Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

http://letmegooglethatforyou.com/?q=find+the+owner+of+record+for+real+property+in+california

Usually a good way to start is to contact the tax assessor's office for the county the property is in, and then give them the address or parcel number. They will be able to give you the owner of their tax records, which is most often, but not always, the owner of record.

"Owner of record" means owner as shown in the official records of the county recorder. Since the records are indexed by name, it is easier to start with a person's name and find property they own than to start with an address or parcel number and determine the record owner. However, it can be done. One starting point would be tax assessor records, as Mr. Roach suggests.

In some counties, but not all, more recent records are cross-indexed with parcel numbers or even street addresses and searchable that way, on computer terminals at the recorder's office. Not every county is that up-to-date, and the computer data base may not go back enough years.

Finally, many lawyers have access to public records at their desks by virtue of subscribing to (expensive) private data-base services such as WestLaw. Counties are forbidden by law to put their records on the Internet.