Moultrie County, IL Property Records: Search Deeds, Owners, Tax Records, and Maps

Property records in Moultrie County are split across three offices serving a mid-size county with Sullivan as the seat. The County Clerk doubles as Recorder of Deeds. The Supervisor of Assessments handles parcel data and the Treasurer handles tax bills.

The county is located in east-central Illinois farmland with its housing stock concentrated in Sullivan, Bethany, Lovington, and Arthur. Arthur borders one of the largest Amish settlements in the Midwest. Properties in Moultrie County average 70 to 100 days on the market, pacing slightly behind the statewide average. While single-family detached homes comprise the majority of the inventory, the rural market also includes manufactured homes and a few multi-family properties.

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How to Look Up Moultrie County Property Records

You can look up property records through three distinct resources. The Moultrie County Assessment Office portal provides parcel data and assessed valuations, while recorded deeds and land records can be searched online through the Clerk and Recorder’s Office online platform. Meanwhile, the Treasurer and Collector's portal (utilizing the Fike & Fike property tax platform) offers direct access to real estate tax bills and payment records.

For physical copies of deeds and other recorded land documents, contact the County Clerk and Recorder’s Office at (217) 728-4389 or visit the courthouse in Sullivan.

Who Keeps Moultrie County Property Records

In Moultrie County, three elected offices share the property-records workload. The Freedom of Information Act at 5 ILCS 140 governs public access. The Property Tax Code at 35 ILCS 200 governs assessment and collection. Here is how the three offices divide responsibility:

• The Supervisor of Assessments sets assessed values for every parcel, processes the homestead-exemption applications that reduce tax bills, and updates the parcel database the Treasurer relies on.

• The County Clerk and Recorder keeps the searchable index of all recorded property documents in Moultrie County. The County Clerk and Recorder is a single elected office (a common consolidation in lower-volume counties).

• The County Treasurer mails the annual tax bills, processes payments, runs the annual tax sale, and handles redemption from tax buyers.

Moultrie County was organized in 1843 and named for William Moultrie, the Revolutionary War general who defended Fort Sullivan (later named Fort Moultrie) in 1776.

How to Search Moultrie County Property Records Online

When you research a property in Moultrie County, plan to consult three separate portals, one for each of the offices that hold part of the record. Run them in this order and you will have a complete picture in minutes:

1. Open the Supervisor of Assessments portal. Search by address, by owner last name, or by PIN if you have it. The result shows ownership, assessed value, sales history, exemption status, and the property's class designation under 35 ILCS 200.

2. Move to the Treasurer's office portal. You will find tax bills, payment history, and taxing-district breakdowns here. Delinquent parcels are also clearly flagged.

3. For deeds and other recorded documents, use the County Clerk and Recorder's search. Most Moultrie County searches accept grantor name, grantee name, document number, PIN, or date range. Some counties offer free guest access. Others use Tapestry or Laredo for paid full access.

4. Build the chain of title by starting at the current deed and tracing back. Each grantor in the chain should match the grantee on the previous deed. Gaps usually mean missing records that a title company will need to research.

5. For parcel mapping, the county GIS portal is the source. Layers include parcels, zoning, school districts, voting precincts, and floodplains. Aerial imagery is usually available at multiple recent dates.

Assessor: Ownership, Values, and Parcel Data

The Supervisor of Assessments office values every parcel in Moultrie County. For homeowners, the relevant output is the equalized assessed value, which combined with the local tax rates determines the annual tax bill.

County Clerk and Recorder: Deeds, Mortgages, and Liens

The County Clerk and Recorder’s office is the public registry for title documents in Moultrie County. The office records, indexes, and makes available every deed, mortgage, lien, and related instrument affecting real property in the county.

Treasurer: Tax Bills and Payments

Tax-bill work in Moultrie County runs through the Treasurer's office. The office bills property taxes annually, accepts payments, conducts the annual tax sale, and handles owner redemptions after a sale.

Property Tax in Moultrie County: Rates, Exemptions, and Appeals

Property tax in Moultrie County works the same way as in most Illinois counties. A third-of-market-value assessment ratio, state equalization, statutory exemptions, then a stack of taxing-district rates. The local detail is in which exemption tiers apply and what the township assessor structure looks like.

