Rice County, KS tax sales

County offices

County notes

• •The Treasurer's office is on the second floor at 101 West Commercial in Lyons, open Monday through Friday. Kristi Smith is the Treasurer and the counter line is 620-257-2852. Real estate tax windows close at 3:00 pm, earlier than the courthouse day, so allow for that if you are paying at the counter.
• •The County Counselor is the person to call about a pending tax foreclosure. Granville M. "Scott" Bush IV of Bush, Bush & Shanelec serves as Rice County Counselor and signs the sale bill. Reach him at P.O. Box 6, Sterling, Kansas 67579, (620) 278-2331, [email protected]. He will know whether a case has been filed, where it stands and when a sale date is likely.
• •Sale day questions go to the Sheriff. The Rice County Sheriff's Office is at 1442 West Commercial Ave, Lyons, KS 67554; call 620-257-7876 and choose option 2 for administration and records. Sheriff Nicholas W. Sowers signs the notice and calls the auction.
• •Notices appear in two places and nowhere else. The county posts each tax foreclosure sale to its news page at ricecounty.us, and the operative sale bill runs three consecutive weeks in the Sterling Bulletin. There is no standing tax sale page on the county website between sales, so set a reminder to check both in the fall.
• •Track the case in district court. The recent foreclosures carry Rice County District Court case numbers 25 CV 20, 22 CV 23 and 19 CV 38, all captioned The Board of County Commissioners of Rice County, Kansas as plaintiff. The Clerk of the Court, Jane E. Hrabik, is on the third floor at 101 West Commercial, Lyons, at 620-257-2383, and Kansas case records are searchable at casesearch.kscourts.gov.
• •Do your title and condition work before the sale bill runs. The published list gives a legal description, a street address and the tax liens and costs on each tract, but nothing about structures, occupancy or condition, and many tracts show a zero house number, meaning a vacant lot. The county sells as the notice reads and takes no position on what stands on the ground.
• •Owners redeem right up to the auction. Tracts drop off between publication and sale day, so work from the final list and confirm on the morning of the sale which tracts are still being offered.

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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