No bed bug provision for renters — the state's only bed bug rule covers lodging establishments, where an infestation is treated as an imminent health hazard, and does nothing for a tenant. But Kansas does have a genuine statutory habitability duty, and it cannot be handed to you in the lease: a landlord may not make your performance of their duties a condition of the rental agreement. There is no repair-and-deduct in Kansas — you cannot hire an exterminator and take it off the rent. The remedy runs on a 14/30 clock instead. Give written notice specifying exactly what is wrong and stating the agreement terminates on a rent-paying date at least 30 days out; if the landlord makes a good faith effort within 14 days, it doesn't terminate.
Who pays for treatment
Landlord — duty is non-delegable by lease
Landlord response deadline
14 days to cure, 30 days to termination
Disclosure before lease
No
What the law actually says
No bed bug provision in the Kansas Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, K.S.A. 58-2540 et seq. § 58-2553 (duties of landlord; agreement that tenant perform landlord's duties; limitations) — except when prevented by an act of God, failure of public utility services, or other conditions beyond the landlord's control, the landlord shall comply with applicable building and housing codes materially affecting health and safety, among other duties; subsection (d) bars the landlord from treating the tenant's performance of a separate agreement to do the landlord's duties as a condition of any obligation under the rental agreement. § 58-2559(a) — on material non-compliance with the agreement, or non-compliance with § 58-2553 materially affecting health and safety, the tenant may deliver written notice specifying the acts and omissions constituting the breach and stating the agreement terminates on a periodic rent-paying date not less than 30 days after receipt; termination is defeated if the breach is remediable and the landlord adequately initiates a good faith effort to remedy, generally read as a 14-day cure window. Retaliation: § 58-2572. Security deposits and statutory damages: § 58-2550. Rent paid into court on a possession action: § 58-2561. Case: Love v. Monarch Apartments, 13 Kan. App. 2d 341, 771 P.2d 79 (1989) (damages under §§ 58-2550, 58-2559(b), 58-2553); Schartz v. Foster (the Act controls over the general provisions of K.S.A. 58-2501 et seq.). Lodging only: Kan. Admin. Regs. § 4-27-2. REPAIR-AND-DEDUCT — RESOLVED: KANSAS APPEARS TO HAVE NONE. The dispute among commercial guides is settled by the official section titles. § 58-2559 is 'material noncompliance by landlord; notice; termination of rental agreement; limitations; remedies; security deposit' — the 14/30 termination route described above. § 58-2560 is failure to deliver possession. § 58-2561 is 'ACTION FOR POSSESSION FOR NONPAYMENT OF RENT; COUNTERCLAIM, WAIVER; ACCRUED RENT, PAYMENT INTO COURT; DISPOSITION; WHEN JUDGMENT FOR TENANT' — a defensive provision letting a tenant counterclaim and pay accrued rent into court once the LANDLORD sues for possession. It is not a self-help repair remedy, and Nolo's fifty-state table lists it under rent withholding rather than repair-and-deduct. Two industry references state flatly that Kansas has no repair-and-deduct statute. Practical effect for an infestation: you cannot hire an exterminator and deduct the cost. Your routes are the § 58-2559 notice and termination, damages, and — if the landlord sues you for non-payment — the § 58-2561 counterclaim with rent paid into court. HOW BADLY THE SOURCES DISAGREE, worth noting as a caution on the page: one guide asserts within a single article both that § 58-2559 permits repairs and deduction AND that repair-and-deduct is available under § 58-2561; another says § 58-2561 caps deductions at one month's rent; a third says it covers procuring substitute essential services. None of that matches the section headings. ALSO WORTH ADDING: § 58-2544 prohibits waiver of tenant rights under the Act, so a lease clause purporting to sign away habitability protections is void; § 58-2547(3) bars any lease provision making either party pay the other's attorney fees, which cuts both ways; § 58-2557 requires reasonable notice before entry, generally read as 24 hours; and § 58-2564 sets a three-day notice for non-payment eviction, among the shortest in the country — a further reason not to short-pay rent over an infestation. CAUTION: at least one law-firm page attributes a Kansas non-delegable-duty holding to 'Jackson v. Dakota Ridge Board of Directors', which is not a Kansas landlord-tenant authority; do not repeat it.
Hiring someone in Kansas? Check they are actually licensed for structural pest control before you pay a deposit. Verify a Kansas exterminator →
What to do, in order
Photograph everything before you touch it
Live insects, shed skins, dark staining along the mattress seam. Timestamps are the evidence.
Notify the landlord in writing
Email or certified letter, never a phone call alone. Written notice is what starts the clock in every state that has one.
Do not throw out furniture yet
Discarded items can't be inspected, and moving them spreads the infestation down the hallway.
Let the deadline above run
Escalating before it expires generally forfeits the remedy.
Escalate to the housing agency, then to court
An independent inspection report is worth more than your own photographs. Rent withholding rules vary sharply — check the section above before you try it.
Read it yourself
Everything above was written by reading the sections named in the citation, not by summarizing another summary. You should not take our word for it — open the statute and check. Look up the section numbers quoted above.
The state's own legislature or code site. Search it for the section numbers quoted above — they are the whole basis for this page.
Last checked against the Kansas code: . Statutes change every legislative session — if you are reading this long after that date, open the cited sections yourself before relying on them.
Not legal advice. This is a plain-language reference to publicly available statutes, verified against the Kansas code. Liability turns on your lease, your local ordinance and your specific facts. Talk to a tenant attorney or legal aid before withholding rent or filing anything.