Kansas law, for title research

Kansas quiet title: who may sue under KSA 60-1002, where to file, notice rules and time limits

Every rule below is quoted from the Kansas Statutes Annotated, chapters 58, 59, 60 and 79 or another official source, linked and checked on the date shown. General information, not legal advice.

Who can bring a quiet title action in Kansas?

KSA 60-1002(a) allows an action by any person claiming title or an interest in personal or real property, including oil and gas leases and mineral or royalty interests, against any person claiming an estate or interest adverse to that person, to determine the adverse claim. The executor or administrator of an estate, alone or with the heirs or devisees, may also bring one under KSA 59-1401, and KSA 59-808 has a similar sentence for a nonresident decedent's representative. If a wrongly included mineral or general conveyance clause is not corrected within the time allowed after written demand, KSA 58-2273(b) says the court shall expedite a quiet title action brought by any party, and subsection (d) requires suit under that section within two years after the party making demand has actual knowledge.

The section is short. It does not list what a petition must contain, who bears the burden of proof, or what evidence is enough, and we did not read court decisions. Those are questions for a Kansas attorney. We searched the 5,009 section files in chapters 58, 59, 60 and 79 of the Kansas statutes for quiet title and adverse claim wording, and many of those files are repealed or expired sections with no text. Ten sections matched, and we did not search the other chapters.

Can a Kansas owner quiet title against an old lien?

Yes, in the stated cases. KSA 60-1002(b) says that when a lien on property has ceased to exist, or when an action to enforce a lien is barred by a statute of limitation or otherwise, the owner may maintain an action to quiet title. The section does not itself set the period for any lien, so the period comes from the law governing that lien. A few examples from chapter 60: under KSA 60-1105(a), an action to foreclose a contractor's lien under that article must be brought within one year from filing the lien statement, or from a note's maturity if one was attached, and KSA 60-1108 says that otherwise the lien is considered canceled by limitation of law, and lets the owner petition for an adjudication. Under KSA 60-2403(a)(1), a judgment generally becomes dormant and ceases to operate as a lien on the debtor's real estate if no renewal affidavit or execution occurs within five years, subject to its exceptions, and KSA 60-2404 allows revivor of a dormant judgment. A separate route exists for a lien document believed to be fraudulent: KSA 58-4301 allows a motion for judicial review at any time, without any time limitation.

Two other statutes tie in. KSA 58-2311 lets a plaintiff seeking damages under the act on discharging paid mortgages join a claim to cancel the mortgage and remove the cloud, and one who recovers damages also gets judgment canceling the mortgage and quieting title.

Where is a Kansas quiet title action filed?

KSA 60-601(b)(1) requires an action to determine adverse claims to be brought in the county where the real estate is situated. An entire tract in two or more counties, or separate tracts in two or more counties, may be sued on in any county where a tract or part lies. Immediately after final judgment, subsection (c) has the clerk send a transcript to the district court clerk in any other county where the real estate may be affected, to be docketed and filed.

How is notice given to unknown or missing defendants?

KSA 60-307 allows service by publication in stated cases. They include an action about Kansas real or personal property in which a defendant has or claims a lien or interest, or in which the relief would exclude a defendant from an interest, where the defendant is a nonresident or foreign corporation, or cannot with due diligence be served in the state. Publication also reaches listed unknown defendants, including unknown heirs, executors, administrators, devisees, trustees, creditors and assigns of a person alleged to be deceased, and an unknown spouse of a defendant.

A party or attorney must first file an affidavit or declaration of the facts subsection (c) lists, including the specific efforts made to find residences and unknown names. The notice runs once a week for three consecutive weeks in a qualifying newspaper in the county where the petition is filed, and its answer date must be at least 41 days after first publication. A copy goes by mail within seven days after first publication to each defendant whose address is stated. Under subsection (f), no default judgment may be entered until proof of service is made, approved by the court and filed.

Publication has a limit. If the defendant does not appear, subsection (b) says judgment may affect the property within the court's jurisdiction, but not bind the defendant personally. The methods of service in the article are alternatives to any other method the law provides, and KSA 60-204 treats substantial compliance as valid if the court finds the party was made aware of the action.

A publication judgment can also be reopened. KSA 60-309(a) lets a party against whom one was entered move within two years after its entry for relief and to be allowed to defend, after serving the motion, filing a full answer, paying costs if required, and satisfying the court that the party had no actual notice in time to appear. If no such motion is made within three months after the judgment, subsection (b) says a sale of property to a purchaser for value in reliance on it is not affected by a later motion.

What does a pending Kansas quiet title action do to the land?

KSA 60-2201(a) says that once a petition is filed under chapter 60, the action is pending so as to charge third persons with notice, and while pending no interest can be acquired by third persons in the subject matter against the plaintiff's claim. That notice is of no avail unless the summons is served or the first publication made within 90 days after the petition is filed.

Land in another county needs more. Filing in one county gives no notice, under subsection (b), as to land in another, except from the time the plaintiff pays the fee and files with that county's register of deeds a verified statement of the nature of the action, the court and the land. Once final judgment is entered, the plaintiff files a copy of the judgment with that register of deeds. Recording statutes run alongside this: KSA 58-2223 says an unrecorded instrument is not valid except between the parties and those with actual notice, and KSA 58-2222 says a recorded one gives notice to all persons.

What time limits apply to a Kansas title claim?

Chapter 60, article 5 has several. KSA 60-503 bars an action to recover real property from a person in open, exclusive and continuous possession for 15 years, under a claim knowingly adverse or a belief of ownership. KSA 60-507 bars an action for recovery of real property or to determine an adverse claim, not otherwise provided for in the article, 15 years after it accrued. KSA 60-504 and 60-505 set 5 years from the recording of the deed, for listed persons, after an execution sale or a court-ordered sale by an executor, administrator or conservator.

