Kansas HOA Architectural Review

Quick-Reference Architectural Authority Table

Section 1: Overview, How Architectural Review Works in Kansas

Kansas puts statutes first and agencies second. Here, a community's recorded declaration supplies the architectural authority, and a partial uniform act lays owner-rights and procedural rules over most communities. The Kansas Uniform Common Interest Owners Bill of Rights Act — KUCIOBORA, at K.S.A. § 58-4601 et seq. — started as 2010 HB 2472 and took effect on January 1, 2011.¹ Kansas adopted only part of the uniform framework. It took the "bill of rights" that the Uniform Law Commission drew up in its 2008 model act, and it left the full Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act on the table; the act creates no communities of its own.² Under K.S.A. § 58-4605, the act reaches common interest communities — homeowners associations, condominiums, and cooperatives — that contain 12 or more residential units.³ Older property-type acts decide how projects come into being. The Apartment Ownership Act, K.S.A. § 58-3101 et seq., creates condominium (apartment-ownership) regimes through a recorded declaration,⁴ and the Townhouse Ownership Act, K.S.A. § 58-3701 et seq., creates townhouse-owner associations.⁵ Most Kansas associations also incorporate as nonprofit or nonstock corporations under Chapter 17, and that corporate law governs except where it clashes with KUCIOBORA.⁶

The live question is solar. Kansas has not passed an HOA solar-access law, and its only solar statute is a negotiated easement that the parties record.⁷ Senate Bill 144 (2025-26) would have voided covenants that prohibit rooftop solar, but it died without clearing either chamber.⁸ The courts settle the disputes, and Kansas keeps an intermediate appellate court: a case travels from the Kansas District Courts to the Kansas Court of Appeals and, from there, to the Kansas Supreme Court.⁹

Section 2: Architectural-Review Framework

2A. Source and Scope of Architectural Authority

Architectural authority in Kansas rests on contract. It begins in the recorded declaration — the covenants, conditions, and restrictions — which hands review and approval power to the board of directors or to an architectural committee. KUCIOBORA confirms the arrangement: an association may adopt rules that set and enforce construction, design, and aesthetic standards only "if the declaration so provides," and the enforcement and approval procedures likewise depend on the declaration.¹⁰ The layered structure matters. KUCIOBORA overlays owner-rights and procedural rules across HOAs, condominiums, and cooperatives that hold 12 or more residential units.¹¹ The Apartment Ownership Act creates condominiums; an owner submits property to the act by recording a declaration.¹² The Townhouse Ownership Act creates townhouse associations separately, and those associations form as nonprofit corporations under Chapter 17, Article 60.¹³ Planned communities arise by declaration, and KUCIOBORA then overlays them. Do not read the Apartment Ownership Act to cover planned communities.

KUCIOBORA is a partial adoption — a bill of rights, not the full Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act. The Kansas Judicial Council's advisory committee looked at both the 2008 Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act and the 2008 uniform bill of rights, and it chose the narrower bill of rights as its platform.¹⁴ The order of precedence runs from the top down: mandatory statutes first — KUCIOBORA's provisions are mandatory and control notwithstanding contrary declaration or bylaw terms, except where the act itself says otherwise — then the declaration, then the bylaws, then the rules and architectural guidelines.¹⁵ Because KUCIOBORA does not create the architectural process itself, the declaration remains the working source of a board's power to review exterior changes, approve or deny applications, and set aesthetic standards.

2B. The Approval Process and Standards of Review

Kansas sets no statutory deadline for deciding an architectural application, no deemed-approval rule, and no mandatory written-denial requirement. The declaration supplies those terms. KUCIOBORA says as much: where the declaration provides for design standards, the association must adopt procedures for approving construction applications, "including a reasonable time within which the association must act after an application is submitted and the consequences of its failure to act."¹⁶ So the timeline, the deemed-approval consequence, and any written-decision duty flow from the governing documents, not from the statute.

