Morton County, KS tax sales

County offices

County notes

• •The Morton County Treasurer holds the delinquent tax roll and takes redemption payment at 1025 Morton Street in Elkhart, mailing address P.O. Box 998, phone 620-697-2560. An owner or mortgage holder can redeem a parcel and drop it out of the case by paying the taxes, fees and interest in full at any point up to the day of the sheriff's sale. Redemption figures printed in the sale notice are calculated as of the filing date and keep accruing, so call the Treasurer for the live payoff.
• •The Treasurer's office also runs bidder registration for the sheriff's sale. Register there before the deadline printed in the sale notice, collect a bidder number, and sign a Bidder's Declaration stating you hold no tax-delinquent property in Morton County.
• •Payment is due in full before you leave the auction, by cash or check or a combination of the two, and each parcel carries an added $21 deed recording fee and a $100 processing fee. Cash must be exact because no change is made. A winning bidder who fails to pay can be ordered by the court to honor the bid and can be barred from future sales.
• •Kansas law bars anyone who owns tax-delinquent real estate in Morton County from bidding, and the Purchaser's Declaration signed at checkout also bars buying for, or as a relative of, anyone holding an interest in the parcel. Bidding on a parent's or sibling's property is not allowed.
• •The Board of County Commissioners retains outside special counsel, Klenda Austerman LLC of Wichita, phone 316-267-0331, to file and prosecute the foreclosure and to handle bidder paperwork at the sale. The firm's Kansas tax sale chart carries Morton County's current status and posts the petition and sale notice for each new case.
• •The Morton County Sheriff's Office at 1025 Richards Street in Elkhart, phone 620-697-4313, conducts the auction under the court's order of sale.
• •Morton County has no separate county counsellor. The County Attorney's office at 1025 Morton Street in Elkhart, phone 620-697-4006, is the county's own legal officer, while the tax foreclosure itself is handled by the retained special counsel.
• •The operative notice is the published sale bill, which runs once a week for three consecutive weeks in the Elkhart Tri-State News. The county also posts the sale notice and its Exhibit A parcel list on the county website.
• •Parcels in the most recent case sat mainly in Elkhart, Rolla and Richfield, with delinquent years reaching back as far as 2001 and redemption costs ranging from roughly $728 to about $21,400. A Morton County sale can also include mineral interests, which are often undefined and convey only what the former owner held.
• •The county offers no information on a parcel beyond the legal description, so inspect and research before the auction. Bids are final once the gavel falls, and a mistake about condition, demolition, personal property left on site or taxes owed is not grounds to unwind the purchase.

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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