Transaction Coordinator in Elizabethtown, PA.

What we handle on an Elizabethtown file

Elizabethtown is not one jurisdiction. A property with an Elizabethtown mailing address can sit in Elizabethtown Borough, West Donegal Township, Mount Joy Township, or Conoy Township, and the rental rules, the sewage rules, and the utility billing all change at the line. The Borough runs its own sewer and trash billing, the two townships use a regional sewer authority, and all of them use a fourth authority for water. Once your deal is ratified, PLS builds and manages the file in KW Command, tracks every deadline and contingency, routes documents for signature, and coordinates with lender, title, attorneys, and the co-op agent. See the full transaction coordination service for the complete scope, the Lancaster County page for countywide notes, and the Pennsylvania overview for statewide ones.

Realty transfer tax in the Elizabethtown area: 2.0 percent

Elizabethtown Borough and West Donegal Township are each a clean 2.0 percent: 1 percent to the Commonwealth and 1 percent local, split evenly between the municipality and the Elizabethtown Area School District. Each municipal ordinance imposes 1 percent on its face (Borough Chapter 24 Part 1, West Donegal Chapter 210 Article I, Mount Joy Chapter 123 Article IV), and section 311 of the Local Tax Enabling Act halves a duplicated levy where the municipality and the school district both impose one. That is what produces the 0.5 and 0.5 on the settlement statement. Conoy Township is reported at the same 2.0 percent on the Commonwealth's DCED municipal tax register, but we have not located a Conoy transfer tax ordinance to confirm it against, so treat that one as reported rather than verified and check it with the Recorder before it goes on a settlement statement.

Mount Joy Township is the one to confirm, not assume

We are not publishing a Mount Joy Township transfer tax figure, because the sources disagree. The Commonwealth's DCED municipal tax register reports the township at 1 percent municipal plus 1 percent school district for 2026, while the township's own ordinance imposes 1 percent on its face and the Local Tax Enabling Act halving provision would put it at 0.5 and 0.5, which is how Elizabethtown Borough, West Donegal, and Conoy are all reported. On a Mount Joy Township file we confirm the rate with the Lancaster County Recorder of Deeds at 717-299-8238 or the township at 717-367-8917 before anything goes on a settlement statement, and so should you. A rate chart that gives you a confident Mount Joy number is guessing.

Recording a deed: Lancaster County

The Lancaster County Recorder of Deeds sits at 150 North Queen Street, Suite 315, Lancaster, 717-299-8238. The posted deed fee is $71.25 for a deed of up to four pages, each additional page $2.00, certifications $10.00, copies $0.25 per page. The office is open 8:30 to 5:00 with all recordings concluding at 4:30, and it does not issue refunds.

Two notes. First, the Recorder's site labels its downloadable fee bill as not yet updated for the Act 45 of 2025 increase to the Judicial Computer Project fee, which moved that component from $40.25 to $41.25. The two documents resolve each other: the stale PDF shows a deed at $70.25 and the live fee page shows $71.25, exactly the $1.00 difference, so $71.25 is the post-Act 45 figure and it is the PDF that lags. Second, unlike Cumberland, Dauphin, York, and most of the counties around it, Lancaster publishes no UPI certification requirement: there is no UPI page, no UPI fee line, and no mention of it in the published recording requirements. What Lancaster does require is that the tax parcel ID numbers, with the district code, appear on every deed.

The district code is the Elizabethtown-specific trap

Lancaster assigns a district code per municipality and school district combination, and it has to be on the deed with the parcel ID. For this area the codes are 250 Elizabethtown Borough, 160 West Donegal Township, and 130 Conoy Township, all Elizabethtown Area School District. Mount Joy Township has two, because the township contains two school districts: 460 for Upper Mount Joy Township in the Elizabethtown Area School District, and 461 for Lower Mount Joy Township in the Donegal School District. The township describes Cloverleaf Road as essentially the dividing line, Elizabethtown Area to the west and Donegal to the east.

This is not cosmetic. The Recorder's published requirements state that a document covering property in more than one municipality must state the percentage split of local transfer taxes in whole numbers in the document itself, and that if the wrong property location is recited and the wrong transfer tax collected, the customer has to re-record correctly and then chase refunds from the municipality, the school district, and the Commonwealth separately. Getting the district code wrong on a Mount Joy Township deed is an expensive clerical error.

