One St. Charles account covers your lights, water and yard waste
St. Charles runs its own electric company. One city account bills your electric, water, sewer and yard waste. When you sell, Utility Billing wants at least one business day's notice, the date you stop being responsible, a forwarding address, and the name of the person or company taking over the account.
Don't let a water bill slide while the house sits. Under the city code, once a water bill goes unpaid for 60 days, the City Clerk files a lien claim with the Kane County recorder. That lien is recorded against the property itself, so it's part of what has to be settled when you sell.
Open code violations follow the deed here
Under the city's property maintenance code, if the city has served you a compliance order, an inspection report or a violation notice, it's unlawful to sell or transfer the property until the work is done. The other route is to give the buyer a true copy of the notice and hand the city a signed, notarized statement from the buyer accepting responsibility for the repairs. Some buyers won't sign that. Others may.
Empty houses get their own rule. The owner of a vacant structure has to contact the building and code enforcement division to schedule an interior and exterior inspection with city staff. Inherited an empty house? Plan for that visit.
Older houses and the historic districts
In Census estimates for 2020 to 2024, about 9 percent of the city's 13,829 housing units went up in 1939 or earlier, and about 18 percent before 1960. If your house was built before 1978, you owe the buyer the federal lead pamphlet and disclosure, and a 10-day window for a lead inspection.
The oldest houses cluster in the city's historic districts, including the Central district downtown and the Moody-Millington and Millington districts to its west. Inside a designated district, exterior alterations, construction or demolition need a certificate of appropriateness from the Historic Preservation Commission. If you're planning a repair before you list, check that first.
A 7.01 percent tax code and the October tax sale
Nearly all of the city's residents live in St. Charles Township in Kane County, with a small slice in DuPage County's Wayne Township. On the Kane side, most city parcels carried a 2025 composite rate of about 7.01 percent of equalized assessed value, most of it for School District 303. Kane assesses most homes at one-third of market value. The 2025 bills came due June 1 and September 1, 2026, the last day to pay before the tax sale is October 23, and the sale itself is October 26, 2026.
A foreclosure filed here goes to the Kane County Courthouse in Geneva. You can reinstate within 90 days of service, and you can redeem until the later of 7 months from service or 3 months after the judgment, a right that ends before the sale. The Kane County guide and the Kane County foreclosure timeline walk through the rest.
What $470,000 really nets in St. Charles
Redfin's tracker put the St. Charles median sale price at $470,000 in May 2026, up about 3.5 percent from a year earlier, across 48 sales. Single-family homes alone ran $550,000. On $470,000, commission at about 4.9 percent (Clever's Illinois average, updated September 2026) is roughly $23,000. Closing costs near 1.2 percent add about $5,600. The state stamp is $470 and the Kane County stamp $235, both usually paid by the seller. St. Charles charges no city stamp. That's roughly $29,300 before any credits a buyer negotiates. Taxes keep running meanwhile. Using the county's own method at about 7.01 percent with the $8,000 homestead exemption, that's roughly $10,400 a year, around $870 a month.
Homes here sold for about 102 percent of list in May, so listing is a strong option. If the property is a fit, a cash buyer may make an offer, and you pick the closing date. Plenty of St. Charles owners list instead, and that's fine. Run both numbers first.
Sources: City of St. Charles, Start or Stop Service; St. Charles Municipal Code Sec. 13.16.230; St. Charles Municipal Code Ch. 15.40; Census Reporter, St. Charles year structure built (B25034); U.S. EPA, lead disclosure; Kane County Clerk, 2025 tax code rate booklet; Kane County Treasurer, 2025 late payment schedule; Kane County property tax guide; 735 ILCS 5, Article XV, Mortgage Foreclosure; Saturn Title, transfer stamp listing; Redfin Data Center; Clever commission survey
