Free Kansas Residential Lease Agreement

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A configurable Kansas residential lease agreement that generates a signable multi-page PDF. Built to the Kansas Residential Landlord and Tenant Act — the tiered deposit cap, the two-stage return deadline, the mandatory five-day move-in inventory, and the attorney-fee clause Kansas prohibits in both directions.

Kansas K.S.A. 58-2540 et seq. Tiered Deposit Cap Free PDF 2026 Edition

A Kansas residential lease agreement is the written contract governed by the Kansas Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, codified at K.S.A. 58-2540 through 58-2573. Kansas adopted its act in 1975 and has amended it sparingly since, which means the statute reads like the original uniform text and contains several rules that no generic template gets right. Kansas does not use a flat one-month deposit cap — it uses a tiered one, with a different ceiling for unfurnished units, furnished units, and units where pets are kept. It does not use a flat thirty-day deposit return — it uses a two-stage deadline, and the shorter of the two stages is the one landlords miss. It sets no number of hours for entry notice at all. Its rent notice runs three consecutive twenty-four-hour periods. And it prohibits an attorney-fee clause in both directions, not just the landlord’s. The generator below builds a lease that reflects each of those rules as the statute actually reads.

Complete the fields below to generate a Kansas residential lease agreement as a signable multi-page PDF. Every field you fill is written into the document, including the utility allocations, the furnishing tier that fixes your deposit ceiling, and each disclosure you check, and the generated lease cites the controlling Kansas section at each point. Before you hand keys to anyone, run proper tenant screening — the lease governs the relationship, screening decides whether you want it. Pair the signed lease with a Kansas move-in / move-out checklist so the joint inventory K.S.A. 58-2548 requires is documented rather than remembered.

Kansas recognizes the standard range of residential arrangements, and the type determines how the tenancy ends. A fixed-term lease runs for a stated period and expires on its own terms. A periodic tenancy renews each period until one side gives notice. Under K.S.A. 58-2545(d), unless the rental agreement fixes a definite term, the tenancy is week-to-week in the case of a roomer who pays weekly rent and month-to-month in all other cases. That default is why an informal arrangement to pay monthly rent creates a month-to-month tenancy by operation of law, with the whole act attached to it, even when nothing was signed.

Beyond those, a room or roommate agreement covers a person renting one room in an occupied dwelling — and note that Kansas gives “roomer” a technical definition in K.S.A. 58-2543(l), meaning a person occupying a unit that lacks a major bathroom or major kitchen facility, where one or more major facilities are shared with other units. A sublease transfers the tenant’s interest to a subtenant while leaving the original tenant liable to the landlord, and is available only where the lease permits it. A lease-to-own agreement bolts a purchase option onto a tenancy and should be drafted with counsel, because occupancy under a contract of sale falls outside the act altogether. A commercial lease is not governed by the residential act at all.

Two Kansas drafting points deserve emphasis. First, K.S.A. 33-105 provides that no lease, estate or interest in land exceeding one year in duration may be granted or assigned except by deed or note in writing, signed by the party granting it or a duly authorized agent. So an oral eighteen-month tenancy is not enforceable for its stated term. Second, K.S.A. 58-2546 handles the very common situation where only one side actually signed: if the landlord never signs an agreement the tenant signed and delivered, knowing acceptance of rent without reservation gives it the same effect as if the landlord had signed, and the mirror rule applies to a tenant who takes possession and pays rent. But subsection (c) then caps it — an agreement given effect by that operation is effective only for one year, however long a term it recites. Landlords who rely on an unsigned three-year lease are usually holding a one-year tenancy.

It depends on the unit, because Kansas uses a tiered cap rather than a single number. K.S.A. 58-2550(a) is the controlling section, and it sets three figures:

• Unfurnished dwelling unit: a landlord may not demand or receive a security deposit in an amount or value in excess of one month’s periodic rent.
• Furnished dwelling unit: the ceiling rises to one and one-half months’ rent.
• Where pets are kept on the premises: an additional amount not exceeding one-half of one month’s rent may be demanded as a pet deposit, on top of whichever base tier applies.

