Kansas Mold Law: Tenant Rights, Disclosure & Insurance
Does Kansas license mold work?
No Kansas agency licenses or certifies mold assessors or remediators. Kansas has no statewide general contractor license either (licensing is municipal). No mold licensing statute or K.A.R. identified.
Habitability: what landlords must provide
General landlord-duty statute, no 'warranty of habitability' language. K.S.A. 58-2553(a) requires the landlord to comply with applicable building and housing codes materially affecting health and safety and to maintain electrical, plumbing, heating, hot water, and waste-removal facilities. MOLD IS NOT NAMED. This is a GENERAL statute; mold claims must be framed as a code/health-and-safety violation or common-law negligence. (K.S.A. 58-2553(a))
Notice and repair timeline
30/14. K.S.A. 58-2559(a): tenant's written notice must specify the breach and state that the agreement terminates on a periodic rent-paying date not less than 30 days after receipt; the landlord defeats termination by making a good-faith effort to remedy within 14 days after receipt.
Tenant remedies
Termination under K.S.A. 58-2559(a); damages and injunctive relief under K.S.A. 58-2559(b); return of the recoverable security deposit on termination. NO statutory repair-and-deduct and NO statutory rent withholding — the Kansas Legal Services Kansas Tenants Handbook states that Kansas law does not allow the tenant to withhold/escrow rent or to repair-and-deduct, and that the landlord may still issue an eviction notice for unpaid rent (it notes a local exception: a City of Manhattan, Kansas ordinance permitting rent escrow in some situations). K.S.A. 58-2561 allows the tenant to counterclaim in a nonpayment eviction or rent action, with the court able to order accrued rent deposited into court. Constructive eviction is common-law only.
Selling a home: mold disclosure
No Kansas seller-disclosure statute. There is no statutory duty on a residential seller to complete a disclosure form. The duty runs to the seller's LICENSEE: K.S.A. 58-30,106 (Brokerage Relationships in Real Estate Transactions Act) requires a seller's agent to disclose to customers all adverse material facts actually known by the licensee, expressly including environmental hazards legally required to be disclosed, the physical condition of the property, and material defects — with no duty to inspect independently. Mold is not named. Seller liability otherwise rests on common-law fraud/concealment of material latent defects. (K.S.A. 58-30,106 (licensee duty); no seller-disclosure statute)
Deadlines to bring a claim
Personal injury: 2 years — K.S.A. 60-513(a)(4) ('injury to the rights of another, not arising on contract, and not herein enumerated'). Injury to real property: 2 years — K.S.A. 60-513(a)(1) (trespass upon real property). Accrual/discovery and repose: K.S.A. 60-513(b) — the period does not begin until the act causes substantial injury or the injury becomes reasonably ascertainable, 'but in no event shall an action be commenced more than 10 years beyond the time of the act.'
Insurance treatment of mold
No Kansas mold statute, regulation or Insurance Department bulletin located. The Kansas Insurance Department's Home and Renters Shopper's Guide does not mention mold anywhere, even in its exclusions discussion. Mold coverage is governed entirely by policy language; no state-mandated cap or disclosure.
Leading cases
Wilson v. Farmers Insurance Exchange, 233 P.3d 767 (Kan. Ct. App. 2010) (contractor's sale of the house was not an 'occurrence,' so resulting mold damage was not covered) — citation taken from the Mealey's/Goldberg Segalla 50-state mold survey and NOT independently verified against the reporter. No Kansas Supreme Court toxic-mold decision identified.