Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce, to which was referred H.B. No. 781 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to organize, deregulate, and provide for the consistency and ease of use of the condominium property regimes law. This bill completes the recodification of the condominum law begun in 2004 by Act 164, Session Laws of Hawaii 2004, which enacted three parts entitled, General Provisions, Applicability, and Management of Condominiums. This bill adds four new parts that deal with the development and sale of condominiums, entitled:

(1) Sales to Owner-Occupants;

(2) Creation, Alteration, and Termination of Condominiums;

(3) Registration and Administration of Condominiums; and

(4) Protection of Condominium Purchasers.

The Real Estate Commission, Hawaii Association of Realtors, Hawaii Chapter of the Community Associations Institute, and the former Condominium Law Recodification Project Attorney for the Commission, testified in support of this bill. The Hawaii Bankers Association commented.

Your Committee finds that before recodification, the condominium property regimes law was unorganized, inconsistent, overly regulatory, and in some areas, obsolete. Hawaii's old law micromanaged condominium associations, hindered development, and ignored technological changes and the present day development process.

These problems have been resolved by the recodified condominium law contained in this bill and in Act 164, the product of four years of work by stakeholders and the Real Estate Commission. Your Committee thanks the many people whose efforts and dedication brought this project to fruition. This law will benefit the entire community, and is a law of which Hawaii can be proud.

Your Committee has amended:

In addition, to allow further fine-tuning of this bill through the legislative process, your Committee has changed its effective date to July 1, 2099. Technical and substantive amendments were also made for clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 781, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 781, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.