Read together, that means a furnished unit with a pet has a lawful ceiling of two months’ rent, while an unfurnished unit without pets is capped at one. This is the single most frequently mis-stated fact about Kansas leases: the ranking template pages either print one flat figure or describe the furnished tier without the pet tier. Neither version tells a landlord what they may actually collect, and neither tells a tenant what to challenge.

One statutory exception sits alongside the tiers. A municipal housing authority that receives federal funds may demand and receive a security deposit under a schedule the authority establishes based on bedroom unit size, and the statute contemplates an option for tenants to pay it on a deferred basis. That carve-out is for subsidized public housing, not for a private landlord who happens to accept a voucher.

Note also what a “security deposit” is in Kansas. K.S.A. 58-2543(m) defines it as any sum of money specified in a rental agreement, however denominated, deposited with the landlord as a condition precedent to occupancy and forfeitable on a breach specified in the agreement. Renaming a deposit a “move-in fee” does not move it outside the cap if it functions as security. The deeper treatment lives in our Kansas security deposit laws guide.

There are two deadlines, and the shorter one is the one landlords miss. K.S.A. 58-2550(b) is worth reading slowly because almost every summary of it flattens the structure.

On termination of the tenancy, the deposit may be applied to accrued rent and to the amount of damages the landlord has suffered by reason of the tenant’s noncompliance with K.S.A. 58-2555 and with the rental agreement — all as itemized by the landlord in a written notice delivered to the tenant. The itemization is not optional and it is not something the landlord produces only if asked.

Then the timing. Where the landlord proposes to retain any portion of the deposit for expenses, damages or other legally allowable charges other than rent, the landlord must return the balance to the tenant within fourteen days after the determination of the amount of those expenses, damages or other charges, but in no event to exceed thirty days after termination of the tenancy, delivery of possession and demand by the tenant. Both limits bind. A landlord who finalises the repair estimate on day four and mails the balance on day twenty-five has satisfied the thirty-day outer limit and blown the fourteen-day inner one.

The thirty-day limit also has three components, not one: termination of the tenancy, delivery of possession, and demand by the tenant. If the tenant never demands, the clock never runs in the ordinary way — instead the statute says that if the tenant does not make demand within thirty days after termination of the tenancy, the landlord shall mail the portion of the deposit due to the tenant’s last known address. That is why a written forwarding address matters even though Kansas does not, unlike some states, make it a precondition to recovery.

The penalty is in subsection (c), and it is not forfeiture. If the landlord fails to comply with subsection (b), the tenant may recover that portion of the security deposit due together with damages in an amount equal to one and one-half times the amount wrongfully withheld. Subsection (e) preserves either party’s right to recover other damages available under applicable law. Subsection (d) closes the other direction: a tenant may not apply the deposit to rent unless the agreement permits it, and a tenant who does forfeits the deposit while the landlord may still collect the rent as though no deposit existed. Use the Kansas security deposit itemization form to build the written itemization, and the Kansas security deposit return letter to send it.

Kansas is one of a small number of states that makes a joint move-in inspection a statutory duty rather than good practice. K.S.A. 58-2548 provides that within five days of the initial date of occupancy, or upon delivery of possession, the landlord (or the landlord’s designated representative) and the tenant shall jointly inventory the premises.

The statute then specifies the artifact: a written record detailing the condition of the premises, and of any furnishings or appliances provided, completed in duplicate, signed by both the landlord and the tenant to confirm the inventory has been completed, with a copy given to the tenant. Three requirements sit inside that sentence and each is regularly dropped — the inventory must be joint rather than a form the landlord fills in alone, it must be signed by both parties, and the tenant must actually receive a copy.

The practical consequence connects straight back to the deposit. Every deduction a landlord takes under K.S.A. 58-2550(b) has to be traceable to damage caused by the tenant’s noncompliance with K.S.A. 58-2555. Without a signed, dated, jointly-conducted record of the unit’s condition on day one, that causation is an argument rather than a document — and a tenant who can point to a missing statutory inventory is in a strong position on a one-and-one-half-times-the-withholding claim. Our Kansas move-in / move-out checklist produces the record in the form the statute contemplates.

