Kansas Foreclosure Laws: Process, Timeline and Your Rights

Judicial. Mortgage foreclosures are filed in district court, and the property is sold by the sheriff under a court order of sale or special execution, after which the owner generally has a statutory redemption period. Any mortgage clause waiving redemption is void except as the redemption statute allows.

The foreclosure is a court case, so the homeowner is served with the lawsuit. Before a sheriff's sale of real estate, the officer must publish public notice of the time and place of sale once a week for three consecutive weeks in the county where the judgment was entered and the county where the land is located; the last publication must be at least 7 and no more than 14 days before the sale. Sales are held at the county courthouse unless a judge orders another location.

The statutes reviewed set the sale-notice timing (three weekly publications, the last 7 to 14 days before the sale) and the post-sale redemption period, but not a single minimum period from default to sale.

After the sheriff's sale, the owner may generally redeem within 12 months by paying the amount paid by the certificate holder plus allowed expenses, interest, costs and taxes, and keeps possession during that time; the first three months are exclusive to the owner. However, if the default occurred before one-third of the original debt was paid, the court orders a three-month redemption period (which the court may extend by three more months if the owner involuntarily loses their main source of income after the sale); if all liens total less than one-third of the property's market value, the period is 12 months. The court may shorten or end the period if the property is abandoned or not occupied in good faith. Mortgages on agricultural land or on a one- or two-family home that is an individual's residence cannot shorten or waive redemption.

The Kansas statutes reviewed do not set out a separate deficiency-judgment procedure, but they give the court control over the sale price. When the sheriff reports the sale, the court may decline to confirm it if the bid is substantially inadequate, may set a minimum (upset) price the property must bring, or may hold a hearing on the property's value and require, as a condition of confirming the sale, that the property's fair value be credited against the judgment, interest, taxes and costs. A sale for the full amount of the judgment, taxes, interest and costs is considered adequate.

For condominiums under the Apartment Ownership Act and townhouses under the Townhouse Ownership Act, unpaid assessments for a unit's share of common expenses are a lien on the unit that ranks ahead of all other liens except property tax and special district liens and amounts unpaid on a first mortgage of record. The association (for condominiums, the manager or board acting for the owners) may foreclose the lien by lawsuit in the same way as a mortgage, may bid on the unit at the foreclosure sale unless the declaration prohibits it, and may instead sue for a money judgment without giving up the lien. If the bylaws provide for it, the owner must pay reasonable rent during the foreclosure and a receiver may be appointed to collect it. A first-mortgage lender or other buyer who takes title by foreclosing the first mortgage is not liable for assessments that came due before it took title; those amounts become a common expense shared by all owners.

When a county buys in real estate at a delinquent tax sale, a homestead (and other real estate not covered by the shorter periods) is held for three years from the sale, during which the owner may redeem, including partially by paying one or more years of the taxes with interest. Certain real estate sold for both delinquent taxes and special assessments has a two-year period, and abandoned buildings have a one-year period. Unredeemed property is then subject to a court tax-foreclosure action brought by the county.

The Kansas Judicial Branch self-help site points homeowners to HUD-approved housing counselors (through HUD and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau), Kansas Legal Services' foreclosure prevention information, the Kansas Attorney General's foreclosure information, and the Kansas Housing Resources Corporation's housing resources.