Come take a stroll with me through my old stomping grounds, the historic old Courthouse grounds…But first, the backstory as to why I took this walk.

St. Charles County is one of the counties in Missouri that offers property tax relief to Seniors that freezes the real estate property tax and limits future property tax increases. I applied for this relief two years ago, but my application was denied because the deed to my house is in my former married name (the house was bought in 1989). I procrastinated for 2 years about filing a Quitclaim deed, deeding the house from me in my former married name to me in my current married name.

The real estate values are reassessed every two years, and this is the year for reassessment. Although I think the assessed value of the property may come down a little this year, I wanted to get it done. Not a big deal, or so I thought.

Back many moons ago, before I went into Law Enforcement, I worked as a legal secretary, so I am familiar with deeds and whatnot. I prepared a deed based on one I’d seen online, took it to the bank, had it notarized and then took it to the County’s Recorder’s office to have it recorded. I was on it! Until I wasn’t. The teller at the Recorder’s counter refused the deed because it lacked the required three-inch top margin (a requirement that started in 2022) and because I didn’t specify my marital status (intentionally). He also said that since I had prepared the deed myself, I would have to pay an additional $25. Say what?

Since I owned the house before The Great Hunter were married, he has always known that I intended for my children to inherit the house. When my mother passed away, the home she owned with her husband, which she had sold her house to help buy, went to him (because it was in joint names) and then ultimately when he passed away, it went to his children, leaving my brothers and me out.  He’s always been good with my decision, but in the State of Missouri (and maybe other states), he has a marital interest in the property. That means that if I wanted to sell it, even though it is not in his name, he would have to agree to the sale.☹
I didn’t know whether that would come into play with this deed, so to be safe, I prepared a Marital Rights Waiver for him to sign. Before I did that, I went to Office Depot and purchased a Quitclaim Deed intended for use in Missouri. I got it home and then realized…it was in paper form and I didn’t have a typewriter. Who has a typewriter anymore? So duh. I went online and found a free program, PDFGear, that allowed me to scan the deed into my computer, fill it out, save it and print it. I was on it!

Back to the bank I went to get the new deed and waiver notarized. Again, sigh, I hit a stumbling block. This deed provided for either witnesses to acknowledge the Grantor’s signature or the Grantor’s signature being notarized by a Notary Public. The notary at the bank refused to notarize it, insisting that I needed to have witness signatures even though the State of Missouri does not require witnesses, only that the signature be notarized.  Grrr.😠 But at least since the Great Hunter was with me, she did notarize his signature on the Marital Rights Waiver.

Back to the drawing board. This wouldn’t have been a problem, but because I had procrastinated on preparing the deed, I only had seven days to get the deed prepared, notarized, recorded and get the Relief applicaiton filed.

I went back to the first deed I had prepared and made the corrections the teller had told me I needed to make and went back to the bank. This time, I had a different banker and all went well and I was off to the Recorder’s office again with my fingers crossed. This time, a different (and very helpful) teller accepted the deed (and I didn’t apparently need the Marital Rights Waiver). I paid the fee (and not the extra one the other teller told me I would need to pay) and I was done–with that end of it.

I went home and opened the County Recorder’s website to submit my online application…but no. The website was down and there wasn’t an estimated time for it to be up and running again. My best bet was to download the application, fill it out and take it to the drop box at the County’s Administration building (the same building I had been to twice already) and leave the application there.

So this is where my walk comes in. I had to park about a block away> It was a very pretty morning for a walk, so I decided to take a detour and stroll through the grounds of the historic courthouse. As I mentioned, this was my old stomping ground. From 1958 to 1963, I lived two houses away from this courthouse.

My very first job in 1971 was working for the Probate Court, located in the basement of the courthouse.  I sat at a desk in the corner near an open window on the lower level because at the time the building wasn’t air-conditioned. And most probably, it hadn’t had many updates since it was built in 1903. Then, from 1986 to about 2008 when the Sheriff’s Department moved to O’Fallon, I worked in the building right next door.

To read more about this historic courthouse, click here.

Lots and lots of memories.