Report Title:
Motor Vehicle Rental Industry
Description:
Changes "collision damage waiver" to "damage waiver". Amends notice and posting requirements for motor vehicle lessors. Amends per se violations of unfair trade practices. Repeals requirement that lessors submit statistics on damage waiver sales to the director of commerce and consumer affairs.
|
THE SENATE |
S.B. NO. |
712 |
|
TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2009 |
|
|
|
STATE OF HAWAII |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
||
A BILL FOR AN ACT
relating to the motor vehicle rental industry.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. Section 437D-3, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending the definition of "collision damage waiver" to read as follows:
"["Collision damage] "Damage
waiver" means any contract or contractual provision, whether separate from
or a part of a rental agreement, whereby the lessor agrees, for a charge, to
waive any or all claims against the lessee for any damages to the rental motor
vehicle during the term of the rental agreement."
SECTION 2. Section 437D-4, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
"[[]§437D-4[]] Rental
agreements; delivery to director. No lessor shall offer a rental agreement
or [collision] damage waiver unless a specimen of the rental agreement or
[collision] damage waiver is delivered to the director prior to its
use."
SECTION 3. Section 437D-5, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
"[[]§437D-5[]] Rental
agreements; [collision] damage waivers. (a) Each rental agreement
[which] that contains a [collision] damage waiver shall
disclose, at a minimum, in plain language and in at least ten-point boldface
type, the following information:
(1) That the [collision] damage waiver is
optional;
(2) That the [collision] damage waiver entails
an additional charge;
(3) The actual charge per day for the [collision]
damage waiver;
(4) All restrictions, conditions, and provisions in
or endorsed on the [collision] damage waiver;
(5) That the lessee may already be sufficiently
covered and should examine the lessee's personal automobile insurance policy to
determine whether it provides coverage for [collision] damage and the
amount of the deductible;
(6) That by entering into the rental agreement, the lessee may be liable for damage to the rental motor vehicle resulting from a collision; and
(7) The acknowledgment described in section 437D-11.
(b) The rental agreement shall not contain an
unreasonable restriction, condition, or provision in or endorsed on a [collision]
damage waiver. The [collision] damage waiver shall not exclude damages
caused by ordinary negligence on the part of the lessee."
SECTION 4. Section 437D-5.5, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
"[[]§437D-5.5[]] Offers
or sales of collision insurance by lessors or limited line motor vehicle rental
company producers. (a) The provisions in this chapter relating to or
otherwise regulating the offer or sale [or collision] of damage
waivers shall apply to the offer or sale [[]of[]] collision
insurance by lessors or limited line motor vehicle rental company producers.
(b) For purposes of this chapter, collision
insurance means coverage to pay a specified amount to or on behalf of the
lessee for claims by the lessor relating to loss of or damage to the rented
vehicle. The definitions of collision insurance and [collision] damage
waiver stated in this chapter shall apply only to this chapter. No definition
of insurance in this chapter or in any other statute shall be deemed to include
[collision] damage waiver as defined in this chapter."
SECTION 5. Section 437D-7, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
"[[]§437D-7[]] Rate
disclosure requirements: advertising. Each lessor, and each
officer, employee, agency, or other representative of the lessor, who states or
permits to be stated the rental cost of a rental motor vehicle in any
advertisement, shall state conspicuously, in plain language and in conjunction
with the advertised rental cost of the vehicle, the daily rate of the applicable
[collision] damage waiver, and that the rate constitutes an additional
daily charge to the lessee. When a written advertisement, including all print
media, contains the statement of the rental cost of a vehicle, the disclosure
required by this section shall be printed in type no less than one-third the
size of the type used to print the rental cost, or twelve-point type, whichever
is larger. When the video presentation of a television advertisement contains
the statement of the rental cost of a vehicle, the depiction of the disclosure
required by this section shall be no less than one-third the size of the
depiction of the rental cost. When a radio advertisement or the audio
presentation of a television advertisement contains the statement of the rental
cost of the vehicle, the oral statement of the rental cost shall be immediately
accompanied by an oral statement of the disclosure required by this section.
Except as set forth in this section, the statement of the rental cost and the
disclosure shall be equally prominent in all respects."
SECTION 6. Section 437D-8, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
"[[]§437D-8[]] Rate
disclosure requirements; oral or written statements. Each lessor, and each
officer, employee, agent, or other representative of the lessor, who makes any
oral statement, excluding telephonic communications, or written statement of
the rental cost of a vehicle, shall disclose, in plain language and in
conjunction with that statement, the daily rate of the applicable [collision]
damage waiver and that the rate constitutes an additional daily charge to the
lessee."