Reasonableness is the governing standard. Kansas courts enforce a valid recorded restriction that falls within the association's authority, and they read any ambiguity in a restrictive covenant against the association that drafted it.¹⁷ Standards should stay reasonable, apply consistently, and rest on the declaration. KUCIOBORA builds procedural scaffolding around that contractual process. Before the board adopts a rule — design and aesthetic rules included — it must give owners advance notice of the text and the date it will act.¹⁸ It must also give owners a reasonable chance to comment at board and association meetings.¹⁹ The act requires bylaws that spell out board and officer powers and delegation, and that is where associations usually anchor an architectural committee's authority.²⁰ The records rules make an association keep, for five years, "records of board of directors or committee actions to approve or deny any requests for design or architectural approval," and hand them to owners on 10 days' written notice.²¹ KUCIOBORA imposes no separate notice-and-hearing-before-a-fine requirement; instead, it leaves the board's decision to impose sanctions or bring an enforcement action to the board's discretion, so long as that decision "may not be arbitrary or capricious."²² In practice, because the architectural timeline and written-decision duties are contractual, the declaration and KUCIOBORA's procedural overlay work together — and a board does well to follow its own declaration's notice-and-hearing steps before it fines anyone.

2C. Statutory and Federal Limits on Architectural Authority

Solar is the live area. For years, Kansas has not overridden HOA solar restrictions. Its only solar statute is the solar-easement provision: a solar-access easement "shall be created in writing" and recorded with the register of deeds, and a separate section lists what the instrument must contain.²³ That tool lets owners negotiate an easement to secure sunlight between themselves; it does not bar HOA solar restrictions, and it does not override an association's authority. Senate Bill 144 (2025-26) would have changed the picture. It would have voided any covenant that limits or prohibits rooftop solar panels, and it would have let associations adopt only reasonable, non-prohibitory rules. Its verified status is blunt: SB 144 died. It cleared neither chamber and never became law.²⁴ Kansas thus stays a no-override state, and the solar-easement statute remains the only solar-specific tool. When the Kansas Legislative Research Department briefed the subject on February 1, 2024, it counted Kansas among 21 states with no law on an HOA's power to restrict solar devices, against 29 states that had such laws — 22 of them allowing only reasonable restrictions.²⁵

Kansas has confirmed carve-outs for political signs and flags, though not for the others people sometimes assume. A covenant that bans political yard signs smaller than six square feet is void and unenforceable from 45 days before an election through two days after.²⁶ KUCIOBORA separately bars an association from prohibiting the Kansas state flag or signs about candidates or ballot questions, and it requires any U.S.-flag rule to track federal law.²⁷ Kansas confirms no statutory HOA carve-out for drought-tolerant or native landscaping, EV charging stations, rainwater harvesting, or clotheslines; those stay declaration matters.

Federal overlays apply on top, and they add to the state rules. The Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005 stops an association from restricting an owner's display of the U.S. flag on property the owner controls, subject to reasonable time, place, and manner limits that protect a substantial association interest.²⁸ The FCC's Over-the-Air Reception Devices rule limits any restriction that impairs the installation, maintenance, or use of most antennas and satellite dishes one meter or less within an owner's exclusive-use area.²⁹ The Fair Housing Act's reasonable-modification right makes an association allow reasonable, owner-funded, disability-related modifications to the premises.³⁰

Section 3: Compliance Obligations in the Architectural-Review Process

A. Adopting and Maintaining Architectural Standards

An association may adopt and enforce construction, design, and aesthetic standards only if its declaration provides for them. That obligation rests on the DECLARATION, which KUCIOBORA authorizes; it is not a freestanding statutory power.³¹ Before the board adopts or amends any rule — design rules included — it must give owners advance notice of the text and the date it will act. That duty is STATUTORY, under the KUCIOBORA overlay.³²

B. Reviewing and Deciding Applications

Any application deadline, deemed-approval consequence, or written-decision requirement is DECLARATION-based. KUCIOBORA imposes none, but it directs the declaration to set a reasonable time to act and to spell out the consequences of failing to act.³³ The board or architectural committee must bring a fiduciary's care and loyalty to these duties — a STATUTORY standard under the overlay.³⁴

