Foreclosure in Kansas

How a Kansas foreclosure works, step by step

1. Generally, the legal foreclosure process can't start until you're at least 120 days behind.
2. In Kansas, the first legal action is a court complaint, so the lender starts by suing. After you're served with the summons and petition, you must serve your answer within 21 days.
3. An order of sale is the court's direction to an officer to act on the property, as the court decides is needed in the case. It's issued by the court clerk and signed by a judge.
4. Before the sale, notice of its time and place must be published once a week for three weeks in a row, with the last notice no less than 7 and no more than 14 days before the sale.
5. The sale is held at the courthouse in the county seat of the county where the judgment was entered. A judge can move it to the property or another place for good cause.
6. The sheriff reports the sale to the court right away. If the court finds the case was handled properly and fairly under the law, it confirms the sale. If the home can still be redeemed, the sheriff gives the buyer a certificate that describes the property and shows the amount paid.
7. You can redeem, meaning buy the home back, for up to 12 months after the sale. You have the right to stay in the home in the meantime.
8. At the end of the redemption period, the sheriff gives a deed to whoever holds the certificate, or to a creditor who redeemed.

Catching up before the sale

Kansas gives a right to cure on some loans from a mortgage company, called covered transactions. These include a second mortgage, and a loan that was more than 100% of the home's value when it was made, unless it's backed by a federal agency.

• After you've been 10 days behind on a covered loan, the mortgage company may send you a notice of your right to cure.
• It can't demand the whole balance or take the property over that missed payment until 20 days after the notice.
• Within those 20 days, you can cure by paying all unpaid amounts due at that time, plus any unpaid late fees. You don't have to pay the whole balance.
• Once you've had that notice, later defaults on the same loan don't come with this right.

On any mortgage, if your servicer gets your complete application for help more than 37 days before a foreclosure sale, federal rules give it 30 days to act on it.

Call your servicer early, before the court case moves. Every option, from a payment plan to a sale, is easier with time.

The sheriff's sale and the court's review

The court can refuse to confirm it if the bid is far too low. As a condition of confirming the sale, the court can require that the home's fair value be credited against the judgment, interest, taxes and costs. A bid for the full judgment, taxes, interest and costs counts as adequate.

If you think the winning bid was far below what your home is worth, raise it with a lawyer before the court confirms the sale.

How long it takes

Foreclosure generally can't legally start until you're at least 120 days behind. Once it starts, how long you have until the sale depends on your state.

For FHA loans, HUD's time frame runs from the first legal action until the lender has clear title to the home and possession of it. In Kansas, that's 10 months, and the first legal action is a court complaint.

Along the way, you have 21 days to answer the lawsuit, the sale notice runs for three weeks, and after the sale comes a redemption period of 12 months, or 3 months in some cases.

These are official markers, not a forecast. Your case can move faster or slower, so don't count on extra time.

Redemption and the deficiency after the sale

If you fell behind before a third of the original loan was paid, the court sets a redemption period of three months. But if all the mortgages and liens add up to less than a third of the home's market value, it's 12 months. If you lose your main income through no choice of your own after the sale and before a three-month period ends, the court can add three more months.

• If the court finds after a hearing, on at least 21 days' notice, that the home was abandoned or isn't occupied in good faith, it can shorten or end the redemption period.
• A mortgage can set a shorter redemption period or waive it, but not for farmland or a one- or two-family home that you own and live in.
• For the first three months, only you can redeem. If you don't, creditors with liens can redeem during the rest of the period.
• You can sell or transfer your right to redeem, and the buyer gets the same right you had.

If the sale doesn't bring in enough to pay the judgment and costs, the lender can collect the rest the same way as other judgments.

In my view, the redemption period is worth using. Talk to a lawyer or housing counselor before you sign anything during it.

Selling during a foreclosure case, and other protections

Kansas has special rules when you sell or sign over your rights in the home you live in while a foreclosure case on it is pending.

• Every term of the deal must be spelled out in a written agreement, dated and signed by everyone.
• You can cancel within five business days after you sign. Cancel in writing, signed by you, and mailed to the buyer by certified mail. You can't waive or sell that right.
• If the buyer doesn't follow these rules, you can choose to undo the transfer.
• The rules don't cover a deed in lieu of foreclosure to your lender when all rights to a deficiency are waived.
• Under Kansas's contract for deed law, a contract for deed is a deal where the buyer pays the price in five or more payments after any down payment, while the seller keeps title as security. An option to buy isn't a contract for deed.
• A seller can't sign a contract for deed without holding title to the home. Before the buyer's rights can be forfeited, the buyer gets time to catch up: 30 days after notice if they've paid less than half the price, or 90 days if they've paid half or more.
• A federal rule bars mortgage relief companies from taking any fee until you've signed a written agreement with your lender or servicer.
• The CFPB warns that a scam may try to get you to sign over title to your home, sometimes called a "rent to buy" scheme.

One of these touches how I buy: the rule for selling while a foreclosure case is pending. If your case has been filed, a cash offer, taking over payments or seller financing with me would follow it, and you'd keep your right to cancel. And don't stop talking to your lender while you weigh any offer, including mine.

Free help in Kansas

• Kansas Housing Resources Corporation: Homeowner Assistance Fund. The state's Homeowner Assistance Fund closed to new applications on Dec. 15, 2023.
• Kansas Housing Resources Corporation: additional housing resources (PDF). Points you to certified housing counselors who can talk through your options if you're having trouble paying your mortgage.
• Kansas Office of the State Bank Commissioner: file a complaint. The office can help only with complaints about companies it regulates.
• CFPB: find a housing counselor. Search HUD-approved counseling agencies in Kansas.