In Kansas, a borrower is not immediately removed from a property after the foreclosure sale. Instead, the borrower is provided a redemption period, which is a period of time that the borrower can continue to live in the home or rent the home to other parties. The purpose of the redemption period is to provide the borrower with an opportunity to pay in order to stay in the home. During this redemption period, the purchaser at the foreclosure sale does not own the home, but rather is the holder of the certificate of purchase that provides that he or she shall own the home after the end of the redemption period. When the property is abandoned, the court may extinguish redemption rights held by the borrower or in other words, order that the ownership of the property is transferred to the purchaser prior to the end of the redemption period.
Kansas allows the borrower to transfer or sell his or her redemption rights. When this happens, the purchaser of the redemption rights steps into the shoes of the owner. In other words, the purchaser of the redemption rights can move into the property, lease the property to others, or redeem the property. In order to redeem the property, the borrower (or assigns) must pay to the purchaser at the foreclosure sale, the entire amount paid, plus interest and expenses incurred by the purchaser.
In order to extinguish redemption rights held by the borrower, the purchaser must file a motion to shorten or extinguish the redemption rights with the court. The matter will then be set for a hearing. If the home is located in Johnson County, Kansas, this is a non-appearance hearing, meaning that no one needs to appear unless they object to the shortening of the rights. In other Kansas counties, the hearing is a regular hearing and the purchaser (or his or her attorney) must appear at the hearing. If no one appears or objects, the court will generally grant the request to extinguish the redemption rights.
