Land · Kansas tax sale guide

Kansas tax foreclosure sales by county

Verified

Kansas is a two stage state, and the stage most summaries skip is the one that decides who can buy. Delinquent real estate is first bid off to the county itself at the treasurer's sale, and the county holds it while a redemption period runs from that bid off date: one year for abandoned buildings, two years where the parcel was bid off for taxes plus petition or request type special assessments, three years for homesteads and everything else (KSA 79-2401a). Only parcels still unredeemed on the September 1 trigger reach the second stage, a foreclosure action in district court brought by the county (KSA 79-2801), ending in a sheriff sale under KSA 79-2804 at which the property itself is finally sold to the public. Inside that suit sits the second correction this set carries on every page: redemption ends before the day of sale (KSA 79-2803), not at confirmation, and after the sale there is no owner redemption at all. A third follows from the statute's silence: KSA 79-2804 sets no minimum bid and requires no appraisement, so every Kansas floor price is a county's own practice, and the counties in this set contradict each other about whether one exists.

This page set covers the top 10 Kansas counties by population, each verified against its own treasurer, counselor, sheriff, or published sale documents on November 9, 2026. The verified 2026 record: Shawnee County's online sale ran Wednesday, September 23, 2026 on GovEase with full published terms; Douglas County's in person sale ran Wednesday, August 12, 2026 with seven of its fifteen causes redeemed or dismissed before the gavel; Leavenworth County's auction ran Monday, June 15, 2026 with the next round already authorized and none scheduled; and Butler County's sale is still ahead on Tuesday, December 29, 2026, with its county page's own conflicts (a 2021 label on a 2026 sale, two different registration hours) flagged rather than fixed. The honest gaps are stated on their pages: Sedgwick County has 2026 cases filed and no date set, with its CivicSource platform contract terminated in December 2025; Johnson County has no auction scheduled; and Wyandotte, Riley, Reno and Ford counties publish no dated 2026 sale on the official sources read.

Verify before you go: counties can move a date, change terms, cancel a sale, or pull parcels at any time. The official sale list is the final word.

The 10 counties

Each row links to that county's own page: selling office, venue or platform, deposit, payment terms, leftover channel, and sources. Where a county has not posted a dated sale, the row says so instead of projecting a pattern onto it.

How Kansas tax foreclosure sales work

• Kansas runs two sales, and only the second one sells property to the public. At the treasurer's annual delinquent tax sale under KSA 79-2302, real estate that draws no outside buyer is bid off to the county itself, and the county holds it through a redemption period. The sale at which an outside buyer acquires the property is the sheriff sale inside a judicial foreclosure under Article 28 of Chapter 79. A description of Kansas as a one date tax deed sale collapses two separate proceedings.
• The redemption period before foreclosure runs by parcel class, from the bid off sale. KSA 79-2401a sets three periods: two years for real estate bid off for both delinquent taxes and petition or request type special assessments, one year for abandoned buildings and their land, and three years for homesteads and everything else. The owner, record title holder, or a mortgagee may redeem from the county in that window by paying the sale amount plus interest, later taxes and costs. Partial redemption exists for the three year class, paid from the first year on the tax sale book, except in Johnson County, where the statute alone runs partial payments from the most recent year (KSA 79-2401a(b)(2)). County summaries that flatten this into three years for everything, or into two years for commercial property, do not match the statute: the two year class is defined by tax plus special assessment status, not by use.
• The foreclosure trigger is a calendar date. When real estate remains unredeemed on September 1 of the second year after the bid off sale (September 1 of the first year for abandoned parcels), the board of county commissioners orders the county attorney or county counselor to file the foreclosure petition in district court in the name of the board (KSA 79-2801). The petition names the owners, states the amount claimed on each tract separately, and puts a copy in the treasurer's hands, after which the treasurer accepts no payment on the described real estate except as Article 28 provides. Suit is discretionary where the aggregate assessed valuation is under 300,000 dollars or the aggregate delinquent taxes are under 10,000 dollars, and a city may bring the action itself if the board fails to act after three years of eligibility.
• Judgment makes the taxes a first and prior lien and orders the sale. The court summarily investigates, renders judgment for the taxes, interest, penalties and costs as a first lien on each tract, and orders the real estate sold (KSA 79-2803). Summons is served personally or by publication (KSA 79-2802). Any tract that sells for more than its judgment lien plus its share of costs has its excess paid, on court order and due proof, to the owner or party entitled to it.
• Redemption inside the suit ends before the day of sale, and nothing follows it. An interested person may redeem a tract before the day of sale by applying to the clerk of the district court and paying the tract's share of costs (the court ordered amount, or by default five percent of the petition lien) plus the amount the treasurer computes as due (KSA 79-2803). Once the day of sale has passed, Article 28 gives the former owner no redemption right on any parcel class. Confirmation is a later step that closes the sale; it is not the redemption deadline, and any guide that ties the end of redemption to confirmation is wrong. Douglas County's 2026 sale shows the right working in practice: seven of fifteen causes were redeemed and one dismissed before the gavel.
• The sheriff sells for the highest and best bid obtainable, with no statutory floor. On the clerk's order of sale, the sheriff publishes notice once a week for three consecutive weeks, fixing a date not less than 30 days from first publication, at the front door of the courthouse or another location the chief judge selects, and offers each tract separately (KSA 79-2804). The statute sets no minimum bid and requires no appraisement; Attorney General Opinion 2021-3 records that an online auction site satisfies the public auction requirement. County minimum bids exist in this set (Wyandotte requires the full delinquency; Leavenworth imposes one it may waive; Shawnee's 2026 instructions set none) and are local practice, not state law. The county itself may bid, capped at the judgment lien plus interest plus the costs in the order of sale.
• Confirmation and the sheriff's deed close the sale. The court examines the sheriff's return and, if the proceedings are regular, confirms the sale and orders the deed (KSA 79-2804). The sheriff executes the deed, acknowledges it before the clerk, and files it for record at execution; the recording fee is collected from the successful bidder at the time of sale. The deed vests fee simple title against all persons and parties, subject only to valid covenants running with the land, valid easements of record that are in use, and taxes and interest that became a lien after judgment. KSA 79-2804b then gives twelve months to challenge the sale's procedure, and KSA 79-2804c a refund and quitclaim route if a sale is adjudged invalid; neither is a redemption period.
• Buyers are screened, and unsold parcels have three distinct channels. No tract may be sold to a person holding a right to redeem it (record mortgagees excepted), to listed relatives and insiders of an owner, or to anyone who is record owner of other real estate with delinquent taxes (KSA 79-2804g, 79-2812), and every purchaser signs the KSA 79-2804h affidavit. For leftovers: a tract the county bid in and won is held under KSA 79-2804f and resold at a floor of lien plus interest plus costs plus later taxes, with any price reduction allowed only after six months from confirmation and only through advertised routes; a tract that was in a judgment but never purchased may be sold by court authorized negotiated sale under KSA 79-2803b, or with others as a group under KSA 79-2803a; and land banks, including Wyandotte County's own under KSA 19-26,103 to 19-26,113, stand downstream of both.

One Kansas fact decides most purchases: the list you prepare for is not the list that sells. Redemption inside the foreclosure runs to the day before the sale, and owners use the whole of it; Douglas County filed fifteen causes for its August 2026 sale and offered seven. Budget preparation across the filed list, price only the tracts that survive to the published notice of sale, and recheck that notice within days of the sale, because the gap between filing and gavel is where Kansas parcels go home.

Research the parcels before you bid

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