"Unincorporated" areas - how does it work? (St. Louis: real estate, house)

[christina0001]

It's my understanding that if I bought a home in an unincorporated area, I would not have to pay local taxes/real estate taxes on the home? What if I have school-age children, would I then need to pay the school tax so they could attend the nearest public school? How does this work? Are there any other differences? (I'm originally from New Jersey...they don't have a square inch of land that doesn't officially belong to some municipality). Thanks for any information you can provide.

[Northwoods Voyager]

Sorry, but you still have to pay taxes....Depending upon what school district services the area, you will pay that district. Then, whatever Ambulance district you are in......Then there are county taxes, which does include the real estate taxes.

I live in an unincorporated area. I pay all of the above taxes.

[2beamissourian]

What is a unincorporated area?

(maybe that is what we are now .. we pay all the taxes except the library ..and if we want to use it we have to pay big$)

[Northwoods Voyager]

Might try this on for size. Does explain it better than I could

wikipedia.org/wiki/Unincorporated_community

[Music Junkie]

Unincorporated just means that you would have to not pay taxes for the local city or town but you would for the country the property sits in. You will still pay real estate taxes and and all taxes, they would just be country taxes as opposed to city or town taxes. No big deal about your kids and school. You are making more out of it than it is. Just ignore it and all will be fine.

[christina0001]

Thank you, your responses and the link are helpful. It doesn't bother me, I was just wondering how it worked.

[ShadowCaver]

christina0001 - welcome to the boonies!!!





lol - post college and at my folks home, I've never lived w/in the borders of a town/city, always in an unincorp area...

[Drover]

Unincorporated simply means the most local form of government is county government (or sometimes townships, though probably not in MO); unincorporated areas do not operate under a city/town/village structure; they lack a municipal government. Far more common in rural areas, obviously. And yes, you will still have to pay taxes for county services/government, local school district taxes, et cetera.

[Lake Junkie]

Originally Posted by christina0001

It's my understanding that if I bought a home in an unincorporated area, I would not have to pay local taxes/real estate taxes on the home? What if I have school-age children, would I then need to pay the school tax so they could attend the nearest public school? How does this work? Are there any other differences? (I'm originally from New Jersey...they don't have a square inch of land that doesn't officially belong to some municipality). Thanks for any information you can provide.

Unincorporated into a town...you belong to the county. So...county maintained roads...county sewer systems...county response teams, like sheriff instead of city police. County instead of city taxes. Like that.

We don't have a square inch that doesn't belong to the Man, either, Christina!

[902]

Living in an unincorporated area means that you do not get the privileges that are afforded to someone who lives within the corporate boundary of a municipality. There are still county ordinances and state codes/ statutes in effect and being in an unincorporated area does not equal a free-for-all.

In Missouri, there are a number of political subdivisions that are formed for special purposes. These can be for public water service, fire protection, ambulance, public school, library, community college, public health, 9-1-1, sewage, etc. These all have independent boards of governance, with the disadvantage that the local government of an unincorporated area has no jurisdiction over what these special taxing districts do. The directors campaign and run for their board positions and you vote them in or out every few years. They also have complete power over their rate of taxation (within the law) and do not report to the county council or commissioners, as they have no authority to oversee the board of a political subdivision.

Municipalities may have certain benefits to offer, such as the mayor and council have responsibility and control over more services, municipal water and sewers, police with faster response time, sidewalks, public works department, better or more protective ordinances, trash removal, recreation programs, municipal swimming pools, developed parks, etc. These benefits may entice some with adjoining property to annex into a municipality. Or they may completely repell some from annexation. It is also not uncommon to see pocket annexation, where some homes on a street belong within the city, but the city sprang up around a pocket of one or more homes that were not annexed in. In that case, say someone called 9-1-1 for help - the house that lives within the city gets a municipal police officer and maybe a municipal fire department or ambulance. The neighbor next door who is not annexed in gets the county sheriff's department (just as professional, does the same job, but covers much more area and may take some time to arrive) and possibly a more regionalized fire district or ambulance district.

In unincorporated areas, the county executive (in home rule charter counties) or the presiding commissioner acts similar to being the mayor of the unincorporated area. Usually, law enforcement services are provided by a Sheriff's Department (with some exceptions, such as St. Louis County, which has a county police department). Response times may be extended. Roadways may be maintained by MoDOT, rather than a municipality or county (in that case, Interstates get the most attention and state highways, particularly the lettered highways tend to receive the least attention, especially when it snows). In many cases, living in an unincorporated area may require you to drill a water well, have a septic tank and contract with a private company to cart your household refuse. Sometimes a contract with a propane delivery service for heating is also necessary as utilities may not have been extended out of municipal boundaries. As a result, power may not be on a grid meaning outages may be more frequent, there would not be a choice for wireline telephone services and the need for more TV channels or broadband connectivity may require the homeowner to use satellite-based services.

Generally, the boundary lines of a municipality do not necessarily align with postal zip codes, fire district boundaries, ambulance service boundaries, or other site-based services. Many people live within the corporate boundary of one city and pay taxes to that city, but because the postal boundaries do not overlay correctly, they put another city name in the community field of their address. It's very common and it's very confusing. It takes a geographic information system (GIS) with many layers of boundaries to actually manage who gets what because of this fragmentation.

The bottom line is that your net savings between incorporated and unincorporated may be negligible. If you are not paying in taxes, you are paying in contracting private utilities, carting and extended response times in some cases. The burden may be shifted toward you for services you feel you require. Perform due dilligence and get to know what services you have within your prospective area of residence.