Rent is payable without demand or notice at the time and place the parties agreed. K.S.A. 58-2545(c) supplies the defaults where the lease is silent: rent is payable at the dwelling unit, periodic rent is payable at the beginning of any term of one month or less and otherwise in equal monthly installments at the beginning of each month, and rent is uniformly apportionable from day to day. That last clause is what makes a prorated first or final month lawful. Where the agreement fixes no rent at all, subsection (b) supplies the fair rental value for the use and occupancy of the unit.

Kansas sets no statutory grace period. If rent is due on the first, it is late on the second unless the lease creates a grace period. And the Kansas Residential Landlord and Tenant Act sets no cap on late fees — there is no residential late-fee statute in it at all. The practical limits are contractual and judicial: the fee must be in the lease to be chargeable, and a fee wildly out of proportion to the landlord’s actual loss invites a challenge as an unenforceable penalty rather than a genuine estimate of damages, and potentially as unconscionable under K.S.A. 58-2544. Our Kansas late fee laws guide covers the drafting in more detail.

Returned checks are governed separately. K.S.A. 60-2610 makes the drawer of a dishonored check civilly liable, but it caps the service charge at thirty dollars and requires the holder to make a written demand and then wait at least fourteen days before filing a civil action. A lease clause imposing a larger flat “NSF fee” is charging something the statute measures differently, and landlords should not assume a fee schedule copied from another state survives here.

Kansas also has no rent-control statute and no rent-increase notice statute. On a fixed-term lease, rent cannot change mid-term unless the lease says so. On a periodic tenancy, a rent change is accomplished by giving the notice that would end the tenancy — thirty days for month-to-month under K.S.A. 58-2570(b) — and offering new terms. Our Kansas rent increase laws guide and the Kansas rent increase notice handle the mechanics. Note the one retaliation guard-rail: under K.S.A. 58-2572 a rent increase may not be retaliatory, though the statute expressly permits a good-faith increase that compensates the landlord for acts of God, utility rate increases, property tax increases or other increases in operating costs.

Kansas does not answer that question with a number. K.S.A. 58-2557(a) gives the landlord the right to enter the dwelling unit at reasonable hours, after reasonable notice, in order to inspect the premises, make necessary or agreed repairs, decorations, alterations or improvements, supply necessary or agreed services, or exhibit the unit to prospective or actual purchasers, mortgagees, tenants, workmen or contractors. There is no twenty-four-hour rule, no forty-eight-hour rule, and no two-day rule in the Kansas statute. Any page that prints one for Kansas has carried it over from somewhere else.

What “reasonable” means is decided on the facts — the purpose of the entry, the hour, how much warning the tenant had, and whether the pattern of entries looks like access or like pressure. Because a standard is harder to prove compliance with than a deadline, the lease this page generates commits the landlord to a written notice at least twenty-four hours before a non-emergency entry, while saying plainly that this is a contractual practice the parties chose and not a Kansas statutory requirement. A dated Kansas notice to enter turns a reasonableness argument into a paper trail.

The exception is narrow. K.S.A. 58-2557(b) permits entry without the tenant’s consent only in case of an extreme hazard involving the potential loss of life or severe property damage. That is a materially higher bar than the general “emergency” language used elsewhere. And 58-2557(c) states flatly that the landlord shall not abuse the right of access or use it to harass the tenant. Separately, K.S.A. 58-2565(b) allows entry at times reasonably necessary during any tenant absence in excess of thirty days.

K.S.A. 58-2571 then supplies remedies that run both ways, which most summaries omit. If the tenant refuses to allow lawful access, the landlord may obtain injunctive relief to compel access or may terminate the rental agreement, and may recover actual damages. If the landlord makes an unlawful entry, a lawful entry in an unreasonable manner, or repeated demands for entry that are otherwise lawful but have the effect of unreasonably harassing the tenant, the tenant may obtain injunctive relief to prevent recurrence or may terminate the rental agreement, and may recover actual damages. Our Kansas landlord entry laws guide walks through both sides.

