Breaking a lease in Kansas

No section of the Act gives either side a general right to end a fixed-term lease early. A tenant may end it in specific cases: your uncured material noncompliance, fire or casualty, an unlawful lockout or utility cut-off, unlawful entry, or your failure to deliver possession (K.S.A. 58-2559(a); K.S.A. 58-2562(a); K.S.A. 58-2563; K.S.A. 58-2571(b); K.S.A. 58-2560).

• A tenant who is a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking or stalking and gives you a statement owes no rent for the time after vacating (K.S.A. 58-25,137(b); K.S.A. 58-25,137(c)).See Victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, trafficking or stalking on the Kansas page
• Under federal law a servicemember may end a residential lease after entering military service, or after orders for a permanent change of station or a deployment of at least 90 days, by written notice with a copy of the orders. With monthly rent, the end is 30 days after the next rent due date following the notice. A spouse or dependent may also end the lease within one year after the servicemember dies in service, and the lease may be ended within one year after a catastrophic injury or illness in service. A servicemember who signed on receipt of orders may end it after a stop movement order of 30 days or more that prevents occupancy, effective when the notice and orders are delivered (50 U.S.C. 3955).
• If a tenant abandons the unit you must make reasonable efforts to rent it at a fair rental. The old lease ends when a new tenancy begins, or when you learn of the abandonment if you do not try to re-rent or accept it as a surrender (K.S.A. 58-2565(c)).See Abandonment and property left behind on the Kansas page

For your material noncompliance with the lease, or a failure in your maintenance duties materially affecting health and safety, the tenant may give written notice naming the breach and ending the lease on a rent-paying date at least 30 days after you receive it. If the breach can be remedied and you begin a good-faith effort within 14 days after receiving the notice, the lease does not end (K.S.A. 58-2559(a)).

• If the same or a similar breach happens after the 14 days, the tenant may give a new 30-day notice that ends the lease (K.S.A. 58-2559(a)(1)).
• The tenant may not terminate for a condition the tenant, a guest or a pet caused (K.S.A. 58-2559(a)(2)).
• The tenant may also recover damages and obtain a court order for your noncompliance (K.S.A. 58-2559(b)).
• No section of the Act lets the tenant repair and deduct the cost from rent (K.S.A. 58-2540 to 58-2573).
• In your suit for possession based on unpaid rent, the tenant must counterclaim or lose the claim, and the court may order rent paid into court (K.S.A. 58-2561(a)).See Eviction process on the Kansas page
• If fire or casualty substantially impairs the unit, the tenant may vacate and give written notice within five days to end the lease, or vacate the unusable part and pay reduced rent (K.S.A. 58-2562(a)).
• If you fail to deliver possession, rent abates and the tenant may end the lease on at least five days' written notice, or sue for possession and damages. On termination you must return the whole deposit. A willful failure to deliver possession that is not in good faith can cost up to 1 1/2 months' rent or 1 1/2 times actual damages, whichever is greater (K.S.A. 58-2560).

A tenant with a lease of two years or less, or a tenant at will or by sufferance, may not assign or transfer the lease, or any part of it, to someone else without your written consent (K.S.A. 58-2511).

• If the tenant does, an older section lets you give 10 days' notice to quit and then re-enter. The Residential Landlord and Tenant Act separately bars taking possession of a dwelling except after abandonment, surrender or as that Act permits (K.S.A. 58-2512; K.S.A. 58-2569).
• A subtenant has the same remedy against you on the original lease as against the tenant who sublet to them (K.S.A. 58-2515).

You or the tenant may end a month-to-month tenancy with written notice that it ends on a periodic rent-paying date at least 30 days after the other party receives the notice. A week-to-week tenancy ends on written notice given at least seven days before the date in the notice (K.S.A. 58-2570(a); K.S.A. 58-2570(b)).

• A tenant in the United States military service whose orders require the move needs to give no more than 15 days' written notice (K.S.A. 58-2570(b)).
• A lease for a definite term of more than 30 days is not a month-to-month tenancy even if rent is paid every 30 days. Without a definite term, the tenancy is month-to-month, or week-to-week for a roomer who pays weekly (K.S.A. 58-2570(b); K.S.A. 58-2545(d)).
• If a tenant stays after the tenancy ends without your consent you may sue for possession, and a willful holdover not in good faith can owe up to 1 1/2 months' rent or 1 1/2 times your actual damages, whichever is greater (K.S.A. 58-2570(c)).
• If you hand the tenant a form that would serve as the tenant's notice to vacate and it adds terms not in the lease, it must carry the statutory warning in at least ten-point bold type, or the added terms do not bind the tenant (K.S.A. 58-2570(e)).

When the tenancy ends you may apply the deposit to accrued rent and to damages from the tenant's breach of the lease or of the tenant duties in K.S.A. 58-2555, itemized in a written notice to the tenant. If you keep any part for charges other than rent, you must return the balance within 14 days after those charges are determined, and never later than 30 days after the tenancy ends, possession is delivered and the tenant demands it (K.S.A. 58-2550(b)).

• If the tenant makes no demand within 30 days after the tenancy ends, you must mail the amount due to the tenant's last known address (K.S.A. 58-2550(b)).
• A landlord who does not follow these rules owes the portion due plus damages of 1 1/2 times the amount wrongfully withheld (K.S.A. 58-2550(c)).
• Whoever holds the landlord's interest when the tenancy ends is bound by the deposit rules, and a landlord who sells in good faith stays liable for the deposit the tenant is owed (K.S.A. 58-2550(f); K.S.A. 58-2554(a)).
• When the tenant ends the lease for your uncured noncompliance, a fire or casualty, or an unlawful lockout or utility cut-off, you must return the part of the deposit the tenant can recover (K.S.A. 58-2559(c); K.S.A. 58-2562(b); K.S.A. 58-2563).