What actually holds up a closing here

Rental licenses do not transfer, and the clock starts at settlement

Elizabethtown Borough Chapter 5 Part 3 section 308 states plainly that a residential rental license is not transferable, and that where a licensed rental unit is sold the new owner must seek a license for each unit and have each unit inspected. Failure to apply within 30 days of the sale results in revocation. Mount Joy Township Chapter 98 section 98-8 says the same thing with a 60 day window, and the township runs long-term rental licensing at $50 per year with inspections every other year, plus short-term lodging permits at $75 per year. West Donegal Township has no rental licensing chapter at all. None of this blocks settlement, which is why it lands on the buyer as a surprise four weeks later.

The Borough transfer-of-ownership restriction

Elizabethtown Borough Chapter 5 Part 1 section 108.6 restricts transfer where there is an open compliance order or notice of violation. An owner in that position may not sell, transfer, or mortgage the property until the violations are corrected, unless the owner furnishes the buyer a copy of the order or notice and then furnishes the Code Official a signed statement from the buyer acknowledging receipt and fully accepting responsibility without condition. Note the second half: an acknowledgment that exists but never reaches the Code Official does not satisfy the section. On any Borough property with code history, that is a document that has to be delivered before settlement, not after.

On-lot sewage in West Donegal Township

West Donegal runs a mandatory three-year pumping program covering any property with a septic system, sand mound, or holding tank, divided into three districts. After a pump-out, a Septic System Report has to be submitted to the township with a $15.00 administrative fee, and haulers must be registered with the township. The transfer obligation is at section 170-67: the seller must provide the new owner with all records concerning maintenance of the system and demonstrate compliance with the article. There is no inspection or certification required as a condition of transfer, but the records are, and reconstructing three years of pumping receipts during the last week of a deal is not fun. Mount Joy Township runs a comparable program at a five-year interval under Chapter 100 Article VI with no transfer trigger at all.

Sump pumps and downspouts, which are an enforcement problem rather than a form

Both sewer systems here are actively chasing stormwater inflow. The Borough states that downspouts or sump pumps connected directly to a sewer lateral are prohibited by ordinance and offers an inspection on request at 717-367-1700. The Elizabethtown Regional Sewer Authority has gone further: it states that it adopted a resolution prohibiting any non-sanitary discharge to its system and imposing financial penalties that increase with each quarter the illegal discharge is not terminated, alongside house inspections to confirm disconnection. Worth reading the date on that one: the Authority's published account of the inspection programme targets a specific drainage area and has not been refreshed in some years, so treat it as a standing prohibition with penalties attached rather than a campaign currently running on your street. There is no sump pump certification document at settlement in any of these three municipalities, unlike Monroe Township over in Cumberland County. What there is, is a buyer inheriting a penalty exposure nobody mentioned.

Utility payoffs come from three or four different offices

This is the single most Elizabethtown-specific thing on this page, and it is where prorations go wrong.

• Water, everywhere: Elizabethtown Area Water Authority, 211 West Hummelstown Street, 717-367-7448, serving over 6,800 customers across the Borough, Mount Joy Township, and West Donegal Township. Quarterly billing. The 2026 structure is a $27.00 per quarter base service charge on a 5/8 inch or 3/4 inch meter plus $9.756 per 1,000 gallons for the first 75,000 gallons.
• Sewer in the Borough: billed by the Borough, combined with trash and recycling on one quarterly bill. Ordinance 1026 sets the residential sewer rate at $132.00 per quarter effective January 1, 2026, and Resolution 2025-25 sets trash and recycling at $344.00 per year billed at $86.00 per quarter.
• Sewer in the townships: Elizabethtown Regional Sewer Authority, 235 Ersa Drive, 717-367-5947, serving Mount Joy Township and West Donegal Township. The 2026 residential rate is $160.00 per quarter.
• Trash in West Donegal: handled through the township, which takes payment directly and publishes a discount for paying annually by 31 January, 717-367-7178. Separate from both water and sewer.

The proration trap is in the Borough's own billing design: on that combined bill, the sewer portion bills the previous three months of usage in arrears while the trash and recycling portion bills the upcoming three months in advance. Prorating both halves the same way is wrong in one direction or the other every time. The Borough also states it does not credit or reduce utility billing for services not used by the owner. Sewer rentals are billed quarterly and carry a 10 percent penalty if not paid within 30 days of the invoice date (Chapter 18 Part 2 section 202.1), and unpaid charges become a lien against the property, preserved by filing with the Prothonotary (section 202.2).

