SESSION OF 2025
SUPPLEMENTAL NOTE ON HOUSE BILL NO. 2099
As Amended by House Committee on Local
Government
Brief*
HB 2099, as amended, would authorize the City of
Topeka (Topeka) to conduct periodic inspections of private
residential housing properties when the owner of the property
is receiving direct public financial assistance for tenant rent,
define direct public financial assistance, and sets forth
requirements to conduct such inspections.
Under current law, cities and counties are prohibited
from conducting interior housing inspections of private
residential property without occupant’s consent. The bill
would allow such inspections by Topeka if the property owner
receives direct public financial assistance for tenant rent.
The bill would define “direct public financial assistance”
to mean a financial payment or consideration from the United
States Department of Housing and Urban Development
(HUD).
The bill would require that Topeka provide reasonable
notice to tenants of the date and time of an inspection. It
would also provide that a landlord may be required to perform
random inspections at the request of Topeka in response to
code violation complaints. If a tenant objects to an inspection,
the bill would direct Topeka to obtain an administrative search
warrant to facilitate the inspection.
The bill would also provide a sunset date of July 1,
2030.
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*Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research
Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental
note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at
https://klrd.gov/ Background
The bill was introduced in the House Committee on
Local Government at the request of a representative of the
City of Topeka.
House Committee on Local Government
In the House Committee hearing, Representative Alcala
and representatives of the City of Topeka, Topeka City
Council, and Topeka/Shawnee County Homeless Task Force
provided proponent testimony. The proponents stated that
there are times when individuals who live in rental properties
that receive governmental rental subsidies may not consent
to an inspection because of fear of losing their residence for
allowing such an inspection, even though the current living
conditions for the resident may not be adequate.
The proponents provided an example of residents living
in such governmental subsidized rental housing that had
sewage, black mold growth, and no heat during freezing
temperatures. The proponents stated that HUD administers
the subsidies in the example described and is required to
perform annual inspections. In the example, such inspections
did not occur.
The proponents stated that this bill would allow Topeka
to perform inspections to avoid situations like the example
they related to the committee.
The proponents also stated that they would like to bring
an amendment to update the scope of the bill to only name
the City of Topeka as the local governing authority to have the
authority to conduct the inspections as the original bill would
have provided the authority to conduct inspections to all cities
and counties. The amendment would also clarify
governmental rental subsidies would only apply to direct
tenant rental payments.
2- 2099 Written-only proponent testimony was provided by
representatives of the City of Concordia, League of Kansas
Municipalities, and Kansas Association of Counties.
Opponent testimony was provided by a representative
of the Associated Landlords of Kansas and a private citizen.
The opponents stated that this bill would take away the rights
of a lawful tenant because the lawful tenant should be the
only one who should be allowed to authorize an inspection. It
should be the responsibility of the tenant to accept or ask for
an inspection if there are life, safety, or health issues.
Written-only opponent testimony was provided by a
representative of the Kansas Association of Realtors.
No other testimony was provided.
The House Committee amended the bill to:
●Provide a definition of “direct public financial
assistance” to mean a financial payment or
consideration from HUD;
●Change governmental rental subsidies to mean
direct public financial assistance;
●Narrow the scope of the bill to change the authority
to conduct inspections of a city or county to only be
provided to Topeka; and
●Provide a sunset date of July 1, 2030.
Fiscal Information
According to the fiscal note prepared by the Division of
the Budget on the bill, as introduced, the League of Kansas
Municipalities states enactment of the bill would have
negligible fiscal effects on cities. The Kansas Association of
Counties cannot estimate a fiscal effect because the
3- 2099 Association is unable to determine how many more
inspections would be necessary and whether that would
require additional employees.
Governmental rental subsidies; private residential inspections; municipal housing
inspections
4- 2099