⁸

Office of Tax Appeals

If the board doesn’t fix it, or if you missed the board entirely, you can petition the state Office of Tax Appeals. The petition must be filed by March 31 of the property tax year, and missing that date gets the case dismissed. Review at this level is de novo, meaning the Office of Tax Appeals looks at the matter fresh rather than deferring to the board’s findings, and you carry the burden of proof by a preponderance of the evidence. Skipping the Board of Equalization and Review does not bar the Office of Tax Appeals from hearing your case, but going through the board first gives you an earlier informal shot and builds a record if you have to escalate.⁹

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WV Property Assessment. WV Property Assessment
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WV Property Viewer. WV Property Viewer
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WV Real Estate Assessment. Property Search – WV Real Estate Assessment
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West Virginia Legislature. West Virginia Code 11-3-1
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FEMA.gov. Flood Data Viewers and Geospatial Data
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Monroe County West Virginia. Assessor’s Office
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West Virginia Legislature. West Virginia Code 29B-1-3
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West Virginia Legislature. West Virginia Code 11-3-24
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West Virginia Legislature. West Virginia Code 11-3-25B