How to Complete and Serve a Kansas Eviction Notice

A Kansas eviction notice is the written warning a landlord must deliver before filing an eviction lawsuit, and the form it takes depends on why the tenancy is ending: three days for unpaid rent, 14 days to cure plus a 30-day termination date for a lease violation, or 30 days for a month-to-month tenancy. Get the type, the contents, and the delivery method right, and the clock starts running the moment the notice reaches the tenant. Get any of those wrong, and a judge can send you back to the beginning.

Pick the Right Notice for the Reason

Three situations drive almost every residential eviction notice in Kansas, and each has its own timeline.

For unpaid rent, the landlord delivers a written notice stating the rent is overdue and that the lease will terminate if the tenant does not pay within three days. Pay in full inside that window and the lease stays intact. Miss it and the landlord can move toward filing.¹

For a material breach of the lease or a tenant-duty violation affecting health and safety, the notice must identify the specific acts or omissions and state that the lease terminates on a date at least 30 days after the tenant receives it. The tenant gets 14 days to fix the problem; a good-faith remedy inside those 14 days saves the lease. If a similar breach happens again after the tenant has already been given one cure period, the landlord can deliver a new notice terminating the lease in 30 days with no second chance to fix it.¹

For a month-to-month tenancy, either side can end the arrangement with a written notice stating the tenancy will terminate on a periodic rent-paying date at least 30 days after the other party receives it. No reason is required. A tenant in the U.S. military terminating under military orders only has to give 15 days’ written notice.²

The Kansas Judicial Council publishes free templates for both landlord and tenant eviction forms on its website, with instruction sheets, and local district court clerks can provide copies as well. Judicial Council staff cannot give legal advice or help fill out forms, so a complicated situation is worth a call to an attorney.³⁴

What the Notice Must Say

Every notice needs a few basics: the full legal names of all adult tenants on the lease and the complete property address, including unit or apartment number. The statute does not spell out a name-and-address requirement, but naming the wrong person or the wrong unit is the fastest route to a dismissal.

For unpaid rent, state that rent is overdue and that you intend to terminate the lease if it is not paid within three days. The statute does not require you to list the exact dollar amount, but including it removes ambiguity and shows the court you were specific. Be careful about folding late fees or utility charges into the rent total unless the lease explicitly defines those as rent. Kansas has no residential statute capping late fees, but a court can refuse to enforce a lease term it finds unconscionable.

For a lease violation, describe the specific conduct or omission that breaches the agreement, reference the lease provision being violated, and state that the lease will terminate on a date at least 30 days after receipt unless the tenant remedies the breach within 14 days.¹ For a repeat violation where you are not offering a cure period, reference the earlier notice and state that the lease will terminate in 30 days without an opportunity to fix it.

Date and sign the notice. Print legibly. A form a tenant or a judge cannot read will not hold up.

How to Deliver the Notice

Kansas law gives landlords four ways to deliver an eviction notice, and the method changes when the clock starts. For the 3-day nonpayment notice, K.S.A. 58-2564 lists the delivery options. For the separate 3-day notice to leave premises required before filing a lawsuit, K.S.A. 61-3803 uses the same methods.

Hand the notice directly to the tenant. The notice period starts at the moment of delivery.
If the tenant is not available, leave a copy with any person over 12 years of age who lives on the premises. The period starts when you leave the copy.
If no one is home, post the notice in a conspicuous place on the property, such as the front door. The period starts when you post it.
Mail a copy to the tenant at the address of the premises. Two additional days are added to the notice period beyond the mailing date.⁵

Many landlords combine posting with mailing. The posting starts the clock immediately, and the mailed copy adds a paper trail. Whichever method you pick, document it carefully. You will need the proof later.

Counting the Notice Period

The 3-day notice period is three consecutive 24-hour periods. The clock starts the moment you deliver, post, or mail the notice, not the next calendar day. Saturdays, Sundays, legal holidays, and days when the court clerk’s office is closed all count. They are not skipped.⁵

Serve by mail and you add two extra days from the mailing date before you can treat the period as expired.¹ A mailed 3-day nonpayment notice is effectively a 5-day notice from the mailing date.

For the 14-day cure period and the 30-day termination date on lease-violation notices, the statute measures from the tenant’s receipt of the notice. Count carefully. Give an extra day rather than filing too early, because a premature filing can get the case dismissed.

Proof of Service

You cannot file an eviction lawsuit without documented proof the tenant received the notice. Record the date, exact time, and method of delivery. If you handed the notice to the tenant personally, note the location and whether anyone witnessed it. If you posted it, photograph the notice on the door with a visible timestamp. If you mailed it, keep the receipt or certificate of mailing.

When the case reaches court, the person who delivered the notice typically signs an affidavit or return of service under oath confirming the details. Keep a photocopy of the signed notice with that proof. A landlord who cannot show proper service does not reach the merits of the case.

The Second Notice Before Filing

Two separate notice requirements must be satisfied before an eviction lawsuit is filed in Kansas. The first is the substantive notice above, served under K.S.A. 58-2564. The second is a “notice to leave premises” under K.S.A. 61-3803, delivered at least three days before the petition is filed. The two can be combined into a single document, and in practice they usually are, but both requirements have to be met.⁶ If the tenant has not paid, cured, or moved out by the time both notice periods have run, the next step is filing a petition in district court under Chapter 61.

1
Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes. Kansas Code 58-2564 – Material Noncompliance by Tenant; Notice; Termination of Rental Agreement; Limitations; Nonpayment of Rent; Remedies
2
FindLaw. Kansas Code 58-2570
3
Kansas Judicial Branch. Housing – Section: Eviction Forms and Instruction
4
Kansas Judicial Council. Evictions and Landlord-Tenant
5
Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes. Kansas Code 61-3803 – Notice to Leave Premises
6
Kansas Judicial Branch. Ad Hoc Committee on Best Practices in Eviction Proceedings Initial Report