Ellsworth County, KS tax sales
How tax deed sales work in Ellsworth County, seat of Ellsworth: sale calendar, auction platform, over-the-counter lists, and the offices that run each sale.
New to tax sales? Read how Kansas tax sales work or look terms up in the glossary.
- Next sale
- There is no fixed annual date.
- Format
- In person
- County office
- 785-472-4152
Every displayed fact carries a source badge. Verified Aug 24, 2026 against official county and state pages.How we verify
On this page
How Ellsworth County sells delinquent taxes
Tax deed sale
- Run by
- Ellsworth County Sheriff's Office, selling under an order of sale from Ellsworth County District Court after the Ellsworth County Attorney files and prosecutes the tax foreclosure petition
- Frequency
- annual
- Typical timing
- There is no fixed annual date.
When it runs
There is no fixed annual date. Ellsworth County brings a foreclosure case only after enough parcels accumulate, and the Treasurer's record of recent sales shows a multi-year gap: the county "held a tax lien sale in October of 2019" and "held a tax lien sale November 9, 2023." Both fell in the fall. Confirm whether a case is pending with the Treasurer at 785-472-4152 or the County Attorney at 785-472-4244.
Registration and deposit
Bidder terms are set in the sale bill published ahead of each auction and are not posted year round. Ellsworth County has opened bidding at one dollar per parcel in its recent sales, and the auction is a public sale held under the court's order of sale. Call the Sheriff's Office at 785-472-4416 for the sale location and hour, and the Treasurer at 785-472-4152 for payment form and deposit terms, before you travel to bid.
Sale format and venue
Ellsworth County sells the property, not a lien. The County Attorney files a tax foreclosure petition in Ellsworth County District Court, the court enters judgment, and the Sheriff auctions each parcel in person under the court's order of sale. Title passes by sheriff's deed only after the court confirms the sale, so budget for the gap between the auction hammer and a recorded deed. No online bidding platform is confirmed for this county, and no standing parcel list or bidder packet sits on the county website between sales: the published sale bill is the operative notice, so track it through the Treasurer, the County Attorney and the local newspaper. Opening bids have run at one dollar per parcel, and where a parcel sells for more than the taxes and costs owed, the surplus is returned to the former owner by court order, with unclaimed amounts turned over to the State of Kansas Unclaimed Property Division. Redemption in Kansas runs before the sale rather than after it, and the twelve month window under K.S.A. 79-2804b to attack the judgment or the sale is a title question, not a right for the old owner to buy the property back. The parcel search linked above returns tax history by owner, tax ID or address and is a due diligence tool rather than a sale list.
Source: Property Taxes page, Ellsworth County Treasurer· Verified Aug 24, 2026
Ellsworth County tax sale list and auction calendar
For Ellsworth County tax sale 2026 searches, use the county-run sources below rather than a copied parcel list, and confirm the parcel, registration cutoff, deposit, and payment deadline against the county before you bid.
Get the advertised list
Use Property tax record search, Ellsworth County for the current advertised parcels, then recheck it before the auction.Register to bid
Ask the county office how and when to register; many counties close registration days or weeks before the sale.Sale day
There is no fixed annual date. The sale is live and in person; there is no online bidding platform. Confirm the venue and hour with the county office before you go.Confirm with the office
If the list, platform, and notice disagree, use Ellsworth County Sheriff's Office, selling under an order of sale from Ellsworth County District Court after the Ellsworth County Attorney files and prosecutes the tax foreclosure petition as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.
Before you bid in Ellsworth County
4 checks
Start with the live sale list
Pull the current advertised parcels from Property tax record search, Ellsworth County. Lists can change before the sale, so recheck the county source before you price a parcel.Confirm registration and deposit
Bidder terms are set in the sale bill published ahead of each auction and are not posted year round. Ellsworth County has opened bidding at one dollar per parcel in its recent sales, and the auction is a public sale held under the court's order of sale. Call the Sheriff's Office at 785-472-4416 for the sale location and hour, and the Treasurer at 785-472-4152 for payment form and deposit terms, before you travel to bid.
