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

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)