Homestead exemptions

Several homestead exemptions reduce the equalized assessed value before the tax rates apply. These are the most commonly used in Moultrie County:

• General Homestead Exemption: Up to $6,000 EAV reduction for owner-occupied homes (35 ILCS 200/15-175). Moultrie County uses the baseline tier (applicable in most Illinois counties) under the three-tier statutory structure.

• Senior Homestead Exemption: Up to $5,000 EAV reduction for owners 65 and older under 35 ILCS 200/15-170.

• Senior Citizens Assessment Freeze: Freezes assessed value at a base year for seniors with household income at or below $75,000 (indexed to CPI from 2026).

• Disabled Veterans Standard Homestead: Tiered by VA disability rating. $2,500 EAV at 30-49%, $5,000 at 50-69%, full exemption at 70% plus.

• Persons with Disabilities and Home Improvement: $2,000 EAV reduction for permanent disability and a separate four-year exemption shielding up to $75,000 of improvement value.

Appealing an assessment

The Illinois two-step appeal process applies in Moultrie County. The Board of Review hears the first round (30-day filing window after the notice). The Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board hears the second round of appeals from the Board's decision.

GIS Maps and Parcel Viewer

Moultrie County maintains a GIS portal layering parcels, zoning, school districts, voting precincts, and floodplains over recent aerial imagery. The viewer is web-based, and most layers download as shapefiles.

• County GIS portal: The county's web GIS layers parcels, zoning, and floodplains with recent aerial imagery for Moultrie County.

• Illinois Geological Survey clearinghouse: The state-level ISGS clearinghouse hosts statewide layers including soil, hydrology, and DEM data.

Foreclosure and the Annual Tax Sale

Two distinct foreclosure-style processes affect Moultrie County property. Mortgage foreclosures are judicial in Illinois. These run through the Circuit Court under 735 ILCS 5/15-1101.Tax-delinquency foreclosures run through the Treasurer's annual tax sale under 35 ILCS 200, Article 21.

Annual tax sale

Each year, the Treasurer publishes a list of tax-delinquent parcels and conducts a public tax sale. Buyers bid the penalty rate down from 9%. The lowest rate wins. The winning buyer gets a tax certificate (a lien claim, not title).

Right of redemption

Owners get a redemption window of roughly two and a half years under 35 ILCS 200/21-345. To redeem, the owner pays the original taxes plus the bid penalty rate (compounding every six months) plus buyer costs and subsequent-year tax payments.

Scavenger sales

Scavenger sales target properties three or more years tax-delinquent that do not sell at the regular annual sale. The sale runs biennially. The bidding format differs from the annual sale. Bidders submit cash bids on the lien rather than competing on interest rate.

Costs to Access Property Records

Looking up Moultrie County property records online is free across all three county offices. Fees apply when you need a copy of a recorded document or are filing a new document for recording.

Illinois moved most counties to a single flat fee per document class in 2019. Moultrie County operates under that Predictable Fee Schedule, codified at 55 ILCS 5/3-5018.1. Non-conforming documents – wrong paper, wrong margins, missing data – incur the doubled penalty fee.

Property transfers in Moultrie County pay two transfer taxes. These comprise a state tax ($0.50 per $500 of consideration) and a county tax ($0.25 per $500). Chicago and a few of its suburbs add a municipal transfer tax. However, most municipalities do not.

How to Record a Document

Document recording in Moultrie County follows four steps. The path applies whether you are filing a deed, mortgage release, lien, or any other instrument affecting title:

1. Verify the document is properly formatted. Under 55 ILCS 5/3-5018.2, documents need 8.5"x11" white paper at 20-lb or better, black ink only, half-inch margins all around, and a blank 3"x5" space in the upper-right corner of page one for the recording stamp.

2. Calculate the recording fee from the county's Predictable Fee Schedule. Non-conforming documents are charged double under 55 ILCS 5/3-5018.1, so making sure your document meets formatting requirements saves money.

3. For property-transfer documents, complete the PTAX-203 through Illinois MyDec before filing. The MyDec submission produces a stamp number that goes on the deed. Moultrie County participates in MyDec like all Illinois counties.

4. File at the County Clerk and Recorder in person at 10 S Main St, Suite 6, Sullivan, IL 61951, by mail with check or money order, or via an e-recording vendor (Simplifile and CSC handle most Moultrie County electronic filings). Recording typically completes within two to three business days.

The recording number assigned by the office becomes the permanent locator for the document. Note that any future title search or document copy request uses this number as the primary lookup key.

FAQs

Quick Reference: Your Moultrie County Property Records Checklist

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