By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson State Rep. Jason Probst is pleased that at least one of his pieces of work has made progress this session, even if it is still a long way from passage.
"The issue that I've personally been attached to that has gotten the furthest along is a piece of legislation I introduced trying to require that houses sold on land contract be recorded," Probst said. "Currently, there is no Kansas law governing land contracts. It's a good tool that helps people purchase homes if they have damaged credit, but oftentimes we see that it's actually being abused and people are getting into homes they can't afford."
Probst would like to see the legislation work for everyone.
"My goal on this is that it would protect buyers, sellers and potential lenders," Probst said. "Under the current system, somebody could sell a property to someone on land contract and still go get a mortgage on that. The bank is not going to have any idea that there is another party that has an interest in that. We did have a hearing on that bill in the local government committee. We had a couple of people from Hutch come up, one to testify in person and another testify in written form. The committee was very responsive. That had a lot of good questions."
There will be further work on the legislation outside of the session.
"In the end, the committee suggested that it be referred to the Kansas Judicial Council," Probst said. "Over the interim, the Judicial Council will form a subcommittee that will study that and make some recommendations to kind of flesh that out a little bit and come back to the legislature with some ideas on how we might enact that legislation in a way that kind of satisfies what we're trying to do, but does it in a way that isn't onerous to a lot of people that might be affected by it."
A lot of the ideas that the Legislature ultimately passes go through interim committees at some point in the process, because it gives experts a longer time to look at issues and avoid potential pitfalls.