Miscellaneous & related Kansas laws

Kansas lets a property owner secure access to sunlight for a solar-energy device through a solar easement — a voluntary agreement that must be in writing and recorded with the register of deeds, and that states the angles of the protected exposure and any terms for its grant or termination (§§ 58-3801, 58-3802). Note what this is not: it is an agreement between owners to protect sunlight, not a statute that overrides an association's architectural restrictions on installing solar panels. Kansas has no statute barring an HOA from restricting solar, so a member's solar rights turn on the community's recorded declaration and rules. Kansas's other solar statute confirms the point rather than softening it: § 58-2272, which sets the required contents of a wind or solar lease or easement, provides that “[n]othing in this section shall be construed to affect any otherwise enforceable restriction on the use of any tract of land for the production of wind or solar energy” (§ 58-2272(d)).

Kansas rarely overrides a recorded covenant — but in three places it does, and all three are retroactive, reaching covenants already in existence.

Political yard signs. Any covenant provision that prohibits displaying a political yard sign of less than six square feet, during the window beginning 45 days before an election and ending two days after it, is “declared to be against public policy and such provision shall be void and unenforceable” — and that applies to “any restrictive covenant in existence on the effective date of this act” (§ 58-3820). This one reaches every Kansas community, not only those big enough for KUCIOBORA.

Transfer fee covenants. A private transfer fee covenant is likewise “against public policy” and “void and unenforceable”, retroactively (§ 58-3822). Note the boundary: § 58-3821 expressly carves association dues and assessments out of the definition of a “transfer fee”, so this bites private transfer-fee schemes, not your regular assessment.

Discriminatory covenants. Any restrictive covenant recital that violates § 44-1016 or § 44-1017 of the Kansas Act Against Discrimination is “void and unenforceable” (§ 58-2274(a)) — and a nonprofit homeowners association's board must additionally strike it from the documents (§ 44-1017a).

This is the Kansas provision most often missed, and it is the one a board member most wants to know. A volunteer of a nonprofit homeowners organization “shall not be liable for damages in a civil action for acts or omissions as such volunteer” — and separately not liable for the acts or omissions of the organization's other officers, directors, trustees, employees or volunteers (§ 60-3611(b), (c)).

Who counts as a volunteer. An officer, director, trustee or other person who performs services but receives no compensation, directly or indirectly. Reimbursing actual and necessary expenses does not make someone compensated (§ 60-3611(a)(2), (a)(3)). Note the definition of the organisation itself is a federal tax test: a nonprofit “exempt from federal income tax pursuant to section 528 of the internal revenue code of 1986” (§ 60-3611(a)(1)).

Three limits, and they matter. The shield falls away where the conduct is willful or wanton misconduct or intentionally tortious; and where the volunteer is required to be insured or is otherwise insured, in which case liability runs to the extent of the insurance coverage. It also does not protect the association — § 60-3611(d) leaves the organisation liable for its volunteer's negligence and imputes that negligence to it for apportioning damages. And it applies only to causes of action accruing on or after July 1, 1996 (§ 60-3611(e)).

Most Kansas homeowners' and condominium associations are organized as nonprofit (nonstock) corporations under the Kansas General Corporation Code, which is K.S.A. 17-6001 et seq. — article 60 of chapter 17, not the whole chapter, which also holds cooperatives, cemetery and banking corporations. See § 17-6014 and § 17-6505 for how the code applies to a corporation with members rather than stockholders. For a townhouse community this is not optional: § 58-3702(c) defines the association as “a nonprofit corporation formed pursuant to article 60 of chapter 17”. It supplies the corporate machinery — members and meetings, the board of directors, officers, records, and dissolution — that the community's declaration and bylaws build on. You can confirm an association's corporate status, registered agent, and annual-report filings through the Kansas Secretary of State business search.

When a third-party collector or attorney pursues unpaid assessments, the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) can apply. Kansas may add its own layer: the Kansas Consumer Protection Act (K.S.A. 50-623 et seq.) bars a “supplier” from using deceptive (§ 50-626) or unconscionable (§ 50-627) acts and practices in a “consumer transaction”, which § 50-624 defines as a sale, lease, assignment or other disposition for value of property or services to a consumer. Whether an association's assessment collection is a consumer transaction is not answered by the statute itself — an assessment obligation arises from a recorded declaration running with the land, and no section of the act names associations, assessments or debt collection — so treat it as a fact-specific question rather than a settled one. Either way, a homeowner who believes a collector crossed the line can complain to the Kansas Attorney General, who may bring an action under § 50-632.