Kansas HOA Director Qualifications

1. Overview: Who can serve on a community association board in Kansas

Kansas regulates who can serve on a community association board, but it does so indirectly. The Kansas Uniform Common Interest Owners Bill of Rights Act — KUCIOBORA — does not set director qualifications by statute. Instead, it tells each association to spell out, in its own bylaws, the qualifications, the terms of office, and the way it elects and removes board members and officers.¹ KUCIOBORA asks for none of the things some states demand. It requires no director certification or training. It sets no term limit. And it disqualifies no one automatically — not owners who fall behind on assessments, not people with a criminal record.¹

KUCIOBORA sits at K.S.A. 58-4601 and following, and it took effect on January 1, 2011. It adopts only part of the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act. The Kansas advisory committee that wrote it made a deliberate choice: it worked from the shorter 2008 Uniform Common Interest Owners Bill of Rights and set the full Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act aside as too large. So Kansas kept the governance "bill of rights" provisions and skipped the comprehensive UCIOA framework that states such as Colorado adopted.²

Two older laws, the Kansas Apartment Ownership Act and the Townhouse Ownership Act, govern how condominium and townhouse communities come into being. KUCIOBORA then lays governance procedures over most of those communities.^3,4 Most Kansas associations organize as nonstock or not-for-profit corporations under the Kansas General Corporation Code in Chapter 17, which sets the corporate baselines for directors; Kansas has no separate nonprofit corporation act.⁵ The sections that follow trace where the binding rules come from and how they apply to eligibility, removal, composition, and onboarding.

2. Where director qualifications come from

2A. KUCIOBORA and the older property-type acts

KUCIOBORA — K.S.A. 58-4601 and following — is the governance statute that covers most Kansas common interest communities.⁶ A handful of sections carry its board-related rules. K.S.A. 58-4605 sets the threshold for when the Act applies.⁷ K.S.A. 58-4608 and 58-4609 lay out association and board duties and the limits on them.^8,9 K.S.A. 58-4610 requires the bylaws to specify director qualifications, terms, and removal.¹ K.S.A. 58-4612 governs open meetings and declarant control.¹⁰ And K.S.A. 58-4619 supplies a statutory removal vote.¹¹

KUCIOBORA adopts only part of UCIOA. On the specific question of who may serve as a director, it hands the eligibility criteria to the bylaws under K.S.A. 58-4610 rather than fixing them in the statute.¹ It does, though, set a statutory baseline for removal in K.S.A. 58-4619, which Section 3 takes up.¹¹

On its face, the Act reaches only so far. K.S.A. 58-4605 applies it to every common interest community that holds 12 or more units that may be used for residential purposes and that Kansas created after the effective date; that subsection took effect on January 1, 2011.⁷ For communities that existed before that date, K.S.A. 58-4606 applies the Act going forward only. It does not reach actions or decisions about events before the effective date, and it does not void existing provisions of the declaration, bylaws, plats, or plans. But it stops enforcing any contrary provision after January 1, 2011, and it lets an association amend those documents to reach any result the Act allows.¹²

The older property-type acts came before KUCIOBORA, and they deal with creation, not governance. The Apartment Ownership Act, K.S.A. 58-3101 and following, dates to 1963 and governs how a recorded declaration establishes a condominium or apartment-style project.³ The Townhouse Ownership Act, K.S.A. 58-3701 and following, dates to 1975 and does the same for townhouse communities.⁴ Neither act sets director qualifications. Those run through KUCIOBORA's bylaw mandate and the corporate code.

2B. The corporate-law layer: nonstock corporations under the General Corporation Code

Most Kansas associations organize as nonstock or not-for-profit corporations under the Kansas General Corporation Code, K.S.A. 17-6001 and following.⁵ Kansas has no fully separate nonprofit corporation act. A not-for-profit is simply a nonstock corporation formed under the same general code, and K.S.A. 17-6014 translates the code's stock-corporation language for nonstock corporations: references to stockholders mean members, and references to the board of directors mean the governing body.⁵ The Kansas code follows Delaware's corporation law.

The General Corporation Code supplies the corporate baselines for incorporated associations. K.S.A. 17-6301 says the board consists of one or more natural persons; the bylaws fix the number of directors, or set the manner of fixing it, unless the articles do; directors need not be stockholders (members) unless the articles or bylaws require it; and the articles or bylaws may add other qualifications for directors.¹³ Each director holds office until a successor is elected and qualified, or until the director resigns or is removed earlier, and the same section lets the holders entitled to vote remove any director, with or without cause.¹³ For nonstock corporations, K.S.A. 17-6505 says the members elect the governing body by a plurality of the votes cast.¹⁴ These provisions form the corporate scaffolding beneath KUCIOBORA's governance overlay.

2C. The bylaws as the mandated source of director qualifications

KUCIOBORA puts the actual eligibility screens in the bylaws. K.S.A. 58-4610 requires the bylaws to give the number of board members and the officer titles, the way officers are elected, and the qualifications, powers and duties, terms of office, and the manner of electing and removing board members and officers and filling vacancies.¹ Because the statute makes the bylaws address director qualifications, the binding eligibility rules for any one association live in its bylaws, not in the Act.