Other limits can come into a title dispute. KSA 60-513(a)(3) gives two years for relief on the ground of fraud, and the cause of action does not accrue until the fraud is discovered. KSA 60-511 gives five years for an action on a covenant of seizin in a deed, or on a covenant of warranty after a final decision against the covenantor's title, and for relief other than the recovery of real property not provided for in the article. Which period fits a given claim is for the plaintiff's attorney.

There are limits on those limits. KSA 60-508(a) gives a person under 18, incapacitated, or imprisoned for a term less than life 2 years after the disability ends, but no more than 23 years from accrual. Under subsection (b), if such a person dies during the disability with no determination of the title, heirs or those claiming under that person may sue within 2 years after the death, but not after that period. KSA 60-509 says no statute of limitations applies to real property given, granted, sequestered or appropriated to a public use, or to lands belonging to the state.

How does the Kansas marketable record title act change this?

It can cut off older claims by its own terms. A person with legal capacity to own land and an unbroken chain of title of record to an interest for 25 years or more has a marketable record title under KSA 58-3403, with nothing of record purporting to divest the claimant. KSA 58-3402 defines the root of title as the transaction the person relies on that was most recently recorded as of a date 25 years before marketability is being determined, and says records include probate records. A title transaction includes a will, descent, tax deed, sheriff's deed or court decree.

KSA 58-3405 then declares null and void the interests, claims or charges that depend on an act, transaction, event or omission before the root's effective date, except as KSA 58-3404 provides. KSA 58-3404 keeps the title subject to interests and defects inherent in the muniments, though a general reference to an earlier interest does not preserve it without specific identification of a recorded transaction, and also subject to interests preserved by notice or possession, adverse possession or use after the root in whole or in part, and interests recorded after the root, unless already extinguished.

A claimant can act. KSA 58-3406 lets a claimant file a verified written notice during the 25-year period, good for not longer than 25 years unless refiled, and no disability or lack of knowledge suspends the period. Continuous possession for 25 years by the same record owner, on the conditions in subsection (b), counts as a substitute. KSA 58-3408 excepts a lessor's reversion, a lessee's rights, a mortgagee until the instrument is due, or from recording if it has no due date, severed mineral interests, easements, plan restrictions, a remainderman after a life estate or trust, reverters, and federal or state interests for failure to file. If a court in a quiet title action finds a claim was filed under the act's notice privilege to slander title, KSA 58-3410 awards costs, attorney fees as allowed, and damages. KSA 58-3409 says the act does not extend any statute of limitations.

What about title from a Kansas tax foreclosure?

KSA 79-2804 says that when the sheriff's deed is filed, it vests in the purchaser, as against all persons, a fee simple title, subject only to valid covenants running with the land, valid easements of record in use, and later taxes and interest. The deed is prima facie evidence of the regularity of the prior proceedings.

KSA 79-2804b says an action to open, vacate, modify or set aside the judgment, order of sale or sale must be commenced within twelve months after the court confirmed the sale. The section calls that a condition precedent and not a statute of limitations, requires the petition to show it, and says the court has no jurisdiction otherwise. A title search reads the foreclosure record for who was named.

What about heirs and people living on the land?

If no one opened an estate, KSA 59-2250 offers a separate route. When a person has been dead for more than six months, an interested person may petition to determine descent if no will was filed within six months after death, no petition to probate a will was filed in Kansas, and no administration petition was filed or administration occurred without determining descent. KSA 59-2251 has the court enter a decree assigning the property to the persons entitled. Those are probate steps, and we state no view on when one is better than the other.

People in possession matter too. A person peacefully occupying under color of title in good faith, who in good faith made improvements or paid related obligations, shall not, under KSA 60-1004, be dispossessed by a party with a superior right until fully compensated. In an action to recover possession, a petition against a tenant in common must state, under KSA 60-1001(b), that the defendant denied the plaintiff's right or did an act amounting to that denial.

What a title search checks before a Kansas quiet title action

Start with the chain of title for at least the 25-year period, and identify the transaction that looks like the root under KSA 58-3402, since probate and other public records count as records. List every record party, and every interest that may need naming or may survive: mortgages, liens, notices of claim in the register of deeds' notice index, severed minerals, easements, leases and life estates.

Then read the facts behind each defect, such as a deceased owner's heirs, a lien whose enforcement period may have run, or a tax foreclosure file. Note anything in another county, since KSA 60-2201(b) needs a filing there. Our quiet title research guide explains how a report supports the case. That guide speaks generally about a lis pendens as a recorded notice, while KSA 60-2201(a) ties notice in the county of suit to filing the petition. A report shows the record, and whether a claim is barred or who should be named is for the plaintiff's attorney.

The Kansas quiet title rules on this page, with their sources

Sources: KSA 60-1002; KSA 60-601; KSA 60-2201; KSA 60-1105; KSA 60-2403; KSA 58-4301; KSA 60-307; KSA 60-309; KSA 60-503; KSA 60-507; KSA 60-508; KSA 60-509; KSA 60-504, 60-505; KSA 60-1004; KSA 60-1001; KSA 58-3403; KSA 58-3402; KSA 58-3405; KSA 58-3404; KSA 58-3406; KSA 58-3408; KSA 58-3410; KSA 58-3409; KSA 79-2804; KSA 79-2804b; KSA 59-1401; KSA 59-2250; KSA 58-2273; KSA 58-2311; KSA 58-2223, 58-2222. Each row links the section it summarizes.

Questions people ask

More on how Kansas property law shapes a title search: title research in Kansas.