STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2671

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 2000

                                   RE:  S.B. No. 2467
                                        S.D. 2




Honorable Norman Mizuguchi
President of the Senate
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2000
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No.
2467, S.D. 1, entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO UNLICENSED CONTRACTORS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to authorize and establish
procedures for the administrative forfeiture of materials, tools,
and other property owned by an unlicensed contractor, to clarify
that unlicensed contracting is an unfair and deceptive practice,
and to require unlicensed contractors to reimburse moneys to
consumers.

     Your Committee finds that unlicensed contractors, unlike
licensed contractors, provide consumers no assurance that they
will competently do the job for which they were hired, and often
fail to complete a job or do so inadequately.  Your Committee
further finds that an unlicensed contractor who illegally takes
on a contracting job should be subject to the forfeiture of
equipment used on that job.

     Your Committee notes that the bill, in its present form,
would subject an unlicensed contractor to forfeiture of all
property, not just tools used for the illegal work.  Your
Committee received lengthy proposed amendments to this measure
from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, which may
clarify what property is subject to forfeiture, among other
points.  However, because the proposed amendments bear largely
upon matters previously considered by the Committee on Commerce

 
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                                   STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2671
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and Consumer Protection, your Committee believes that it should
leave consideration of those amendments to the appropriate House
committee and, if this measure should go to conference, to the
conference committee.

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the
Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Consumer Lawyers of
Hawaii, the Hawaii Construction Industry Association, the
Building Industry Association, the Construction Industry
Legislative Organization, the Subcontractors Association of
Hawaii, the General Contractors Association of Hawaii, the Maui
Contractors Association, and Hidano Construction.

     Upon further consideration, your Committee has amended this
measure by:

     (1)  Deleting a provision that would have retroactively
          applied the measure to prior court proceedings;

     (2)  Changing the effective date to November 7, 2040, to
          promote continued discussion of the bill and proposed
          amendments; and

     (3)  Making a technical, non-substantive change for the
          purposes of clarity and style.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your
Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No.
2467, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass
Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2467, S.D.
2.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committee on Judiciary,



                                   ______________________________
                                   AVERY B. CHUMBLEY, Co-Chair



                                   ______________________________
                                   MATTHEW M. MATSUNAGA, Co-Chair

 
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