K.S.A. 58-2553(a) places five duties on the landlord, subject to an opening exception for acts of God, the failure of public utility services, and other conditions beyond the landlord’s control. The landlord shall comply with the requirements of applicable building and housing codes materially affecting health and safety; exercise reasonable care in the maintenance of the common areas; maintain in good and safe working order and condition all electrical, plumbing, sanitary, heating, ventilating and air-conditioning appliances, including elevators, supplied or required to be supplied by the landlord; except where a governmental entity provides them, provide and maintain on the grounds for common use appropriate receptacles for the removal of ashes, garbage, rubbish and other waste and arrange for their removal; and supply running water and reasonable amounts of hot water at all times and reasonable heat. Where the code duty is greater than any other duty in the section, the code duty controls. The section also forbids the landlord from interfering with or refusing access or service by a communication or cable television service duly franchised by a municipality.

K.S.A. 58-2555 sets the tenant’s seven duties: comply with obligations primarily imposed on tenants by applicable building and housing codes materially affecting health and safety; keep the occupied part of the premises as clean and safe as its condition permits; remove all ashes, rubbish, garbage and other waste in a clean and safe manner; keep plumbing fixtures as clean as their condition permits; use all electrical, plumbing, sanitary, heating, ventilating, air-conditioning and other facilities and appliances reasonably; be responsible for any destruction, defacement, damage, impairment or removal of any part of the premises caused by the tenant or by any person, animal or pet on the premises with the tenant’s express or implied permission; and not engage in, or permit, conduct that disturbs the quiet and peaceful enjoyment of the premises by other tenants. Note how explicitly Kansas writes pets and animals into the tenant’s responsibility clause — see our Kansas pet and assistance animal laws guide for how that interacts with assistance animals.

Kansas also allows the parties to reallocate some maintenance, but only under conditions. Under K.S.A. 58-2553(b), for a dwelling providing a home for not more than four households with common areas, the parties may agree in writing that the tenant performs the landlord’s waste-removal and water-heat duties plus specified repairs, but only in good faith and not to evade the landlord’s obligations. Under 58-2553(c), for any dwelling other than a single family residence, an agreement that the tenant performs specified repairs must sit in a separate written agreement, signed by the parties, supported by adequate consideration, must not cover work needed to cure a code violation, and must not diminish the landlord’s obligations to other tenants. Subsection (d) forbids treating performance of that separate agreement as a condition of any obligation under the lease. And K.S.A. 58-2549 prevents the whole structure from being drafted around: no rental agreement, assignment, conveyance, trust deed or security instrument may permit receipt of rent free of the obligation to comply with 58-2553(a).

When the landlord does not repair, the tenant’s route is K.S.A. 58-2559: written notice specifying the breach and stating that the rental agreement terminates on a rent-paying date not less than thirty days after receipt. If the breach is remediable by repairs or the payment of damages and the landlord adequately initiates a good faith effort to remedy it within fourteen days, the agreement does not terminate; if the same breach recurs, the tenant may give notice again. The tenant may also recover damages and obtain injunctive relief, and on termination takes back the recoverable portion of the deposit. The tenant may not terminate for a condition caused by the tenant or by someone on the premises with the tenant’s permission. Kansas has no repair-and-deduct statute in the act, which is a real gap in tenant remedies and one that competitor pages routinely gloss over. Our Kansas habitability laws guide covers the practical sequence.

Two related sections round this out. K.S.A. 58-2561 makes the tenant’s counterclaim compulsory: in an action for possession based on nonpayment, or an action for rent where the tenant is in possession, the tenant shall counterclaim for any amount recoverable or the counterclaim is waived, and the court may order accrued and future rent paid into court. And K.S.A. 58-2562 handles fire and casualty — where damage substantially impairs use and habitability, the tenant may vacate immediately and give written notice of termination within five days, or may vacate the unusable part with rent reduced in proportion to the diminution in fair rental value.

