K.S.A. § 58-4616(a) requires a Kansas association to retain a specific list of records for at least five years: detailed receipts-and-expenditures records and other accounting records, minutes of every owner and board meeting outside executive session, the names and communication addresses of unit owners with their vote counts, its governing documents (bylaws, amendments, and current rules), three years of financial statements and tax returns, a current list of board members and officers, its most recent annual report to the secretary of state, current contracts, and, notably, records of every board or committee decision to approve or deny a design or architectural request. Ballots, proxies, and voting records have to be kept for a year after the vote they relate to.
Subsection (b) is the access right itself: all of that, subject to the exemptions below, has to be made available for a unit owner, or their authorized agent, to examine and copy, during reasonable business hours or a mutually convenient time and place, once you've given the association 10 days' written notice reasonably identifying the specific records you want. The association can charge a reasonable fee for copies and for supervising your inspection, and your right to copy includes electronic copies if the association can provide them. What it doesn't have to do is compile or synthesize new information just because you asked; you get the records that exist, not a report built for you.
One access right, whether you own a condo unit or an HOA lot
Here's a point worth knowing: Kansas didn't leave condo owners with a thinner, separate records rule. The 1963 condo act's own records section, K.S.A. § 58-3120, requires the manager or board to keep detailed accounting records for the common areas and then says those records are available for examination 'pursuant to the rights and limitations of K.S.A. 58-4616,' the same modern access statute that covers HOA lot owners. Whether you bought a condo unit or a lot in a subdivision, you're generally reading from the same records statute, not two unequal ones.
The exemptions in § 58-4616(c) are specific, not a blank check: personnel, salary, and medical records tied to individuals; contracts currently being negotiated; existing or potential litigation, mediation, arbitration, or administrative proceedings; existing or potential government enforcement matters over the declaration, bylaws, or rules; attorney-client privileged communications; anything other law bars disclosing; records of an executive session; and individual unit files belonging to owners other than you. That last one matters if you're building a selective-enforcement case: you can request your own file, but not your neighbor's.
The authority
The statutes behind this
Cited by name as authority, for your own reading. Informational only, not legal advice.
K.S.A. § 58-4616
Requires the association to retain a defined list of books, minutes, financials, and architectural-decision records, and makes them available to owners on 10 days' written notice, subject to specific exemptions.
K.S.A. § 58-3120
Ties the older condo act's own recordkeeping duty directly to the § 58-4616 access right, giving condo owners the same records statute as HOA lot owners.
K.S.A. § 58-4605
Limits the act's mandatory records right, like its other protections, to common interest communities of 12 or more units formed after January 1, 2011.
Step by step
How to request HOA or condo records in Kansas
A clean, statute-anchored records request under K.S.A. § 58-4616 that starts the clock and preserves your remedies.
- 01
Put your request in writing
Email or mail (certified is ideal) a dated written request. The statute requires 10 days' written notice reasonably identifying the specific records, so vague or verbal requests don't start that clock.
- 02
List the specific record categories
Name what you want from § 58-4616(a): the accounting records, meeting minutes, owner list with vote counts, governing documents and current rules, financial statements and tax returns, board and officer list, current contracts, or the architectural-decision records under (a)(10).
- 03
Cite the statute
Reference K.S.A. § 58-4616 (and § 58-3120 if you're a condo owner) so the board knows you're invoking a specific statutory right, not just asking nicely.
- 04
Know the real exemptions
Personnel and medical records, active negotiations, pending or potential legal proceedings, privileged communications, executive-session records, and other owners' individual files can be legitimately withheld under § 58-4616(c). A refusal outside those categories is harder to justify.
- 05
Escalate a stonewall
If the board ignores or flatly denies a request outside a valid exemption, document the dated request and non-response, then consider a K.S.A. § 58-4621 action to enforce your rights, which can include an award of attorney's fees.
Straight answers
Common questions
What HOA or condo records can I see in Kansas?
Under K.S.A. § 58-4616(a), the association must keep, and make available to you, its accounting records, meeting minutes, owner list and vote counts, governing documents and current rules, three years of financial statements and tax returns, board and officer lists, current contracts, and records of architectural approval or denial decisions.
How much notice do I have to give before the board has to produce records?
Ten days' written notice that reasonably identifies the specific records you want, under § 58-4616(b). Reasonable business hours or a mutually convenient time and place apply to the actual inspection.
Can the board charge me for copies?
Yes, a reasonable fee for copies and for supervising your inspection is allowed under § 58-4616(d). That's different from your underlying right to inspect and request copies, which the fee can't be used to block.
Can I get the association's file on my neighbor's violation?
Generally no. Section 58-4616(c)(8) lets the association withhold individual unit files belonging to owners other than you. Build your own documentation of comparable violations instead of relying on a records request for someone else's file.
I own a condo. Do I have a separate, weaker records right than HOA lot owners?
No. The condo act's own records section, § 58-3120, is tied directly to § 58-4616, the same access statute that covers HOA lot owners. You're not working from a thinner rule just because you own a condo unit.