Kansas tax lien & tax deed sales

Stage one is K.S.A. 79-2401a: once the treasurer bids the parcel off to the county in September, the county holds it for three years for a homestead under section 9 of article 15 of the Kansas Constitution and for all real estate not described in K.S.A. 79-2401a(a), two years where the parcel was bid off for both delinquent taxes and special assessments, and one year for an abandoned building or structure and the land accommodating it, meaning one that has been unoccupied for at least a year with a failure to perform reasonable maintenance. During that window the owner pays the county treasurer directly. On the three-year track a PARTIAL redemption is allowed: paying the taxes for one or more years, starting with the earliest year the parcel was carried on the tax-sale book, plus interest at the K.S.A. 79-2004 rate, pushes back the date a foreclosure sale may be commenced by the number of years paid. The Johnson County paragraph applies the same partial payment to the most recent year instead of the earliest, and it does not carry the extension sentence. Stage two is K.S.A. 79-2803: after the petition is filed the treasurer may no longer take ordinary payments, but the owner or holder of record title, their heirs, devisees, executors, administrators, assigns, or any mortgagee or mortgagee's assigns may still redeem at any time BEFORE THE DAY OF SALE by filing an application to redeem with the clerk of the district court and paying the clerk a share of the costs, being whatever the court orders or, absent an order, 5 percent of the lien amount stated in the petition for that parcel plus any charges chargeable separately against it. The treasurer then computes the full taxes, charges, interest, and penalties, issues a redemption certificate in triplicate, and the sheriff strikes the parcel from the order of sale. Once the sale happens the right is gone. Kansas gives no post-sale redemption period and no right to buy the property back after the sheriff's deed. What exists after the sale is a twelve-month window under K.S.A. 79-2804b to open, vacate, modify, or set aside the judgment, the order of sale, or the sale. That is a title challenge, not redemption: it is available to parties attacking the proceedings, it requires grounds, and it does not let a former owner simply pay the taxes and take the parcel back.K.S.A. 79-2401a - Redemption of real estate bid off by county; period of redemptionK.S.A. 79-2401aVerified Aug 23, 2026

A tax bill of $10 or less is due in full by December 20. A first half left unpaid after December 20 draws interest at the rate prescribed by K.S.A. 79-2968 plus five percentage points per year, and everything still unpaid on May 11 draws that same rate from May 10 until it is paid or until the property is sold by foreclosure. The K.S.A. 79-2968 rate is the federal Internal Revenue Code section 6621(a)(2) underpayment rate in effect on July 1 of the preceding year plus one percentage point, and for a property tax delinquency of $10,000 or more it is that figure or 10 percent per year, whichever is greater. All of that interest is credited to the county general fund. No investor ever earns it, because Kansas issues no certificate against it. Any real estate whose taxes are unpaid on May 10 becomes subject to sale, which in Kansas means the treasurer will bid it off to the county that September.K.S.A. 79-2004 - Time for payment of real estate taxes; interest, whenK.S.A. 79-2004Verified Aug 23, 2026

What it does have is an inventory of parcels the COUNTY bought in at its own sheriff's sale. The commissioners keep a public record of every parcel acquired under K.S.A. 79-2804, showing the case, the judgment lien, and the costs paid, and that record is open to inspection on request. Those parcels are sold by the board at private or public sale for cash in hand, and the price must be at least the original judgment lien plus interest, plus the costs set out in the order of sale, plus every subsequent tax and special assessment not included in the judgment. That price floor is what usually keeps county inventory from being cheap. If a parcel is still unsold six months after the sale to the county was confirmed, the board may cut the price and sell it by sealed bid after advertising once a week for three consecutive weeks, accepting the highest cash bid, and it may reject bids below current market value. From that same six-month point the board may instead sell at public auction for cash to the highest bidder after advertising at least three times in the official county paper. Conveyance is by a deed from the county clerk on a written order of the board. Two eligibility rules follow the parcel: K.S.A. 79-2812 bars any buyer who is the record owner of tax-delinquent real estate on the county treasurer's records, and K.S.A. 79-2804g bars a sale to anyone who had a right to redeem for less than the original judgment lien plus interest and costs, including sales by a county land bank.K.S.A. 79-2804f - Record of real estate acquired by county; sale by countyK.S.A. 79-2804fVerified Aug 23, 2026