Rush County, KS tax sales

County offices

County notes

• •The Treasurer's office is at 715 Elm Street in La Crosse, mailing address PO Box 460, La Crosse, KS 67548, open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Vanessa Randa is the Treasurer and the office line is 785-222-3416. Call there for the payoff on a parcel and to confirm whether it has been redeemed.
• •The County Attorney drives the foreclosure. Tony W. Rues signs both the sale announcement and the sheriff's notice of sale from 111 W. 3rd Street, PO Box 780, La Crosse, KS 67548, 785-222-3736. That office is where to ask whether a tax foreclosure case is pending and when the next auction will be called.
• •Sales are not annual here. Rush County called auctions in October 2023 and September 2025, so a year can pass with nothing scheduled. There is no tax sale page on the county website, so watch the Rush County News legal notices, which are archived and searchable by county at the Kansas public notice site, and call the County Attorney to confirm a date.
• •The August delinquent tax list is not an auction you can bid in. The Treasurer publishes it on three consecutive Wednesdays each late summer and then bids the parcels off to Rush County itself; the notice states that "NO INDIVIDUAL BIDS will be received at the sale under the resolutions adopted by the Board of the County Commissioners as provided by law." Those parcels reach investors only later, when the County Attorney forecloses and the Sheriff auctions them.
• •Bidding is barred for anyone who owes delinquent real estate taxes or special assessments anywhere in Rush County, even on property that is not in the sale, and for anyone holding a right to redeem a listed parcel. The bar extends to parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren, spouses, siblings, trustees and trust beneficiaries of a barred person, and to current or former stockholders, officers and directors of an owner corporation. Every buyer signs an affidavit at the sale table.
• •Registering as a company takes advance work. A corporation or other entity needs County Attorney approval with full disclosure of partners, officers, directors and stockholders, so start that well before sale day rather than at the registration table.
• •A ten-year clawback follows the deed. Under K.S.A. 79-2804g(c), conveying the property back to anyone who held a statutory right to redeem it within ten years of the auction makes that person liable for an amount equal to the original judgment lien plus interest running from the auction date.
• •The published tract list carries a redemption figure for each parcel, made up of the unpaid taxes, $500.00 in administrative costs and interest. Reading that column tells you what an owner would have to pay to pull the tract before the gavel, which is the best available signal on which listings will still be there on sale day.
• •Check a parcel's tax history before you bid. The county's tax search covers tax years back to 1989 and takes an owner or company name, a tax ID or a street address.
• •Sheriff Mark Knowles conducts the auction, reachable at 785-222-2578. Payment is handled by the Clerk of the District Court, Erin Werth, at PO Box 387, La Crosse, KS 67548, 785-222-2718, and that office also needs a valid mailing address from you at the time of purchase so the confirmed deed can reach you.

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.

See the full Kansasrules and every county →