Doniphan County, KS tax sales

County offices

County notes

• •The Doniphan County Treasurer's Office holds the delinquent tax roll and takes payment at 120 E Chestnut St in Troy, phone 785-985-3831. Treasurer Nicole Diveley's office also handles mail at P.O. Box 308, Troy, KS 66087.
• •The Doniphan County Attorney's Office, 120 East Chestnut, P.O. Box 339, Troy, KS 66087, phone 785-985-2313, represents the county in civil suits under Kansas law. That is the office that files and prosecutes the tax foreclosure petition, and the office to ask about pending cases and parcel lists.
• •The Doniphan County Sheriff's Office, 219 S. Main, P.O. Box 32, Troy, KS 66087, phone 785-985-3711, conducts the auction under the court's order of sale.
• •The Kansas Chief is the official newspaper of Doniphan County, so the published sale bill is the notice a bidder needs to watch. The paper is at 317 St. Joseph Street, Wathena, KS 66090, phone 785-989-4415.
• •Doniphan County District Court sits in the 22nd Judicial District and can be reached at 785-985-3582. It enters the foreclosure judgment and the order confirming the sale, so the case file is where the parcel legal descriptions and sale terms live.
• •Redemption in Kansas runs before the sale. Once the county files its foreclosure petition the owner's right to redeem is cut off, so a buyer at a Doniphan County sheriff's sale is not waiting out a post-sale redemption period.
• •Title does not pass at the fall of the hammer. The district court must confirm the sale before the sheriff's deed issues, and Kansas law allows twelve months to attack the judgment or the sale, which is a title question to price in rather than a redemption right.
• •The county publishes no tax sale calendar and no delinquent property list online, so plan on calling the Treasurer's Office and the Sheriff's Office directly and reading the sale bill in The Kansas Chief.
• •Under the county property tax calendar, the Treasurer mails tax statements on or before December 1, first half or full payment is due by December 20 to avoid penalty, and second half is due by May 10 of the following year. Delinquency starts from those dates, and foreclosure follows years later, not the next season.

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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