Updated September 5, 2026. Quick answer: In Kansas, the board decides on its own whether to levy a special assessment; K.S.A. 58-4620(b) lets “the board of directors, at any time,… propose a special assessment” with no ownership vote required, only notice and an owner comment opportunity; a true emergency assessment instead needs a two-thirds vote of the board itself, not the owners.
Key statute: K.S.A. 58-4601 et seq. (Kansas Uniform Common Interest Owners Bill of Rights Act, effective January 1, 2011) for common interest communities generally; K.S.A. 58-3101 et seq. (Apartment Ownership Act, 1963) for condominium-specific lien rules
How Kansas lets an association approve it
K.S.A. 58-4620(b): “The board of directors, at any time, may propose a special assessment. Except as otherwise provided in subsection (c), notice and consideration of any proposed special assessment shall follow the procedures set out in subsection (a)”; i.e., the same notice/comment process as the annual budget, with no unit-owner vote or veto right specified. Subsection (c) creates a narrower emergency track: “If the board of directors determines by a two-thirds vote of the membership of the board that a special assessment is necessary to respond to an emergency,” it becomes effective immediately, subject to prompt notice and spending limited to the purposes in the vote.
The notice you’re owed
K.S.A. 58-4620(a) requires that “Notice of any meeting at which a budget will be considered must be given to unit owners at least 10 days prior to the meeting date… a copy of the proposal must be made available to any unit owner who requests it,” and “unit owners must be given a reasonable opportunity to comment on the proposal prior to the board taking action.” The general board-meeting notice statute, K.S.A. 58-4612(e), separately requires that notice “state the time, date, place, and agenda of the meeting and… be given at least five days prior to the meeting date” for board meetings generally.
Paying it: plan, interest, and late fees
Neither K.S.A. 58-4620 nor the condominium Apartment Ownership Act’s lien statute (K.S.A. 58-3123) sets a statutory interest rate, late-fee cap, or right to pay in installments; both are silent on the point. The only enforcement statute we located, K.S.A. 58-3123, addresses lien priority and foreclosure but not interest or fees.
K.S.A. 58-3123(a): “All sums assessed by the association of apartment owners but unpaid for the share of the common expenses chargeable to any apartment shall constitute a lien on such apartment prior to all other liens except only (i) tax liens… and (ii) all sums unpaid on a first mortgage of record,” enforceable by suit with a receiver available to collect rent; subsection (b) shields a first-mortgage foreclosure purchaser from liability for common expenses that came due before it acquired title.
Does Kansas require a reserve study?
No. K.S.A. 58-4620 and the surrounding Kansas Uniform Common Interest Owners Bill of Rights Act sections we reviewed contain no reserve-study or minimum-reserve-funding mandate; a board may budget zero dollars toward reserves without violating this statute.
Honest gaps
The Kansas Uniform Common Interest Owners Bill of Rights Act (K.S.A. 58-4601 et seq.) governs the budget/notice/vote mechanics we describe, but it does not itself contain a lien or foreclosure section; that comes from the separate, older Apartment Ownership Act (58-3101 et seq.), which is condominium-specific and does not clearly extend to non-condo HOAs. We did not confirm from the definitions section itself (K.S.A. 58-4602) any unit-count or association-size threshold that might exempt smaller communities from the newer Act’s notice/budget rules, so some associations could be governed only by the sparser 1963 statute. We also did not review the entire 58-4601 et seq. article beyond §§ 58-4602, 58-4612, and 58-4620.
Source note. Read from https://www.ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch58/058_046_0020.html; https://www.ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch58/058_046_0012.html; https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch58/058_046_0002.html; https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch58/058_031_0023.html; https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch58/058_031_0010.html on September 5, 2026.
Related: HOA rules in a 55+ community · how a special-assessment foreclosure actually works · lump sum vs. a payment plan.
General information drawn from each state’s own statutes as read at its official legislature or code-publisher site (or a verbatim codified mirror where noted), not legal advice. Special-assessment law is state law, and every association’s own declaration and bylaws add rules on top of the statutory floor described here. We are not a law firm and this is not legal advice.