Dodge County Property Desciption Office

The Property Description Office was created on November 13, 1947 by the Dodge County Board. The Department's Supervisor is the Dodge County Land Resources and Parks Director. The Property Description Office was merged with the County Surveyors Office on November 5, 1980. The Property Description Office was transferred from the Survey and Description Office to the Register of Deeds Office in 1997. The Property Description Office was merged from the Register of Deeds Office to the Land Resources and Parks Department in 2006. The staff is under the supervision of the Land Resources and Parks Department and includes David Addison, Senior Land Information Specialist (1993); Sue Boda, Property Listing Specialist (1977); and Terre Woodward, Property Listing Assistant (1983).

Dodge County has a total land area of approximately 892 square miles. It consists of twenty-four (24) townships, eleven (11) villages, and nine (9) cities, of which a portion of one village and some cities lie in adjacent counties. A portion of the Village of Randolph lies in Columbia County. The majority of the City of Columbus lies in Columbia County. The majority of the City of Hartford lies in Washington County. A portion of the City of Watertown lies in Jefferson County. A portion of the City of Waupun lies in Fond du Lac County. In 2002, Dodge County is maintaining 43,958 real estate parcels and approximately 2,500 personal property accounts. The City of Watertown is the only municipality that maintains its own assessment rolls and tax maps.

Tax mapping is under the direction of the Survey Department. We currently have digital maps for municipalities. Due to an accelerated mapping program to convert all maps to a digital form, they are in varying degrees of accuracy.

The functions of this office fall mainly under Section 70.09 of the Wisconsin Statutes, which spells out the responsibilities and duties of a Real Property Lister. The key responsibility being "To prepare and maintain accurate ownership and description information for all parcels of real estate in the county" as stated in Section 70.09. This activity is carried out in cooperation with the individual assessors of each of the twenty-four (24) townships, eleven (11) villages, and nine (9) cities.

Information such as assessed values of real estate and improvements and personal property values along with school district and special districts are kept and maintained on each parcel. Also information concerning changes in ownership, property splits, address changes, recording information of deeds, parcel history and legal descriptions are also maintained. We are able to access this information if provided an owner's name, property address or Parcel Identification Number (PIN). More specific information on individual parcels (such as square footage of building, date built, etc.) may be available from the individual assessors.