Check the state rules that change the bid
Read the Kansas due-diligence checklist before bidding. Redemption, liens that survive a tax deed, title cleanup, and payment deadlines can change what a parcel is worth.Set a walk-away number
Work out what the parcel is actually worth with the rural land value estimator, then turn it into a ceiling with the tax deed max-bid calculator.
Over-the-counter (leftover) purchases
unsold properties
Kansas counties sell no tax lien certificates and keep no over-the-counter certificate list. What a county can hold is real estate it bought in at its own sheriff's sale. The commissioners keep a record of every such parcel that is open to public inspection, and the board sells them at private or public sale for cash, at a price of at least the original judgment lien plus interest, the costs in the order of sale, and every subsequent tax and special assessment. Six months after the sale to the county is confirmed the board may reduce the price and take sealed bids after advertising for three consecutive weeks, or sell at public auction to the highest cash bidder. Ask the county clerk or county counselor for the current county-owned list, and check whether the county has a land bank.
New to this path? Read how over-the-counter purchases work.
Use the arrow keys to switch between these sections.
County offices
Tax sale office
County notes
- Ellsworth County does not run a tax sale every year. The Treasurer's record shows one auction in October 2019 and the next on November 9, 2023, so plan on watching for a published notice rather than a fixed annual date.
- Opening bids have been set at one dollar per parcel. Anything a parcel brings above the taxes and costs owed is returned to the former owner by court order, and unclaimed surplus goes to the State of Kansas Unclaimed Property Division.
- The sale is a live public auction run by the Sheriff under the district court's order of sale. No online bidding platform is confirmed for this county, so expect to attend or send an agent.
- Kansas redemption runs before the sale, not after it. Once the County Attorney files the foreclosure petition the owner's chance to redeem closes, and the sheriff's deed passes title only after the district court confirms the sale.
- The twelve month window under K.S.A. 79-2804b to challenge the judgment or the sale is a title risk rather than a redemption right. Price in a quiet title action if you intend to resell or finance quickly.
- The Treasurer, the County Attorney and the District Court all sit at 210 N Kansas Ave in Ellsworth, and the Sheriff's Office is next door at 212 N Kansas Ave. Treasurer counter hours run 8 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday, with transactions stopping at 4:45 pm.
- For pre-bid research, real estate valuation questions go to the Appraiser's office at 785-472-3165, and the District Court clerk at 785-472-4052 can confirm whether a tax foreclosure case is on file.
- First half property taxes are due December 20 and the second half May 10, which is when parcels start rolling into the delinquent list that eventually feeds a foreclosure case.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
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.
Frequently asked questions
Does Ellsworth County, Kansas sell tax liens or tax deeds?
Tax deeds. Kansas sells no tax lien certificates to investors; the county sells the property itself at a public tax sale.
How often does Ellsworth County hold tax deed sales?
Ellsworth County holds its tax deed sale once a year. There is no fixed annual date. Each sale is scheduled and advertised in advance, so check the county's tax deed calendar for the next posted date.
I own a property in this sale. Can I stop it?
Often yes, by paying the overdue taxes, interest, and costs before the deadline. Kansas's redemption rule: Runs BEFORE the sale and ends on the day of the sheriff's sale. One, two, or three years from the county's September bid-off depending on the parcel, then a further right to redeem at the courthouse until the day of sale. Kansas has no redemption period after the sale. Call the Ellsworth County Sheriff's Office, selling under an order of sale from Ellsworth County District Court after the Ellsworth County Attorney files and prosecutes the tax foreclosure petition as early as possible for your exact payoff and options; deadlines are strict. Free help: lawhelp.org lists legal aid programs, and consumerfinance.gov lists HUD-approved housing counselors.
Where can I find the Ellsworth County tax sale list?
Ellsworth County posts its tax sale list at ks-search-ellsworth.publicaccessnow.com. Lists go up ahead of each sale and keep changing until the sale date, so confirm every parcel against the county's legal advertisement before you bid.
Verified Aug 24, 2026 against official county and state sources.
Tax Sale Atlas publishes educational information about public tax sale processes. This is not legal, financial, or investment advice. Rules, dates, and fees change; confirm with the county office before you bid.
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