STAND

STAND. COM. REP. NO.3125

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2002

RE: H.B. No. 1713

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing, to which was referred H.B. No. 1713, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CONDOMINIUM PROPERTY REGIMES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require an association of apartment owners (AOAO) that has received a request for information from an owner, to notify the owner in writing of its intent to impose fees for providing that information prior to making the assessment and to require contested fee matters to be submitted to mediation.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Real Estate Commission, Hawaiiana Management Company, Ltd., Hawaii Independent Condominium and Cooperative Owners, and nine individuals. The Community Associations Institute opposed the measure and the Hawaii Council of Associations of Apartment Owners submitted comments thereon.

Your Committee finds that under current law, an apartment owner may be charged for information requested from an AOAO, with no prior notice of the charge. Your Committee has heard from owners who received bills for hundreds of dollars for requested information, in some cases for information that the owner believed was readily available and not of a complex nature.

This measure addresses the above problem by:

(1) Requiring an AOAO to provide an owner who has requested information with a minimum ten days prior written notification of the fees to be assessed for providing the information;

(2) Allowing the owner a reasonable opportunity to contest the imposition of a fee or withdraw a request; and

(3) Requiring that unresolved fee disputes be submitted to mediation.

Your Committee has amended this measure by replacing its contents with the language of a similar measure, S.B. No. 2470, S.D. 1. As amended, this measure:

(1) Refers to "costs", rather than "fees";

(2) Clarifies that the prior notification requirement does not apply to cost assessments related to providing information on delinquent assessments or in connection with procedures to enforce the law of the association's governing documents; and

(3) Deletes the provisions allowing an owner to contest a fee or withdraw a request, requiring contested fee matters to be submitted to mediation, and establishing the definition of "fee".

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1713, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1713, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing,

		____________________________ RON MENOR, Chair