For a tenancy without a fixed term, K.S.A. 58-2570 sets the notice periods. A week-to-week tenancy may be terminated by either party by written notice given to the other at least seven days prior to the termination date. A month-to-month tenancy may be terminated by written notice effective not less than thirty days after receipt of the notice. Note the phrasing difference from many states: the thirty days runs from receipt, not from the next rent day, so a notice that arrives late in a month does not simply slide to the end of the following one.

Kansas adds a military accommodation inside the same section: where the tenant is a member of the armed forces of the United States and is required to move by orders, fifteen days’ notice is sufficient to terminate a month-to-month tenancy. That sits alongside, not instead of, the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.

If the tenant unlawfully remains in possession after the term ends, K.S.A. 58-2570(c) lets the landlord bring an action for possession, and where the holdover is willful and not in good faith the landlord may recover not more than one and one-half months’ periodic rent or not more than one and one-half times the actual damages sustained, whichever is greater. Kansas caps this; several states do not. Subsection (d) allows the landlord to move for immediate possession where the judge determines it serves the interest of justice and protects the interests of all parties.

Subsection (e) is the sleeper. If a landlord gives the tenant a move-out notice document containing terms that obligate the tenant beyond the terms of the lease agreement, that document must carry the bold-type warning the statute prescribes, telling the tenant it contains additional binding terms. Landlords who bolt cleaning schedules, forfeiture clauses or new charges onto a move-out letter without that warning are handing the tenant an argument. Our Kansas lease termination laws guide and Kansas breaking-lease laws guide cover the notice mechanics and the early-exit questions, and the Kansas notice of non-renewal and Kansas tenant notice to vacate produce the documents.

Kansas has no early-termination-fee statute, and the act contains no general “just cause” requirement for ending a periodic tenancy. Under K.S.A. 58-2568, once the rental agreement terminates the landlord may claim possession, rent, or both, and may separately claim actual damages for breach — and may file that damages action before the termination date.

Three days for unpaid rent, and thirty days with a fourteen-day cure window for everything else. Kansas splits the two tracks between subsections of a single section, K.S.A. 58-2564, and the mechanics of each are more specific than the headline numbers suggest.

Nonpayment — K.S.A. 58-2564(b). The landlord may terminate if rent is unpaid when due and the tenant fails to pay within three days after written notice of the nonpayment and of the landlord’s intention to terminate if the rent is not paid within that period. The statute then tells you exactly how to count: the three-day period is computed as three consecutive twenty-four-hour periods. Where the notice is served on the tenant, on a person over twelve years of age residing on the premises, or by posting a copy in a conspicuous place on the premises, the period commences at the time of delivery or posting. And where the notice is mailed, an additional two days from the date of mailing are allowed for the tenant to pay. A landlord who mails on Monday and files on Friday has not waited long enough. Our Kansas three-day notice to pay rent or quit builds the notice, and the Kansas late rent notice handles the softer first step.

Other material breach — K.S.A. 58-2564(a). Where there is material noncompliance with the rental agreement, or noncompliance with K.S.A. 58-2555 materially affecting health and safety, the landlord delivers written notice specifying the acts and omissions constituting the breach and stating that the agreement will terminate on a date not less than thirty days after receipt of the notice if the breach is not remedied in fourteen days. The agreement then terminates as provided in the notice regardless of the periodic rent-paying date.

Two qualifications sit inside that same subsection. First, the good faith save: if the breach is remediable by repairs, the payment of damages or otherwise, and the tenant adequately initiates a good faith effort to remedy it before the date specified in the notice, the agreement does not terminate. Kansas asks for an initiated good-faith effort, not a completed cure. Second, the no-second-chance rule: if that breach or a similar breach occurs after the fourteen-day period, the landlord may deliver a written notice terminating the agreement on a date not less than thirty days after receipt without providing the opportunity to remedy. Our Kansas notice to cure or quit and Kansas unconditional quit notice cover both, and the Kansas eviction notice laws guide sets out the sequence.