The order of precedence runs in clear steps. KUCIOBORA's mandatory provisions come first, and they apply even when the declaration or bylaws say otherwise. The declaration and bylaws come next, since KUCIOBORA requires them to address qualifications and removal. The General Corporation Code defaults follow, supplementing the Act except where they conflict with it. Board-adopted rules come last. K.S.A. 58-4622 confirms this order: the law of corporations and other bodies of law supplement KUCIOBORA except where they are inconsistent with it, and the Act wins any conflict.¹⁵

In practice, a manager vetting a candidate or challenging a sitting director should read the association's bylaws first, looking for the director qualifications and the removal procedure. Confirm those bylaw provisions meet K.S.A. 58-4610. Then apply the General Corporation Code baselines to anything the bylaws leave open.^1,13

3. Director eligibility, disqualification, and tenure rules

3A. Eligibility to serve

Start with the threshold rule: the bylaws set the eligibility criteria. K.S.A. 58-4610 requires the bylaws of most common interest communities to specify director qualifications, so the operative screens are documentary.¹ This is a KUCIOBORA mandate, and it applies to communities that meet the 12-or-more-residential-unit threshold. The specific criteria come from the bylaws.

Whether a director must be a member or owner is a bylaw question in Kansas. KUCIOBORA does not require directors to be unit owners; it requires the bylaws to state the qualifications.¹ The General Corporation Code backs the same default — directors need not be members unless the articles or bylaws require it — so an association that wants an owner-only board has to say so in its governing documents.¹³

Residency, age, and good-standing requirements are documentary too. KUCIOBORA sets no residency, age, or good-standing screen for candidates. Any such requirement comes from the bylaws — or, for incorporated associations, from qualifications the articles or bylaws set under K.S.A. 17-6301.^1,13 The General Corporation Code does require that each director be a natural person, and that matters for co-owners, spouses, trustees, and entity representatives. An entity that owns a unit cannot sit on the board itself, so the bylaws have to name which natural person may serve, and joint owners or spouses qualify under the bylaw criteria.¹³

3B. Disqualification and removal

Removal in Kansas is partly statutory and partly documentary. K.S.A. 58-4619 supplies a statutory removal vote. Unit owners who are present in person, by proxy, or by absentee ballot at a meeting with a quorum may remove any board member — and any officer the owners elected — with or without cause, as long as the votes for removal outnumber the votes against.¹¹ Three conditions apply. A director the declarant appointed cannot be removed by an owner vote during the period of declarant control. A director that persons other than the declarant or the owners elected or appointed may be removed only by those persons. And the board cannot take up a removal unless the meeting notice listed it and the member had a reasonable chance to speak before the vote.¹¹ This is a KUCIOBORA provision, and it applies to communities over the threshold. The bylaws supply the rest of the removal mechanics under K.S.A. 58-4610, and the General Corporation Code's removal provision in K.S.A. 17-6301 fills in for incorporated associations.^1,13 The mechanics of counting votes and running the meeting belong to board elections, a separate topic this page does not cover.

Whether delinquency or a criminal history disqualifies a candidate or a sitting director is, in Kansas, a documentary question, not a statutory one. KUCIOBORA imposes no automatic bar for falling behind on assessments or for a criminal record; any such disqualification has to come from the bylaws.¹ This is where a manager should resist importing Florida-style statutory disqualification rules, because Kansas has not enacted them.

Conflict-of-interest limits flow from the standard-of-care provisions and from corporate law. K.S.A. 58-4609 holds declarant-appointed directors to the care and loyalty the law asks of a trustee, and it holds other directors to the care and loyalty the law asks of a corporate director. It places both under the conflict-of-interest rules that already govern directors and officers.⁹ The same section keeps the board from enlarging its own role. Under K.S.A. 58-4609, the board may not amend the declaration or bylaws, terminate the community, elect board members except to fill vacancies, or set the qualifications, powers, duties, or terms of office of board members.⁹ That last limit matters here: a sitting board cannot rewrite director qualifications by resolution, which keeps the eligibility criteria anchored in the bylaws and in owner action. K.S.A. 58-4608 separately confirms that the board holds discretion over enforcement actions.⁸

3C. Board composition and terms

Board size and officer structure are bylaw matters. K.S.A. 58-4610 requires the bylaws to state the number of board members and the officer titles, and the General Corporation Code default fixes the number of directors in the bylaws, or in the manner the bylaws provide.^1,13 This reaches the full set of common interest communities over the KUCIOBORA threshold, with the corporate baseline applying to incorporated associations.

The bylaws set term length, staggered terms, and any term limit. KUCIOBORA requires the bylaws to specify terms of office, but it imposes no statutory term length and no term limit.¹ The General Corporation Code default holds a director in office until a successor is elected and qualified, or until the director resigns or is removed earlier, which fills the gap when the bylaws say nothing.¹³ Kansas imposes no statutory term limit on association directors, and the silence of both K.S.A. 58-4610 and K.S.A. 17-6301 confirms it.^1,13 Florida runs the other way: it caps residential condominium board service at eight consecutive years unless two-thirds of the owners vote otherwise.¹⁶

KUCIOBORA and the governing documents handle declarant control and transition. K.S.A. 58-4612 covers the declarant-control period. It requires the board to meet at least twice a year during declarant control and at least once a year after it ends, and it lets the board act by unanimous consent during declarant control. During that period, K.S.A. 58-4619 shields declarant-appointed directors from removal by an owner vote.^10,11 The declaration sets the specific transition timetable.