Tax certifications run through the Bureau, not the district

Elizabethtown Area School District real estate taxes are collected by the Lancaster County Tax Collection Bureau, not by the district, and the district does not accept payments at its office. Certifications must be requested in writing at $25.00 per parcel, with the fee accompanying the request, to the LCTCB Real Estate Tax Group at 1845 William Penn Way, Lancaster, or RETaxinfo@lctcb.org. One limitation worth knowing before you order: LCTCB states its office does not receive updates on delinquent taxes after end-of-year turnover, so anything delinquent goes to the Lancaster County Tax Claim Bureau at 717-299-8232 instead. On the county and municipal side, the real estate tax discount period ends April 30 and the base period ends June 30, with a penalty after that.

The 2027 countywide reassessment has already landed

Lancaster County's countywide reassessment, its first since 2017, takes effect for 2027, and it is further along than most people selling this autumn realise. Reassessment notices have gone out, the county publishes 2027 assessment values, and the county states that the next opportunity for an annual appeal is 2028. Two consequences on a live file. First, the buyer's 2027 assessed value already exists and can be looked up, so there is no reason to guess at it. Second, the reassessment appeal right for 2027 has closed, which is worth saying out loud to a buyer who assumes they can contest the new number next spring. The county also warns that 2026 millage rates cannot be applied to a 2027 assessment to calculate tax liability, because millage will be adjusted downward. Do not estimate a future tax bill by multiplying the new assessment by this year's millage.

Municipal offices

• Elizabethtown Borough: 600 South Hanover Street, Elizabethtown PA 17022, 717-367-1700, 7:30 to 4:00.
• West Donegal Township: 1 Municipal Drive, Elizabethtown PA 17022, 717-367-7178.
• Mount Joy Township: 8853 Elizabethtown Road, Elizabethtown PA 17022, 717-367-8917, 8:00 to 4:00.

Pricing

Transaction coordination in Pennsylvania is billed per file, not as a monthly retainer. Contract to close is $400 per transaction, and the full rate card including dual agency, transaction licensee, unrepresented party (FSBO or URB), and listing management is published on our pricing page. No fixed overhead, no minimum volume.

Where these figures come from

Every figure on this page was verified on September 14, 2026 against the official borough, township, authority, county, and Commonwealth sources listed below. Where a source was ambiguous, as with the Mount Joy Township transfer tax rate and the Act 45 status of the Lancaster deed fee, this page says so rather than picking a number. Municipal fees and ordinances are revised more often than they are archived. If you are relying on a figure here for a live file, confirm it with the issuing office, and tell us if you find a discrepancy so we can correct the page.

• Lancaster County Recorder of Deeds, recording fees
• Lancaster County Recorder of Deeds, recording requirements
• Lancaster County Recorder of Deeds, district codes by municipality and school district
• PA DCED Municipal Statistics, municipal tax information
• Local Tax Enabling Act, Act 511 of 1965, section 311
• Elizabethtown Borough Code Ch. 24, realty transfer tax
• Elizabethtown Borough Code Ch. 5 Part 1, property maintenance and transfer of ownership
• Elizabethtown Borough Code Ch. 5 Part 3, residential rental licensing
• Elizabethtown Borough Code Ch. 18 Part 2, sewer rents and liens
• Elizabethtown Borough, sewer and trash billing
• Elizabethtown Borough, wastewater treatment and sump pump inflow
• West Donegal Township Code Ch. 210, realty transfer tax
• West Donegal Township Code Ch. 170 Art. IV, on-lot sewage systems
• West Donegal Township, on-lot disposal program
• Mount Joy Township Code Ch. 123 Art. IV, realty transfer tax
• Mount Joy Township Code Ch. 98, residential rental units
• Mount Joy Township Code Ch. 100 Art. VI, on-lot sewage systems
• Mount Joy Township, township profile and school district split
• Elizabethtown Area Water Authority, rates
• Elizabethtown Regional Sewer Authority, rates
• Lancaster County Tax Collection Bureau, real estate tax certifications
• Lancaster County, real estate tax
• Lancaster County, 2027 reassessment information