Landlords should also know K.S.A. 58-2566, because it quietly undoes a lot of notices: acceptance of late payment of rent without reservation, or acceptance of non-conforming performance, waives the right to terminate for that breach unless otherwise agreed after the breach has occurred. Take the money and you have usually taken the case with it.

What a landlord may never do is take possession outside the court process. K.S.A. 58-2569 provides that a landlord may not recover or take possession by action or otherwise, including by willful diminution of services by interrupting electric, gas, water or other essential service, except in case of abandonment, surrender, or as otherwise permitted by the act. K.S.A. 58-2563 puts a price on breaking that rule: unlawful removal or exclusion, or willful interruption of essential services, lets the tenant recover possession or terminate and, either way, recover not more than one and one-half months’ periodic rent or the damages sustained, whichever is greater. K.S.A. 58-2560 applies the same one-and-one-half-times measure where a landlord willfully and in bad faith fails to deliver possession at the start of the term, and gives the tenant a five-day-notice route to terminate with the entire deposit back. And K.S.A. 58-2567 abolishes distraint for rent except as provided in 58-2565, and makes a landlord’s lien or security interest in the tenant’s household goods, furnishings, fixtures or other personal property unenforceable unless it was perfected before the act took effect.

Kansas gives this its own detailed procedure in K.S.A. 58-2565, and the sequence matters because the landlord who shortcuts it loses the protection.

Start with absence. Under K.S.A. 58-2558 the rental agreement may require the tenant to notify the landlord of an anticipated extended absence in excess of seven days, no later than the first day of the absence — and 58-2565(a) then provides that where the agreement contains that requirement and the tenant willfully fails to comply, the landlord may recover actual damages. Note the conditional: the duty exists only if the lease creates it, which is why the form above offers it as a checkbox rather than assuming it.

Next, entry and the abandonment assumption. During any absence of the tenant in excess of thirty days, the landlord may enter the dwelling unit at times reasonably necessary. And after the tenant is ten days in default for nonpayment of rent and has removed a substantial portion of the tenant’s belongings, the landlord may assume the unit has been abandoned unless the tenant has notified the landlord to the contrary. Both elements are required — ten days of arrears alone is not abandonment, and an empty-looking unit with rent current is not either. On abandonment the landlord must make reasonable efforts to rent the unit at a fair rental, and subsection (c) explains when the rental agreement terminates depending on whether a new tenancy begins, whether the landlord had notice of the abandonment, and whether the landlord accepted a surrender.

Finally, disposal. Where the tenant abandons the unit leaving personal property behind, or is removed following an action under K.S.A. 61-3801 through 61-3808, the landlord may take possession of the property and, after storing it for thirty days, may sell or otherwise dispose of it — but only if notice of the sale or disposition is published in a newspaper of general circulation in the county at least fifteen days before the sale, and a copy of the published notice is mailed to the tenant’s last known address within seven days after publication. Sale proceeds are applied first to the landlord’s reasonable expenses of moving, storage and sale, then to amounts owed for rent, and the balance is retained by the landlord without liability except to a secured creditor. A purchaser who lacks knowledge of any ownership violation takes free and clear of the tenant’s claims. Kansas is therefore procedural where some states are permissive: there is no quick “no duty to store” shortcut here.

K.S.A. 58-2547(a) lists four provisions a rental agreement may not contain, and Kansas writes them symmetrically — the section says “the tenant or landlord,” so the prohibitions bite in both directions. A rental agreement may not provide that the tenant or landlord:

• Agrees to waive or to forgo rights or remedies under the act. This is the anti-waiver backbone; it is why none of the deadlines on this page can be contracted away.
• Authorizes any person to confess judgment on a claim arising out of the rental agreement.
• Agrees to pay either party’s attorneys’ fees. Not just the landlord’s. This is the clause almost every imported template gets wrong.
• Agrees to the exculpation or limitation of any liability of either party arising under law, or to indemnify either party for that liability or the costs connected with it — except that a rental agreement may provide that a tenant agrees to limit the landlord’s liability for fire, theft or breakage with respect to common areas of the dwelling unit.