C. Honoring Statutory and Federal Owner Protections

During the statutory election window, the association must not enforce covenants against protected political yard signs under six square feet, and it must not ban the state flag or signs about candidates or ballot questions. Those are STATUTORY limits, under K.S.A. § 58-3820 and the KUCIOBORA overlay.³⁵ On solar, no state statute overrides HOA authority, and SB 144 died, so any solar accommodation stays DECLARATION-based; the solar-easement statute is a separate, negotiated tool.³⁶ Federal law limits the association's authority on its own — over the U.S. flag (the Flag Act), covered antennas and dishes (OTARD), and disability-related modifications (the FHA) — and those STATUTORY overlays add to the state rules.³⁷

D. Enforcement and Dispute Resolution

The board may impose sanctions or bring an enforcement action, but its enforcement decisions may not be arbitrary or capricious — a STATUTORY standard under the overlay.³⁸ A declarant, association, or owner may go to court to enforce rights under the act, the declaration, or the bylaws, and the court may award reasonable attorney fees and costs; the association must also keep its design and architectural approval or denial records for five years and produce them on 10 days' notice. Those duties are STATUTORY.³⁹ Any internal hearing or architectural appeal track is DECLARATION-based.⁴⁰

Section 4: Recent Legislative and Judicial Activity

A. Recent Bills

B. Recent Rulings

C. Active Legislative Debates

The rooftop-solar covenant question remains the live debate over architectural authority. SB 144 died in the 2025-26 biennium after committee hearings, and similar solar-covenant proposals keep coming back — 2024 SB 506, for one, likewise would have declared covenants prohibiting rooftop solar void — so lawmakers may well reintroduce it.⁴⁵

Section 5: National Positioning and Related Coverage

Kansas is a partial-uniform-act state. A bill-of-rights overlay, KUCIOBORA, supplies owner-rights and procedural rules across most communities, while older property-type acts — the Apartment Ownership Act for condominiums and the Townhouse Ownership Act for townhouses — govern how a community comes into being. That puts Kansas between the full-UCIOA states, which adopt the comprehensive uniform act, and the comprehensive single-statute states, which fold creation and operation into one code. The live solar question drives the point home: Kansas is one of 21 states with no law limiting an HOA's authority over solar devices, so its only solar-specific statute remains a negotiated solar easement, and SB 144's death leaves that authority intact. For a multi-state operator, the takeaway is direct — the declaration governs the architectural process, KUCIOBORA overlays the procedural and enforcement rules, and the solar position turns on the verified status of the latest legislation. Kansas contrasts with carve-out-heavy states such as California and Colorado, which protect solar, EV charging, drought-tolerant landscaping, and flags by statute.

HOA Weekly updates its Kansas Architectural Review coverage quarterly as the Legislature and the Kansas appellate courts act. Federal frameworks — the Freedom to Display the American Flag Act, the FCC OTARD rule, and the Fair Housing Act — apply to Kansas associations on top of state law.

1. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 58-4601, Kansas Uniform Common Interest Owners Bill of Rights Act; findings; purpose (effective January 1, 2011) ↩
2. Kansas Legislative Research Department, Memorandum on KUCIOBORA (advisory committee selected the uniform bill of rights, not the full UCIOA) ↩
3. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 58-4605, Application to common interest communities with 12 or more residential units ↩
4. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 58-3101, Apartment Ownership Act; name of act ↩
5. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 58-3701, Townhouse Ownership Act; name of act ↩
6. Kansas Legislative Research Department, Memorandum on KUCIOBORA (Kan. Stat. Ann. § 58-4622; corporate law applies except where inconsistent with KUCIOBORA) ↩
7. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 58-3801, Creation of solar easements; recordation ↩
8. Kansas Legislature, S.B. 144 (2025-26) bill page (status: Died) ↩
9. Kansas Judicial Branch, Court of Appeals (intermediate appellate court) ↩
10. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 58-4617(c), Construction, design, and aesthetic standards allowed if the declaration so provides ↩
11. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 58-4605, Scope of the KUCIOBORA overlay ↩
12. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 58-3102, Apartment Ownership Act; definitions (declaration submits property to the act) ↩
13. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 58-3702, Townhouse-owner association is a nonprofit corporation under Chapter 17, Article 60 ↩
14. Kansas Legislative Research Department, Memorandum on KUCIOBORA (committee chose the bill of rights over the full UCIOA) ↩
15. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 58-4603, Provisions mandatory and apply notwithstanding contrary declaration or bylaws ↩
16. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 58-4617(c), Declaration to set a reasonable time to act and the consequences of failure to act ↩
17. Restum v. Hawthorne Master Homeowners' Ass'n, No. 125,567 (Kan. Ct. App. May 24, 2024) (ambiguities construed against the drafting association) ↩
18. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 58-4617(a)-(b), Rule adoption notice requirements ↩
19. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 58-4612, Open meetings and owner opportunity to comment ↩
20. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 58-4610, Required bylaws content, including delegation of board and officer powers ↩
21. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 58-4616, Five-year retention of design and architectural approval records and production on 10 days' written notice ↩
22. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 58-4608(b)-(c), Board enforcement discretion that may not be arbitrary or capricious ↩
23. Kan. Stat. Ann. §§ 58-3801 and 58-3802, Creation and required contents of a solar-easement instrument ↩
24. Kansas Legislature, S.B. 144 (2025-26) (status: Died; did not pass either chamber) ↩
25. Kansas Legislative Research Department (Kansas among 21 states with no law addressing HOA authority over solar devices; 29 states have such laws, 22 allowing only reasonable restrictions) ↩
26. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 58-3820, Covenants prohibiting political yard signs under six square feet void from 45 days before to two days after an election ↩
27. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 58-4617(d), Association may not ban the state flag or candidate/ballot-question signs; U.S.-flag rules must be consistent with federal law ↩
28. Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, Pub. L. No. 109-243, 120 Stat. 572 (4 U.S.C. § 5 note) ↩
29. FCC Over-the-Air Reception Devices Rule, 47 C.F.R. § 1.4000 ↩
30. Fair Housing Act, reasonable-modification right, 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(A) ↩
31. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 58-4617(c), Design and aesthetic standards permitted only if the declaration provides ↩
32. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 58-4617(a)-(b), Advance notice before adopting or amending rules ↩
33. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 58-4617(c), Declaration sets application timing and consequences ↩
34. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 58-4609, Board and officer duty of care and loyalty ↩
35. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 58-3820, Political yard sign protection ↩
36. Kansas Legislature, S.B. 144 (2025-26) (died; no HOA solar override enacted) ↩
37. Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, Pub. L. No. 109-243 (federal overlay) ↩
38. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 58-4608(b)-(c), Enforcement discretion not arbitrary or capricious ↩
39. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 58-4621, Enforcement of rights in court with reasonable attorney fees and costs ↩
40. Kan. Stat. Ann. § 58-4617(c), Enforcement and approval procedures depend on the declaration ↩
41. Kansas Legislature, S.B. 144 (2025-26) (sponsored by Sen. Cindy Holscher; January 28, 2026 hearing in the Senate Committee on Local Government, Transparency and Ethics; status: Died) ↩
42. Kansas Legislature, H.B. 2733 (2024) bill page (not enacted; civil fine not to exceed $500 per violation as proposed) ↩
43. Restum v. Hawthorne Master Homeowners' Ass'n, No. 125,567 (Kan. Ct. App. May 24, 2024) (unpublished) ↩
44. Parkwood Hills Homes Ass'n v. Ramakrishnan, No. 126,318 (Kan. Ct. App. May 31, 2024) (per curiam) (unpublished) ↩
45. Kansas Legislature, S.B. 144 (2025-26) (solar-covenant debate); see also 2024 S.B. 506 ↩