Pulaski County Foreclosure Resources

Yes. Kentucky is a judicial foreclosure state, so every foreclosure is a lawsuit filed under Ky. Rev. Stat. §§ 426.005-426.720. The lender files a foreclosure complaint in the circuit court for the county where the property sits, and a lis pendens gives notice of the pending action against the property. There is no trustee sale or power-of-sale process in Kentucky — the sale is conducted by the master commissioner, a quasi-judicial officer appointed by the court, only after the court enters judgment.

The master commissioner — a quasi-judicial officer appointed by the court — conducts Kentucky foreclosure sales. That is different from most states, where the sale is run either by a private trustee under a power of sale or by the sheriff. Because a court officer runs the sale, the process is subject to the court's oversight, and both the conduct of the sale and the price it brings are open to objection before the court rules on it.

Kentucky's redemption right is conditional, not automatic. For residential property you have a six-month redemption period from the date of sale, but only where the sale price is less than two-thirds of the property's appraised value. That condition is what decides whether redemption is available at all, so both the sale price and the appraised value matter. Where redemption applies, it is the right to reclaim the property by paying the required amount within the six months.

A deficiency is permitted in Kentucky, but a fair value hearing limits it: for most residential foreclosures the deficiency is calculated as the total debt less the fair value of the property, not the commissioner's sale price. Because a forced sale can bring well below true market value, that calculation is frequently the most effective point to contest. It is raised within the foreclosure action.

The legal process is the same: any Kentucky foreclosure, whether it is a primary residence, a rental, or a recreational property, is a court case and the sale is conducted by the master commissioner after judgment. What differs is the market the property sits in and therefore the value it commands. Lake-oriented and recreational properties tend to have a narrower and more seasonal buyer pool, and comparable sales can be sparse, which affects both the price a forced sale is likely to bring and the fair value figure used in a deficiency calculation. Because Kentucky measures the deficiency for most residential foreclosures against fair value rather than the sale price, a property in a thin market is one where that determination carries real weight. Note also that Kentucky's conditional redemption applies to residential property, so whether a given property qualifies depends on its character and on the relationship between the sale price and the appraised value.

Pulaski County sits in south-central Kentucky with Somerset as its seat and largest city, and it is the largest county in that part of the state by area. Its housing market is shaped by two distinct forces. The first is Lake Cumberland, which gives the county a substantial tourism and recreation economy and supports a meaningful segment of second homes, lake-oriented properties and short-term rentals alongside the permanent housing stock. That segment behaves differently from a primary-residence market: demand is seasonal, buyers are often from outside the area, and comparable sales can be thin. The second is Somerset itself, which functions as a regional service center for a wide surrounding area — healthcare, retail, and light manufacturing form the local employment base — and which has a conventional mix of older in-town neighborhoods and newer suburban development. Outside Somerset the county is genuinely rural, with farmland, small communities such as Burnside and Science Hill, and properties where access, terrain and utilities all affect value. None of this changes how a Kentucky foreclosure proceeds — every one is a court case in the circuit court — but it directly affects how a property should be valued, how many qualified buyers it realistically draws, and how long it may take to sell.