That last exception is narrow and specific, and it is the only carve-out in the section. It covers common areas, not the unit; and fire, theft or breakage, not liability generally. A broad “landlord not liable for any loss or damage” clause is outside it.

Subsection (b) supplies the consequence. A provision prohibited by subsection (a) and included in a rental agreement is unenforceable, and if a landlord deliberately uses a rental agreement containing provisions known by the landlord to be prohibited, the tenant may recover actual damages sustained. The trigger is deliberate use with knowledge, which is why a landlord who has been told the clause is void — by, for instance, reading this page — is in a worse position than one who never looked.

It is worth being precise about the attorney-fee rule, because it is the one that most often gets “fixed” the wrong way. In several states a fee-shifting clause is saved by making it reciprocal, running to whichever party prevails. That does not work in Kansas. The statutory language reaches an agreement that either party pays either party’s fees, so reciprocity is exactly what the section prohibits rather than a cure for it. The lease this page generates therefore contains no attorney-fee clause at all, and says so expressly. Separately, K.S.A. 58-2544 lets a court refuse to enforce a rental agreement or provision it finds was unconscionable when made, enforce the remainder without it, or limit its application — and the same power reaches an unconscionable settlement in which a party waived a right under the act.

Two under state law, plus one federal. That is the complete list, and it is far shorter than most templates suggest.

Manager and owner identification — K.S.A. 58-2551. The landlord, or any person authorized to enter into a rental agreement on the landlord’s behalf, must disclose to the tenant in writing, at or before the commencement of the tenancy, the name and address of the person authorized to manage the premises, and of an owner of the premises or a person authorized to act for and on behalf of the owner for the purpose of service of process and for receiving and receipting for notices and demands. The information must be kept current, and the section extends to and is enforceable against any successor landlord, owner or manager. The teeth are in subsection (c): a person who fails to comply becomes an agent of each person who is a landlord, for service of process and for performing the landlord’s obligations under the act and the rental agreement, including expending the rent collected for that purpose. K.S.A. 58-2543(e) reinforces the point by defining “landlord” to include a manager who fails to disclose under 58-2551.

Joint move-in inventory — K.S.A. 58-2548. Covered in full above. Five days, joint, in duplicate, signed by both, copy to the tenant.

Lead-based paint — federal, 42 U.S.C. 4852d. Any dwelling built before 1978 requires the federal disclosure, the EPA pamphlet, and any known records or reports. Not a Kansas rule, but it applies in Kansas and carries federal penalties. Our Kansas lead-based paint disclosure form handles it.

Kansas does not require a radon disclosure, a flood-risk disclosure, a bed bug disclosure, a mold disclosure, an asbestos disclosure, a methamphetamine contamination disclosure, a military ordnance proximity disclosure, a shared-utility disclosure, a demolition notice, or a sex-offender registry notice in a residential lease. Every one of those comes from another state’s statute book. Including a voluntary disclosure does no harm — the generator offers a mold block labelled as voluntary — but citing a Kansas section for it does, because it signals a document nobody has checked against the act.

One more thing landlords should give the tenant even though no section commands it: a copy of the signed lease. Kansas does not impose a statutory duty to deliver a copy, but K.S.A. 58-2546 makes conduct do the work of a signature, so the only reliable evidence of what was agreed is a countersigned document in both parties’ hands.

K.S.A. 58-2541 lists seven arrangements the act does not govern, unless they were created to avoid its application: residence at a public or private institution incidental to detention or the provision of medical, geriatric, educational, counseling, religious or similar service; occupancy under a contract of sale where the occupant is the purchaser or a successor to the purchaser’s interest; occupancy by a member of a fraternal or social organization in the portion of a structure operated for the organization’s benefit; transient occupancy in a hotel, motel or rooming house; occupancy by an employee of a landlord whose right to occupy is conditional on employment in and about the premises; occupancy by an owner of a condominium unit or a holder of a proprietary lease in a cooperative; and occupancy under a rental agreement covering premises used primarily for agricultural purposes — a genuinely Kansas-relevant exclusion.

