Kansas House Bill HB2225

Kansas 2025-2026 Regular Session

• Introduced: 2/4/25
• Refer: 2/4/25

Caption

Prohibiting mobile home park landlords from limiting a tenant's access to communications and video services.

Summary

HB 2225 amends the Kansas Mobile Home Parks Residential Landlord and Tenant Act to prohibit mobile home park landlords from restricting a tenant’s access to certain outside vendors and service providers. The bill specifically adds communications and video services to the list of goods and services tenants must be free to choose, alongside existing references to fuel, furnishings, cable television, broadband, telecommunications, and mobile homes. It also preserves an exception where a landlord may impose restrictions that are reasonably necessary to protect the health, safety, or welfare of tenants. The bill keeps the existing framework that allows landlords and tenants to agree in writing that tenants may perform certain landlord duties, repairs, or maintenance tasks, so long as the agreement is made in good faith and does not evade landlord obligations. It does not create a new regulatory scheme, but instead updates and clarifies the landlord-tenant rules governing mobile home parks by strengthening tenant choice in communications-related services and preventing exclusive-provider arrangements unless justified by safety or welfare concerns.

Impact

HB 2225 would amend K.S.A. 58-25,111 and repeal the current version of that statute, thereby changing the legal duties of mobile home park landlords in Kansas. The practical effect is to limit landlords’ ability to steer or block tenants from choosing their own cable, broadband, telecommunications, video, and related service providers, while still allowing reasonable standardization of utility hookups and cost recovery limited to actual costs. The bill primarily affects mobile home park operators and tenants, and it may also affect communications, cable, broadband, and video service providers that seek access to residents in those parks.

Sentiment

The available context suggests generally favorable treatment of the bill, with the measure introduced by the House Committee on Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications at the request of Ideatek, a broadband-related company. The caption and statutory changes indicate a consumer-choice and competition-oriented purpose, which typically aligns with support for expanded access to communications services. No committee transcript or recorded votes were provided, so there is no direct evidence of opposition or amendment debate in the supplied materials.

Contention

The main potential point of contention is the balance between tenant choice and landlord control over mobile home park operations. Supporters would likely favor the bill for preventing exclusive arrangements and improving access to broadband, cable, and telecommunications services, while opponents may argue that landlords need flexibility to manage infrastructure, standardize hookups, or protect health and safety. The bill’s exception for restrictions reasonably necessary to protect tenant welfare is the key limiting principle, and disputes would likely center on how broadly that exception should be interpreted and whether any imposed charges truly reflect actual costs.