Landlord Atlas

What are the security deposit rules in Kansas?

Verified July 11, 2026 All Kansas topics →

Kansas caps security deposits at one month's rent for an unfurnished rental, 1½ months' rent if the unit comes furnished, plus up to an extra half month's rent as a pet deposit when the lease allows pets.

Return runs on two clocks: once the landlord has figured the deductions the balance is due within 14 days, and in no event may the landlord hold it more than 30 days past the tenancy ending, possession being delivered, and the tenant demanding it back — and if the tenant never demands it, the landlord must simply mail the money to the tenant's last known address after 30 days. Deductions are limited to unpaid rent and damages from the tenant's breach of statutory duties or the lease, itemized in a written notice. A landlord who blows the deadline or skips the itemization owes the withheld amount plus a penalty of 1½ times whatever was wrongfully withheld, and judges have no discretion to soften it. Kansas also requires landlord and tenant to complete a signed joint move-in inventory within five days of occupancy, though a missing inventory does not by itself bar damage claims. There is no interest, escrow, or receipt requirement, and tenants may not quietly apply the deposit to the last month's rent — doing so forfeits the deposit.

Kansas security deposits at a glance

Maximum deposit 1 month's rent — One month's periodic rent for an unfurnished unit. If the rental agreement provides for the tenant to use furniture owned by the landlord, the cap rises to 1½ months' rent. If the agreement permits pets, the landlord may take an additional pet deposit of up to ½ of one month's rent — so the ceilings are 1½ months total for an unfurnished unit with a pet and 2 months total for a furnished unit with a pet. A federally subsidized municipal housing authority whose rent is set solely by tenant income may instead use a deposit schedule based on bedroom size, and must offer a deferred payment plan (K.S.A. 58-2550(a)).
Return deadline 30 days
Deadline conditions Two clocks run together under K.S.A. 58-2550(b). If the landlord keeps any part of the deposit for expenses or damages, the balance is due within 14 days after the landlord determines the amount of those charges — but in no event more than 30 days after termination of the tenancy, delivery of possession and demand by the tenant. If the tenant makes no demand within 30 days after the tenancy ends, the landlord must mail the portion due to the tenant's last known address.
Itemization required Yes
Itemization rules Amounts applied from the deposit must be itemized by the landlord in a written notice delivered to the tenant (K.S.A. 58-2550(b)). Deductions are limited to accrued rent and damages the landlord has suffered from the tenant's noncompliance with K.S.A. 58-2555 (tenant duties) or with the rental agreement. Failure to furnish the itemized statement triggers the subsection (c) penalty (Geiger v. Wallace, 233 Kan. 656 (1983)).
Separate account required No
Interest owed to tenant No
Account & interest rules No escrow, trust-account, or interest requirement exists anywhere in the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (negative check run against all 34 sections, both reads). Fifty-state charts importing other states' interest or escrow rules into Kansas are wrong.
Pet deposits If the rental agreement permits the tenant to keep or maintain pets, the landlord may demand an additional security deposit of up to ½ of one month's rent on top of the base cap (K.S.A. 58-2550(a)). The pet deposit is part of the security deposit scheme — same return clocks, itemization duty, and 1½-times penalty.
Non-refundable fees allowed Not addressed by statute
Penalty for violation If the landlord fails to comply with subsection (b), the tenant may recover the portion of the deposit due together with damages equal to 1½ times the amount wrongfully withheld (K.S.A. 58-2550(c)) — the penalty base is the withheld amount, not the whole deposit, and it stacks on return of the withheld portion, so the tenant's total recovery is 2½ times what was wrongfully kept. Kansas courts have no discretion to reduce the statutory damages (Love v. Monarch Apartments, 13 Kan. App. 2d 341 (1989)).
Tenant forwarding-address duty No affirmative statutory duty to provide a forwarding address. Instead, the tenant's demand is one of the three events that closes the 30-day outer window, and if the tenant makes no demand within 30 days after termination the landlord must mail the balance to the tenant's last known address (K.S.A. 58-2550(b)).

Notes and caveats

Encoding decisions and traps: (1) return_deadline_days = 30 is the outer statutory limit; the 14-day inner clock (from determination of charges) is encoded in conditions because secondary sources headline one or the other and routinely drop the 'delivery of possession AND demand by the tenant' trigger and the mail-to-last-known-address fallback — all read twice verbatim on ksrevisor.gov. (2) Penalty misquote trap: '1.5x the deposit' is wrong — 58-2550(c)'s base is the amount wrongfully withheld, recovered on top of the withheld portion itself (effective 2.5x withheld). (3) 58-2550(d): tenant applying the deposit to last month's rent without lease permission forfeits the deposit and still owes the rent; constitutionality upheld in Clark v. Walker, 225 Kan. 359 (1979), which requires forfeiture provisions to be in the rental agreement. (4) nonrefundable_fees_allowed is null: no statute authorizes or bans nonrefundable fees, but the 58-2543(m) definition sweeps in any sum 'however denominated' deposited as a condition precedent to occupancy that can be forfeited under the agreement, so deposit-like 'fees' cannot dodge the cap by relabeling — a lease-drafting question beyond that. (5) Move-in inventory: 58-2548 mandates a JOINT signed inventory within 5 days of occupancy or delivery of possession (tenant gets a copy), but Buettner v. Unruh, 7 Kan. App. 2d 359 (1982) holds absence of the inventory does not preclude the landlord's damages evidence — guides claiming 'no checklist, no deductions' overstate. (6) Municipal-housing-authority bedroom-size schedule exception in (a) is real and routinely omitted. (7) Mobile home LOT tenancies are governed by the separate Mobile Home Parks act (K.S.A. 58-25,100 et seq.) with different deposit rules — 58-2543(c) excludes them from this act unless the home itself is rented from the landlord. Dead bill: SB 482 (2026, condemned-unit deposit/rent return) died in Senate Judiciary at sine die 2026-04-11.

Statute citations

How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text on the official Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes site (ksrevisor.gov), each load-bearing section fetched twice by independent methods (WebFetch page read plus raw curl of the same official page, all figures reconciled verbatim): 58-2550 (1-month/1.5-month/half-month pet caps, 14-day and 30-day return clocks, 1.5x penalty), 58-2548 (5-day joint inventory), 58-2557 (reasonable notice/reasonable hours entry), 58-2570 (7-day/30-day/15-day termination notices), 58-2565(b) (30-day absence entry, 10-day abandonment presumption), 58-2564(b) (3-day nonpayment cure), 58-2563 (1.5 months' rent ouster remedy), and 12-16,120 (express local rent-control preemption). Negative checks run against the full Residential Landlord and Tenant Act: all 34 sections (58-2540 through 58-2573) downloaded and searched — no late-fee, grace-period, deposit-interest, escrow/separate-account, or rent-increase-notice provision exists. Pending-bill check 2026-07-11 on kslegislature.gov: 2025-26 biennium adjourned sine die 2026-04-11; HB 2666 (late-fee restrictions), SB 482 (condemned-unit deposit return), and HB 2768 (split rent payments) all died in committee; enacted Sub HB 2357 (eviction expungement) and SB 391 (voucher-mandate preemption) do not affect these four topics.