K.S.A. 58-2543(c) adds a definitional limit: a “dwelling unit” does not include real property used to accommodate a manufactured home or mobile home, unless the manufactured or mobile home itself is rented or leased by the landlord. A pad-rent-only mobile home lot therefore sits outside this act. And K.S.A. 58-2573 confirms the act does not apply to a valid rental agreement made before its effective date, though it does govern any renewal, extension or modification made afterwards, and excludes a person who entered and occupied without authorization, without a rental agreement and without the landlord’s knowledge where the landlord has personally communicated an order to leave.

Jurisdiction and procedure sit in K.S.A. 58-2542: the district court has jurisdiction over any landlord or tenant with respect to conduct in Kansas governed by the act, and actions may be commenced under the code of civil procedure for limited actions, which governs unless the act specifically provides otherwise.

Finally, K.S.A. 58-2556 governs house rules. A landlord may adopt rules concerning the tenant’s use and occupancy, but a rule is enforceable only if its purpose is to promote the convenience, safety, peace or welfare of the tenants or to preserve the property; it relates reasonably to that purpose; it applies uniformly to all tenants; it is sufficiently explicit to fairly inform the tenant of what it requires; it is not for the purpose of evading the landlord’s obligations; and the tenant had notice of it before signing. A rule adopted later that works a substantial modification of the rental agreement is unenforceable unless the tenant consents to it in writing. Under 58-2543(k), validly adopted rules are part of the “rental agreement” itself.

• Treating the deposit cap as one number. K.S.A. 58-2550(a) is tiered: one month unfurnished, one and one-half months furnished, and half a month more where pets are kept.
• Calendaring only the thirty-day deposit deadline. The fourteen-day limit runs from the day you determine the charges and frequently expires first.
• Skipping the joint move-in inventory. K.S.A. 58-2548 makes it mandatory within five days, jointly, in duplicate, signed by both, with a copy to the tenant.
• Including an attorney-fee clause. K.S.A. 58-2547(a)(3) voids it in both directions, and making it reciprocal does not save it.
• Writing a twenty-four-hour entry notice into the lease and calling it Kansas law. The statute says reasonable notice at reasonable hours and sets no number.
• Counting the three-day rent notice in calendar days. It is three consecutive twenty-four-hour periods from delivery or posting, with two extra days added if you mailed it.
• Accepting a partial late payment and then filing. K.S.A. 58-2566 treats unreserved acceptance of late rent as a waiver of the right to terminate for that breach.
• Assuming ten days of unpaid rent equals abandonment. K.S.A. 58-2565(b) also requires removal of a substantial portion of the tenant’s belongings.
• Disposing of left-behind property without publishing notice. Thirty days’ storage, newspaper publication at least fifteen days before the sale, and a mailed copy within seven days of publication.
• Relying on an unsigned multi-year lease. K.S.A. 58-2546(c) makes an agreement given effect by conduct good for one year at most.
• Adding an indemnity or broad exculpation clause. Prohibited by K.S.A. 58-2547(a)(4); only a limitation of the landlord’s liability for fire, theft or breakage in common areas survives.
• Importing radon, flood, or bed bug disclosures. None are required in Kansas, and citing a Kansas section for them is a tell that the lease was never checked against the act.

A well-drafted lease decides who wins a dispute; screening decides whether there is a dispute at all. Kansas gives a landlord a fast three-day path on unpaid rent, but it also removes the fee-shifting clause landlords elsewhere rely on, caps holdover damages, and attaches a one-and-one-half-times penalty to a mishandled deposit — so the cost of placing the wrong tenant lands squarely on the landlord here. Verifiable income, a clean payment history, and no prior eviction filings remain the strongest predictors of a quiet tenancy. Our tenant screening report covers credit, eviction filings, criminal background, and employment verification, and our Kansas tenant screening laws guide covers what you may lawfully consider. Screen first, then paper the tenancy with this lease.

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