Franklin County, Maine Property Records

Franklin County, Maine, has 17 towns, along with three plantations, Salem Township, and various unorganized townships. In Franklin County, ME, property records are an authoritative reference that facilitates real estate dealings, tax assessments, and municipality development.

Recent Franklin County property records show a median home value of $188,106 and a median rent cost of $705 against the median household earning of $51,418. The records also reveal that the county levies a median property tax of 1.06% of a property's assessed fair market value.

Property records in Franklin County, ME, are managed by the  Registry of Deeds. Their records include deeds, leases, mortgages, liens, plats, and more. The Registry's office dockets them according to the names involved, legal description, recorded date, instrument type, and book/page reference.

The Registry houses documents from 1838, which the public can access and duplicate by visiting the office at 140 Main St., Suite 5, Farmington, ME, during regular office hours. Viewing and downloading the documents from the statewide  Official Land Records Website is also an option.

The online database includes documents and indices from 1983 to the present. Indices from 1838 to 1982 were also digitized and added to the database in their original format. The public can search the records by name to view the original index pages. Remember to choose the non-subscriber option when printing or downloading unless one prefers to be billed monthly as a subscriber.

The fees associated with procuring documents in Franklin County vary. In-house documents are priced at $1 per page, while electronic copies range from $0.05 to $0.50 per page, depending on the number of copies needed. Meanwhile, when the Registry staff prepares the copies for faxing, e-mailing, or mailing, the charge is $1 per page, with an extra $1 for the service.

For zoning verification, note that there is no centralized office overseeing the zoning in Franklin County. Thus, one must refer to the local offices to verify zoning information reflected in the Registry's records. For additional reference, the  Maine Land Use and Planning Commission provides statewide digital zoning data accessible from the  Maine Geolibrary Board Open Portal.