Kansas committee hears proposals to speed removal of unauthorized occupants from dwellings

TOPEKA — The Committee on Judiciary held an informational hearing on state laws governing unauthorized occupancy of property — commonly called squatting — and reviewed a House proposal that would allow law enforcement to remove an unauthorized occupant after an owner files an affidavit, presenters and legislators said.

Kansas Legislative Research Department analyst Natalie Nelson reviewed the current legal framework, telling the committee that the state's adverse-possession statute allows a person who has had open, exclusive and continuous possession of property for 15 years to seek title. Nelson also summarized landlord-tenant law and the eviction process, noting differences when a person occupies property without a rental agreement.

The distinction matters for enforcement: where a valid landlord-tenant relationship exists, the Kansas Residential Landlord and Tenant Act prescribes notice periods and civil procedures for eviction. Nelson said the statute that excludes unauthorized occupants from those tenant protections also authorizes criminal trespass prosecution when a person "enters or remains in defiance of an…