The Kansas Sales Validation Questionnaire: the Form, or an Exemption Written on the Deed

What the Questionnaire Is For

Kansas checks its county appraisers by comparing what properties sell for with what they were assessed at, a study the Director of Property Valuation at the Department of Revenue runs every year. The sale prices come from this form. The statute says that no deed or instrument transferring title to real estate, and no affidavit of equitable interest, shall be recorded in the office of the register of deeds unless it is accompanied by a real estate sales validation questionnaire, completed by the grantor or grantee or their agent, about the property transferred.

The register does not record the questionnaire and it does not go into the public land records. The register keeps it for five years and then destroys it, and in the meantime the register, the county clerk and the county appraiser use the information in the ratio study. The statute names the only people who may see it: county officials working on the study, the county appraiser and the appraisers the county employs, licensed appraisers, financial institutions doing appraisals that regulators require, the hearing officers and boards that decide valuation appeals, the county commission, the Director, licensed real estate brokers and salespersons, and a property owner appealing an assessment, who may look at questionnaires for the same class of property as their own.

The form asks who bought and who sold, the legal description and address, the price and the date of the deed, how the sale was financed, whether the parties are related, whether personal property or a business was included, whether the property was on the open market, and whether anything made the sale a distressed or forced one. It does not ask, and by statute may not ask, the interest rate or the term of any mortgage.

The Consideration Line on the Deed Decides

Kansas's statutory quitclaim wording ends "for the sum of (insert the consideration)", and what you write there is what the register reads first. The Department of Revenue's directive to registers, which they are bound to follow, draws the line this way.

• "Without consideration", a nominal sum such as $1 or $10, or "love and affection" is read as a gift. The deed is recorded without a questionnaire, provided the gift exemption is written on it.
• "$1 and other valuable consideration", or any nominal sum with those words attached, is not read as a gift. The questionnaire is required.
• A real price means a sale, and the questionnaire is required, with the full price entered on it. A form showing $1 or $10 as the price will be questioned, and one showing "other valuable consideration" as the price is returned.

So the deed should say what is true. A parent giving a house to a child writes that the transfer is a gift, adds the exemption statement shown below, and no form is needed. A brother buying out a sister writes the price, and the form goes with the deed.

The Sixteen Exemptions

The statute says the questionnaire does not apply to transfers of title in these sixteen situations. The ones that arise with a quitclaim deed are in bold.

1. Recorded before July 1, 1991, when the law took effect.
2. Made solely to secure or release security for a debt or other obligation.
3. Made to confirm, correct, modify or supplement a deed previously recorded, without additional consideration. The Department reads this narrowly: an incidental change, such as a misspelled name, that does not change who the grantor and grantee are.
4. By way of gift, donation or contribution stated in the deed or other instrument.
5. To cemetery lots.
6. By leases and transfers of severed mineral interests.
7. To or from a trust, without consideration. A transfer to a trust for a price is not exempt.
8. Resulting from a divorce settlement where one party transfers an interest in property to the other.
9. Made solely to create a joint tenancy or tenancy in common, such as adding a spouse or child to the title.
10. By way of a sheriff's deed.
11. By way of a deed that has been in escrow for longer than five years.
12. By way of a quitclaim deed filed for the purpose of clearing title encumbrances.
13. To convey right-of-way, or pursuant to eminent domain.
14. Made by a guardian, executor, administrator, conservator or trustee of an estate under a judicial order.
15. When title is transferred due to repossession.
16. Made to release an equitable lien on a previously recorded affidavit of equitable interest, without additional consideration.

A transfer on death deed needs no questionnaire either, the Department says, because it transfers nothing when it is recorded. Note what is not on the list: a sale between family members. Relatives who sell to each other complete the form and check the box for a sale between immediate family members.

How to Write the Exemption on the Deed

The statute says that when the questionnaire is not required because of an exemption, the exemption shall be clearly stated on the document being filed. The Department's directive adds that the register may not write it in for you: a deed that arrives without the statement, and without a questionnaire, goes back.

Put a line on the face of the deed, near the consideration or above the signatures, that gives the statute and the reason:

Change the paragraph number and the reason to match the transfer: (7) for a transfer to or from a trust without consideration, (8) for a divorce settlement, (9) for a deed made only to create a joint tenancy or tenancy in common, (12) for a quitclaim deed clearing a title encumbrance, (3) for a correction deed. The register reads the statement against the deed, so a deed that recites a price and claims the gift exemption will be questioned.

Which Form Your County Takes

The Department of Revenue supplies a three-part carbon questionnaire, form PV-RE-23, which the register of deeds keeps at the counter. Counties that scan their records may apply to accept a one-part version instead, form PV-RE-22-OP, and 98 of the 105 counties have been approved. In those counties you print the one-part form from the Department's website, or complete it on a computer and print it. In the other seven, get the three-part form from the register.

Photocopies of the questionnaire are not accepted in either kind of county. The Department's list of approved counties is linked in Official Sources, and it is worth checking before you print, because only an approved county may accept the one-part version.

Completing the Form So the Deed Records

The register has a duty to see that the questionnaire is fully completed, and the directive says that a form without every question answered is not completed. A deed that arrives with an incomplete form is returned to the filer with notice that it has not been recorded. The points the directive singles out:

• Both phone numbers. The buyer's and the seller's daytime telephone numbers go at the top of the form even when an agent completes and signs it.
• The total sale price, as a number. "Other valuable consideration" in the price box is not accepted. A nominal figure will be questioned, and if the party affirms it is correct the deed is recorded.
• The date of the deed, not the date of recording.
• Every box, including the special-factor boxes at the top and the use of the property.
• A printed name and a signature in the last section, by the buyer, the seller or an agent, with the agent's phone number where an agent signs.

One questionnaire covers several deeds filed together that convey partial interests in the same property, if it is marked to show that the price on it is the total for the whole interest. And the price you give matters beyond the appraiser's study: falsifying the value of real estate on the form is a misdemeanor, with a fine of up to $500, and the directive tells county officials who suspect it to notify the county attorney.

Kansas Sales Validation Questionnaire — Common Questions

Official Sources

Kansas's laws are collected in the Kansas Statutes Annotated, and a citation such as K.S.A. 79-1437c is an address: the chapter, then the section within it. Each links to the text on the Kansas Revisor of Statutes' website or the Department of Revenue's own site, and opens in a new tab.

• K.S.A. 79-1437c — no deed transferring title is recorded without a questionnaire; who completes it; the five-year retention and its use in the ratio study.
• K.S.A. 79-1437d — the Director of Property Valuation prescribes the form and what it asks; interest rates and mortgage terms may not be asked.
• K.S.A. 79-1437e — the sixteen exemptions, and the requirement that an exemption be clearly stated on the document filed.
• K.S.A. 79-1437f and 79-1437g — who may see the questionnaire, and the misdemeanor for falsifying the value.
• K.S.A. 58-2204 — the statutory quitclaim wording, with its "for the sum of" line.
• Department of Revenue, Division of Property Valuation — Directive 19-041 — the Division's binding instructions to registers of deeds: the nominal-consideration rule, the three-part and one-part forms, what "completed" means, and the meaning of a correction deed.
• One-part sales validation questionnaire (PV-RE-22-OP) — the form, with the item-by-item instructions and the exemption list on its second page.
• Counties approved to accept the one-part form — the Division's current list.

Checked against the Kansas Statutes Annotated and Directive 19-041 on September 3, 2026.