Riley County, KS tax sales
How tax deed sales work in Riley County, seat of Manhattan: 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
- Riley County holds one tax foreclosure auction a year.
- Format
- In person
- Registration
- Register with the County Counselor's office by 5 p.m. one week before the auction date.
- County office
- (785) 537-6320
Every displayed fact carries a source badge. Verified Aug 24, 2026 against official county and state pages.How we verify
On this page
How Riley County sells delinquent taxes
Tax deed sale
- Run by
- Riley County Counselor and Administrative Services
- Frequency
- annual
- Typical timing
- Riley County holds one tax foreclosure auction a year.
- Registration
- Register with the County Counselor's office by 5 p.m. one week before the auction date.
When it runs
Riley County holds one tax foreclosure auction a year. The County Counselor's office describes its role as overseeing the preparation of delinquent real estate tax foreclosure sales and conducting an auction annually. The most recent sale ran on Friday, June 26, 2026, in the lower level training room of the Riley County Public Works building at 6215 Tuttle Creek Boulevard, Manhattan. Watch the County Counselor's tax foreclosure auction page for the next date, since the county posts it there and also sends it to subscribers of its Tax Sales notification list.
Registration and deposit
Register with the County Counselor's office by 5 p.m. one week before the auction date. The person who registers must be the person bidding, and the county allows no proxy bidding. No one may register as a bidder who is the record owner of any real estate in Riley County that owes delinquent ad valorem property taxes.
Sale format and venue
This is a live, in person auction held at the location named in the sale notice, and Riley County uses no online bidding platform and names no outside auction company. There is no minimum bid, and the auctioneer's acceptance of the highest bid creates an enforceable contract, so bid only on parcels you have already researched. Winning bidders must pay in full by 12 noon on the day of the sale, payable to the Clerk of the District Court. The county takes checks and debit or credit cards, adds a 2.5% processing fee on card payments, and accepts no cash. Recording costs a further $21 for the first page plus $17 for each additional page, collected at the time payment is made. Direct auction questions to the County Counselor's office at (785) 565-6844, 115 N 4th Street, 3rd Floor West, Manhattan, open Monday through Thursday 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Friday 7:30 a.m. to noon.
Source: Tax Foreclosure Auction, Riley County Counselor· Verified Aug 24, 2026
Riley County tax sale list and auction calendar
For Riley 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 Tax foreclosure auction properties and results for the current advertised parcels, then recheck it before the auction.Register to bid
Sale day
Riley County holds one tax foreclosure auction a year. 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 Riley County Counselor and Administrative Services as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.
Before you bid in Riley County
4 checks
Start with the live sale list
Pull the current advertised parcels from Tax foreclosure auction properties and results. Lists can change before the sale, so recheck the county source before you price a parcel.Confirm registration and deposit
Register with the County Counselor's office by 5 p.m. one week before the auction date. The person who registers must be the person bidding, and the county allows no proxy bidding. No one may register as a bidder who is the record owner of any real estate in Riley County that owes delinquent ad valorem property taxes.
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
- The County Counselor's office, not the Treasurer, prepares and conducts Riley County's tax foreclosure auction and is the office to call about bidder registration, at (785) 565-6844, 115 N 4th Street, 3rd Floor West, Manhattan.
- First half real estate taxes become delinquent on December 21, and interest accrues daily on the unpaid amount until it is paid.
- Delinquent real estate goes into redemption on the first Tuesday in September, and a parcel becomes eligible for a tax foreclosure sale only once the taxes remain unpaid for three years past that redemption date.
- The Treasurer prints the delinquent tax list in the newspaper and on the county website beginning the first Tuesday in August. The 2025 real estate list ran in The Manhattan Mercury on August 11, August 18 and August 25, 2026 under K.S.A. 79-2303.
- The Treasurer's posted delinquent lists are informational rather than the legal sale bill, so confirm any parcel and its payoff amount with the Treasurer at (785) 537-6321 before you bid.
- Sale money is made payable to the Clerk of the District Court, which reflects that Kansas moves these parcels through a court supervised foreclosure rather than a treasurer's certificate sale.
- Riley County lists no internet bidding platform and no retained auction company. Bidders attend in person at the site named in the sale notice, most recently the Riley County Public Works building at 6215 Tuttle Creek Boulevard.
- Anyone who is the record owner of Riley County real estate carrying delinquent property taxes is barred from registering to bid.
- The county runs a Tax Sales notification list that sends email or text alerts when auction details are posted, which is the most reliable way to catch the next sale date.
- Winning bidders should budget the 2.5% card processing fee and the $21 first page plus $17 per additional page recording charge on top of the bid, all due the day of the sale.
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 Riley 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 Riley County hold tax deed sales?
Riley County holds its tax deed sale once a year. Riley County holds one tax foreclosure auction a year. 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 Riley County Counselor and Administrative Services 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 Riley County tax sale list?
Riley County posts its tax sale list at rileycountyks.gov. 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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