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Tax Sale Atlas

Labette County, KS tax sales

How tax deed sales work in Labette County, seat of Oswego: 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
Labette County has no fixed tax sale month.
Format
In person
County office
620-795-2918
Every displayed fact carries a source badge. Verified Aug 24, 2026 against official county and state pages.How we verify
On this page

How Labette County sells delinquent taxes

No tax lien certificate sale

Kansas counties sell no tax lien certificates to investors. The county treasurer bids the delinquent parcel off to the county itself, and the county then enforces its own first and prior lien through a judicial foreclosure in the district court.

Tax deed sale

In person
Run by
Labette County Sheriff's Office
Frequency
annual
Typical timing
Labette County has no fixed tax sale month.
Sale list
Sheriff's sale notices and upcoming sale dates
When it runs
Labette County has no fixed tax sale month. The Sheriff's Office states that "Tax Foreclosure, Personal Property, and Surplus Property sales are conducted as the need arises with the location, date, and time published in the designated annual county newspaper," while mortgage foreclosure sales run "on the published date at 10:00 am sharp on the east steps of the Labette County Courthouse." The Treasurer's office states that "Delinquent real estate taxes not paid within three years are subject to a tax foreclosure sale" and that "The tax sale process is very lengthy and may take up to a year or longer." The annual delinquent real estate tax list runs in the county's legal newspaper for three consecutive weeks in August, which is the earliest public signal that a parcel is heading toward foreclosure. Call the Treasurer at 620-795-2918 for the current tax sale schedule.
Registration and deposit

No advance bidder registration or pre-sale deposit is published for Labette County tax foreclosure sales. Bidding is live at the courthouse and the winning bidder pays in full on the spot: the Sheriff's Office states that "The full bid amount for a sale item must be paid in cash, certified check or money order at the time of sale," and personal checks are accepted only with a letter of credit from a financial institution. The office does not give change from any transaction conducted at a sheriff sale, so bring exact funds. Anyone who owes delinquent real estate taxes in Labette County is barred from bidding at these auctions. Sales are often cancelled shortly before the scheduled time with no separate notice, so confirm with the Sheriff's Office at 620-795-2994 before traveling.

Sale format and venue
Kansas sells the deed through a judicial tax foreclosure rather than an administrative auction. The Labette County Counselor files and prosecutes the foreclosure petition in Labette County District Court, the court enters judgment, and the Sheriff sells the parcel at public auction under the court's order of sale. The court must confirm the sale before the sheriff's deed passes title. This is a live courthouse auction with no online bidding platform, so treat any third-party auction listing as unofficial and verify it against the Sheriff's Office. Sheriff sales are held at 10:00 am on the east steps of the Labette County Courthouse unless the published notice says otherwise, and the location, date and time of a tax foreclosure sale are published in the Parsons Sun, the county's designated legal newspaper. Most notices posted on the Sheriff's sales page are mortgage foreclosures rather than tax foreclosures, so read the case caption before you plan a bid: a mortgage sale notice states it is subject to a redemption period, while the tax foreclosure path runs its redemption before the sale and passes title once the court confirms it.

Labette County tax sale list and auction calendar

For Labette 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.

  1. Get the advertised list

    Use Sheriff's sale notices and upcoming sale dates for the current advertised parcels, then recheck it before the auction.
  2. Register to bid

    Ask the county office how and when to register; many counties close registration days or weeks before the sale.
  3. Sale day

    Labette County has no fixed tax sale month. 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.
  4. Confirm with the office

    If the list, platform, and notice disagree, use Labette County Sheriff's Office as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.

Before you bid in Labette County

  1. Start with the live sale list

    Pull the current advertised parcels from Sheriff's sale notices and upcoming sale dates. Lists can change before the sale, so recheck the county source before you price a parcel.
  2. Confirm registration and deposit

    No advance bidder registration or pre-sale deposit is published for Labette County tax foreclosure sales. Bidding is live at the courthouse and the winning bidder pays in full on the spot: the Sheriff's Office states that "The full bid amount for a sale item must be paid in cash, certified check or money order at the time of sale," and personal checks are accepted only with a letter of credit from a financial institution. The office does not give change from any transaction conducted at a sheriff sale, so bring exact funds. Anyone who owes delinquent real estate taxes in Labette County is barred from bidding at these auctions. Sales are often cancelled shortly before the scheduled time with no separate notice, so confirm with the Sheriff's Office at 620-795-2994 before traveling.

  3. 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.
  4. 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

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.

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County offices

Tax sale office

Labette County Treasurer's Office

620-795-2918

501 Merchant, PO Box 388, Oswego, KS 67356

Official website

County notes

  • Three offices split the work in Labette County: the Treasurer holds the delinquent tax roll and takes payment, County Counselor Brian K. Johnson prosecutes the foreclosure petition in district court, and the Sheriff's Office conducts the auction. The Counselor's published duties expressly include conducting tax sales, and his office line is 620-795-2754.
  • The Parsons Sun is Labette County's designated legal newspaper for all legal publications, set each year by county commission resolution. Tax foreclosure sale notices and the annual delinquent real estate tax list both run there, so a subscription is the most reliable way to see a sale coming.
  • The delinquent real estate tax list is published for three consecutive weeks in August under K.S.A. 79-2301 to 79-2323a. Delinquent personal property taxes unpaid on October 1 are published for three consecutive weeks in October under K.S.A. 19-547.
  • The county keeps no standing tax sale parcel list online. The Treasurer's office states that once sale dates are established the information will be posted on the county website, and 620-795-2918 is the number to call for current tax sale information.
  • The Sheriff's Office is at 718 5th Street in Oswego and is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. The civil division line for sale questions is 620-795-2994 and the 24 hour non-emergency line is 620-795-2565.
  • Courthouse offices, including the Treasurer and the County Counselor, sit at 501 Merchant in Oswego. Mail to the Treasurer goes to PO Box 388, Oswego, KS 67356.
  • Sale notices published by the Sheriff carry the case caption, the district court case number, the plaintiff's attorney and the legal description of the property, which is enough to pull the court file and the parcel record before bidding.

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.
Governing statute
K.S.A. Chapter 79, Article 28 (79-2801 et seq.)

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.

See the full Kansasrules and every county →

Frequently asked questions

Does Labette 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 Labette County hold tax deed sales?

Labette County holds its tax deed sale once a year. Labette County has no fixed tax sale month. 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 Labette County Sheriff's Office 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 Labette County tax sale list?

Labette County posts its tax sale list at labettecountykssheriff.org. 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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