Cowley County, KS tax sales

County offices

County notes

• •The Treasurer's Office is south of the courthouse at 321 E 10th Ave., Winfield, open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The office is temporarily working next to the Extension Office inside the main courthouse until further notice, and visitors enter from E. Fuller Street. Phone 620-221-5412, fax 620-221-5497. Maci DeCoudres is the county treasurer.
• •Ahead of each sale the county publishes a parcel by parcel slideshow of the offering. The November 20, 2025 sale carried 42 tracts, numbered as causes of action 1 through 85 with gaps where owners had already paid, and each entry listed the CAMA and R parcel numbers, the approximate property address, the prior year appraised value, the owners of record and the controlling legal description, with a photo and map where one existed. The county warns that the legal description is what you are bidding on and that addresses, maps and photos are not warranted, and it flags tracts already set for demolition. The slideshow carries a disclaimer from both Cowley County and Kelly Law Office, L.L.P.
• •The owner may redeem at any time before the sale and redeemed tracts are pulled from the offering, so the list shrinks right up to auction day. Confirm your target is still in the sale on the morning of the auction.
• •Ownership stays with the current owner until the court confirms the sale, so you cannot enter a property without the owner's permission. Research from the road and from the record: check zoning, building restrictions and special assessments with the city and the county, appraised value and tax rates with the County Appraiser, and easements and restrictive covenants with the Register of Deeds.
• •Title risk here is real and the county says so plainly. Cowley County furnishes no abstract, no title commitment and no title evidence, and makes no assurance that title insurance will be available to you, to a lender taking a mortgage from you, or to a later buyer. Talk to a local title company before you bid. The county also cautions that an owner or interested party can ask the court to set the sale aside after it happens, and that a successful challenge can send the property back to the original owner with the purchase price refunded. That is a title question, not a redemption right, but weigh it before spending money on improvements or reselling. Cowley County's attorney cannot give purchasers legal advice on these proceedings.
• •Reselling carries its own trap: conveying a property bought at this sale to someone who was not eligible to buy at it makes you liable for an amount equal to the original tax judgment lien plus interest from the sale date.
• •Registration, the sale date and payment all run through the Treasurer's Office at 620-221-5412. The Sheriff's Office, which conducts the sale under the court's order and handles civil process out of the District Court, is at 911 Fuller, Winfield, KS 67156, phone 620-221-5444.

Kansas rules

Redemption

Kansas redemption has two stages, and both close before the auction. 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

Deed deposit

Kansas fixes no statewide deposit percentage and no statutory bidder registration. K.S.A. 79-2804 is silent on deposits, so the terms are whatever the sheriff publishes for that sale. The statute does require one payment at the auction itself: the register of deeds filing fee for the sheriff's deed is collected from the successful bidder at the time of sale and deposited with the register of deeds at recording. Confirm the county's accepted funds, any registration step, and the payment deadline before bidding, and expect certified funds.K.S.A. 79-2804 - Order of sale; publication notice; sheriff's sale; deed, execution and recordationK.S.A. 79-2804Verified Aug 23, 2026

Surplus proceeds

If a parcel sells for more than the judgment lien for taxes, interest, penalty, and charges plus its share of the costs, charges, and expenses of the proceedings and sale, the court orders the excess paid, upon due proof, to the owner or the party entitled to it. The court apportions costs across the parcels sold as soon as practicable after the sale, deducts the total costs from the gross proceeds, and equitably apportions the balance to each parcel that sold for more than its share. The clerk pays that balance to the county treasurer, who prorates it among the state, city, township, school district, and other taxing units in proportion to their interest in the lien, and cancels the taxes charged against the parcel. Tax liens on every parcel sold or redeemed in the action are satisfied and discharged of record.K.S.A. 79-2803 - Judgment; redemption before day of sale; apportionment of costs and surplusK.S.A. 79-2803Verified Aug 23, 2026

Governing statute

K.S.A. Chapter 79, Article 28 (79-2801 et seq.)K.S.A. 79-2801 - Action to enforce lien for unredeemed real estate bid in by countyK.S.A. 79-2801Verified Aug 23, 2026

A tax deed does not convey marketable title. Most buyers file a quiet title action before they can resell or insure the property. See the due diligence guide.

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