3D. Onboarding and ongoing qualification duties

Kansas requires no director certification or education. Neither KUCIOBORA nor the General Corporation Code conditions service on finishing a training course or signing a certification.^1,13 Florida shows the contrast. Under Fla. Stat. § 718.112(2)(d)5.b., a residential condominium director has 90 days from election or appointment to do two things: certify in writing that the director has read the declaration, articles, bylaws, and policies, and submit a certificate showing the director finished a division-approved course of at least four hours. A director who misses the deadline "is suspended from service on the board until they comply."¹⁷ A Kansas manager onboarding a new director has no statutory certification step to run. The only qualification gate is whatever the bylaws impose.

The open-meeting framework shapes how a board works once it is seated. K.S.A. 58-4612 requires meetings of the board, and of any committee authorized to act for the association, to stay open to unit owners except during limited executive sessions. It bars the board from using social or incidental gatherings to dodge the open-meeting rule, it forbids final votes in executive session, and it gives owners a reasonable chance to comment at board meetings.¹⁰ A director has to understand that deliberations are presumptively open.

Conflict-of-interest disclosure and the standard of care flow from K.S.A. 58-4609 and from corporate common law. Directors owe the association the trustee or corporate-director standard of care and loyalty, and they fall under the conflict-of-interest rules for directors and officers — a standard that holds no matter how the association is organized.⁹ The General Corporation Code supplies the underlying fiduciary and business-judgment baseline through K.S.A. 58-4622, which applies the law of corporations except where it conflicts with KUCIOBORA.¹⁵

4. Recent legislative and judicial activity

4A. Recent bills

No qualifying activity in the period. No bill in the 2023–2024 or 2025–2026 Kansas legislative sessions amended KUCIOBORA, the Apartment Ownership Act, the Townhouse Ownership Act, or the General Corporation Code on community association director qualifications, board composition, terms, or removal. The Kansas Legislative Research Department points to two recent HOA bills — 2023 HB 2268, on solar energy devices, and 2024 HB 2733, which would require certain HOA home repairs to follow applicable codes and let the Attorney General enforce the rule. Neither one touched director qualifications or board composition; both belong to the general HOA landscape rather than this topic, and neither became law.^2,18

4B. Recent appellate rulings

No qualifying activity in the period. No published Kansas Court of Appeals or Kansas Supreme Court opinion from the past 36 months addressed community association director eligibility, removal, board composition, or the director standard of care. Two 2026 appellate matters grew out of association disputes, but each turned on something else. King v. Schwert (Kan. 2026) resolved a question of appellate jurisdiction and finality in an HOA defamation dispute and never reached a director-governance issue.¹⁹ Stonegate Motorplaza Condominium Association v. HP Motorplaza (Kan. Ct. App. 2026) concerned the expiration of a developer's convertible-land development rights under the Apartment Ownership Act, not director qualifications.²⁰ The earlier director-and-records decision that this area often cites, Frobish v. Cedar Lakes Village Condominium Association, 353 P.3d 469 (Kan. Ct. App. 2015), predates the relevant window.

4C. Active legislative debates

As of this update, no active proposal would expand KUCIOBORA toward a comprehensive UCIOA framework or change the statutory rules on director qualifications, board composition, or removal.

5. National positioning and related coverage

Kansas is a moderate-touch state, and it regulates director qualifications indirectly. Through KUCIOBORA, a partial UCIOA adoption, the state requires the bylaws to specify director qualifications, terms, and removal rather than setting them by statute, and it adds a statutory owner-removal vote in K.S.A. 58-4619.^1,11 That places Kansas between two poles. On one side sit comprehensive-UCIOA states such as Colorado, where Colo. Rev. Stat. § 38-33.3-303(8) lets owners remove an executive board member, with or without cause, by a vote of 67 percent of those present and entitled to vote at a meeting with a quorum, even when the declaration or bylaws say otherwise.²¹ On the other sit heavy-touch states such as Florida, which impose statutory director certification or education and an eight-year term limit unless two-thirds of the owners override it.^16,17 Kansas also sits above light-touch states such as Iowa, where eligibility is documentary and no governing statute dictates bylaw content. For a multi-state operator, the practical point is simple: in Kansas, the binding director rules live in the bylaws, which KUCIOBORA requires the association to maintain. Most Kansas associations are nonstock corporations under a corporate code modeled on Delaware's.⁵

This Kansas Director Qualifications coverage updates quarterly as the Kansas Legislature and the Kansas courts act. Federal frameworks rarely dictate director qualifications, but Kansas associations still answer to federal law — the Fair Housing Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and the OTARD rule — across their broader operations.