Lots & Parcel 101
Lot or parcel? What's the difference?
1 min 52 s · captions available
The short answer
Lot
How the land was divided
A lot is created by a subdivision plat, a surveyed map recorded with the county's Circuit Court. It gives each piece a lot number, often a block, and exact lines, so a deed can say “Lot 4, Block B” of a named subdivision.
Parcel
How it's assessed and mapped
A parcel comes from the tax side. The Department of Assessments and Taxation values property by account (more than two million statewide), and each one sits on a tax map, found by map, grid, and parcel number.
How they fit together
One lot, one parcel
The most common case: a platted lot assessed as one property.
Two lots, one account
A house built across two lots can be assessed as a single property.
One parcel, many lots
A new subdivision plat can divide one parcel into lots, each with its own account.
A parcel with no lot
Land that was never subdivided. Its deed describes the boundary instead.
Questions
- Is a lot the same as a parcel?
- Often they cover the same land, but they come from different records. A lot is created by a recorded subdivision plat and is how deeds describe platted land. A parcel is how the state's tax maps and assessment records identify property.
- What is a subdivision plat?
- A surveyed map showing how a tract of land is divided into lots, with lot numbers, often blocks, and exact boundary lines. In Maryland, a plat becomes official when it is recorded with the county's Circuit Court. Recorded plats are kept in county land records and online through PLATS.NET from the Maryland State Archives.
- What do map, grid, and parcel mean?
- They locate a property on a Maryland tax map. The map number is the tax map sheet, the grid is the square on that map, and the parcel number identifies the property shown there. Tax maps are produced by the Maryland Department of Planning (Baltimore City uses ward, section, block, and lot instead).
- Can one property include more than one lot?
- Yes. A house built across two lots can be one assessment account, and its legal description lists both lots.
- Where can I look up a Maryland property?
- The state's Real Property Data Search, run by the Department of Assessments and Taxation, shows each account's map, grid, and parcel and, for platted land, the subdivision, block, and lot. Lots & Parcel builds on the same public records for every parcel in your town.
See every parcel in your town
Lots & Parcel starts from the parcel record: every assessment account in your town, drawn on one map, with a sourced reason behind every flag.
Sources
- Maryland SDAT: Real Property glossary (lot, block, parcel, map, grid, plat)
- Maryland SDAT: Real Property Data Search
- Maryland State Archives: PLATS.NET, recorded plats
- Maryland Department of Planning: property maps
General information, not legal advice. Local zoning codes may define “lot” more precisely for building purposes.