The Legislature's own HOA memo lists two bills, and both are dead
The Legislature's own HOA memo lists two bills, and both are dead
2026-09-10 · Kansas · Legislation
When a Kansas legislator asks staff what the law says about homeowners associations, this is the document they get — and its account of recent legislative activity ends in 2024 with two failures. The Kansas Legislative Research Department's memorandum, “The Kansas Uniform Common Interest Owners Bill of Rights Act and Homeowners Associations,” was posted to the department's site in February 2026 and reissued in corrected form in June 2026.1
It is the closest thing Kansas has to an official statement of where association law stands, and what it does not contain is as informative as what it does.
The two bills it records
Under the heading “Recent HOA Legislation,” the memo reports that “during the 2024 Legislative Session, the House Committee on Local Government had hearings on two bills regarding HOAs: 2023 HB 2268 and 2024 HB 2733.”2
On the first: HB 2268 “would have prohibited HOAs from preventing, impairing, restricting the use of, or adversely affecting the cost of efficiency of solar energy devices on units within the HOA.” It had a hearing on February 14, 2024 with “5 oral proponents, 17 written-only proponents, and no neutral or opposition testimony.” Then: “A vote to recommend the bill favorably for passage failed and the bill remained in committee until the conclusion of the 2024 Session.” Seventeen written proponents, no opposition on the record, and it still lost the vote.
On the second: HB 2733 “would have required any HOA that was conducting certain home repairs to do so in accordance with applicable codes and standards. Failure of an HOA to do so would have allowed the Attorney General to take legal action against the HOA.” It had a hearing on February 19, 2024, drew one oral and one written proponent and no opposition, and the committee “voted to recommend the bill favorably for passage.” It then died a procedural death: “the bill was stricken from the calendar by Rule 1507.”
What the memo does not mention
Neither SB 144 nor HB 2343 appears anywhere in it, despite both being live when the memo was posted in February 2026. Nor does the memo identify any Kansas state agency with authority over associations. Its enforcement section points in exactly one direction — the courts.
Why HB 2733 is the one to remember
It is the only Kansas bill in recent memory that would have created an administrative enforcement route against an association. Every other proposal, and the existing statute, leaves an aggrieved owner to sue.
That distinction is the central fact of Kansas association law. K.S.A. 58-4621 provides that “a declarant, association, unit owner, or any other person subject to this act may bring an action to enforce a right granted or obligation imposed by this act, the declaration, or the bylaws,” and that “the court may award reasonable attorney's fees and costs.”3 There is no complaint form, no regulator, no administrative hearing. A Kansas owner with a governance grievance has a lawsuit or nothing.
HB 2733 would have put the Attorney General into that gap, in one narrow category. It cleared its committee on the merits and was then removed from the calendar under House Rule 1507. It was not reintroduced in the 2025-2026 biennium under any number we could identify — and readers who tracked it should note that the number HB 2733 was reused in 2025-2026 for an unrelated bill about elected-official residency, which did become law. Searching the current biennium for “HB 2733” produces the wrong bill.
The alternative to a regulator, and how to use it
Because litigation is the only backstop, the Act's front-end procedures carry more weight in Kansas than they would in a state with an agency. Two are worth a board's attention.
Alternative dispute resolution. K.S.A. 58-4608 gives an association the power “to require that disputes between the association and unit owners or between two or more unit owners regarding the HOA be submitted to nonbinding alternative dispute resolution…as a prerequisite to commencement of a judicial proceeding.” That is a power, not a duty. An association that has not adopted such a requirement has left the only pre-litigation filter on the table.
Fee exposure runs both ways. K.S.A. 58-4621's fee provision is not one-directional and is not limited to prevailing associations. Kansas courts have addressed the mechanics: in Johnson v. Board of Directors of Forest Lakes Master Association, the Court of Appeals held that the statute does not require a prevailing party to move for fees by a particular date but does require fair and explicit notice that the court can grant such a motion.4
What to watch next
Watch whether the memo is updated to add the 2025-2026 bills. Its “recent legislation” section is the part legislators read when deciding whether a subject is live, and a memo that stops at 2024 makes the subject look quieter than it has been.
Watch, too, for any 2027 proposal that names an agency. That is the structural change in Kansas association law, and every attempt at it so far has died in committee.
Related Kansas HOA Topics
- The Kansas Uniform Common Interest Owners Bill of Rights Act and Homeowners Associations — Kansas Legislative Research Department ↩
- KLRD memorandum on UCIOBORA and homeowners associations (corrected), full text ↩
- K.S.A. 58-4621, Enforcement of rights, with case annotations — Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes ↩
- K.S.A. 58-4608, Association powers and duties — Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes ↩
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