SECTION 7. Section 437D-9, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
"[[]§437D-9[]] Posting
requirements. Except as provided in section 437D-17, each lessor who
offers [the collision] a damage waiver shall conspicuously
display at the rental area of each rental location a notice, in plain language
and printing, which includes all of the information in section 437D-5(a)(1),
(2), (5), and (6), and a statement that restrictions or conditions apply."
SECTION 8. Section 437D-10, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
"[[]§437D-10[]] Pamphleting
requirements. Before the execution of a rental agreement, each lessor who
offers [the collision] a damage waiver option to a lessee shall
provide to the lessee a pamphlet, written in plain language, which includes all
of the information described in section 437D-5(a)(1) through (6). The
requirements of this section shall be deemed to be satisfied if the lessor
places the pamphlets prominently and conspicuously on the rental desk or
countertop, or in a wall holder, where the pamphlets may be easily seen
and reached by lessees and potential lessees."
SECTION 9. Section 437D-13, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
"§437D-13 Notice and posting required
concerning motor vehicle laws. (a) Every lessor shall at all times
display [at all times] a sign or signs in a conspicuous place in [each]
the main rental [motor vehicle offered to the public, a decal,] area
of each rental location, written in plain language and in no less than
ten-point type, that informs the lessee of:
(1) Hawaii's seat belt and child passenger restraint
laws [and], the prohibition against operating a vehicle under the
influence of an intoxicant, and the prohibition against leaving a
child unattended in a motor vehicle; and
(2) The existence and location of additional information concerning the laws relating to seat belts, child passenger restraints, operating a vehicle under the influence of an intoxicant, and leaving a child unattended in a motor vehicle.
[The requirements and penalties of Hawaii's seat
belt laws and child passenger restraint laws, as provided in sections 291-11.5
and 291-11.6, and the prohibition against and penalties for operating a vehicle
under the influence of an intoxicant, as provided in section 291E-61, and
leaving a child unattended in a motor vehicle, as provided in section
291C-121.5, shall be printed on a card which shall be placed in the glove
compartment of every rental motor vehicle offered to the public.
(b) Except as provided in section
[437D-17], a sign or signs written in plain language calling attention to the
laws referred to in subsection (a) shall be prominently posted in the main
rental area of all rental locations in a place and manner conspicuous to the
public.
(c) The notices and signs required by this
section shall include symbolic representations that are of common understanding
and clearly recognizable to the public as conveying the required use of seat
belts and child passenger restraint systems in the operation of a motor vehicle
and the prohibition against operating a vehicle under the influence of an
intoxicant.
(d) The director shall prescribe the form
of the notices and signs required by this section.]"
SECTION 10. Section 437D-15, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
"§437D-15 Unfair trade practices. Each lessor, and each officer, employee, agent, and other representative thereof, is prohibited from engaging in any practice constituting a violation of chapter 480. The following shall be per se violations of section 480-2:
(1) The making of any material statement, either
orally or in writing, that has the tendency or capacity to mislead or
deceive[, either orally or in writing,] in connection with the rental
of, offer to rent, or advertisement to rent a vehicle;
(2) The omission of any material statement that has
the tendency or capacity to mislead or deceive[,] in connection with the
rental of, offer to rent, or advertisement to rent a vehicle;
(3) The making of any statement to the effect that
the purchase of a [collision] damage waiver is mandatory;
(4) Any violation of sections 437D-5 through 437D-14, and section 437D-17.5;
(5) The charging by the lessor to a lessee of:
(A) More than the cost of the parts and labor necessary to repair a damaged vehicle in accordance with standard practice in the automobile repair industry in the community, if the vehicle is repaired;
(B) More than the actual cash value of a vehicle if it is declared a total loss; or
(C) More than the [diminution in value of a
vehicle] cost of the parts and labor necessary to repair a damaged
vehicle in accordance with standard practice in the automobile repair industry
in the community if [it] the vehicle is not repaired and not
declared a total loss;
(6) The making of any statement by the lessor to the effect that the lessee is or will be confined to remain within boundaries specified by the lessor unless payment or an agreement relating to the payment of damages has been made by the lessee;
(7) The charging of a lessee more than a reasonable estimate of the actual income lost for loss of use of a vehicle; and
(8) The charging of a lessee more than actual towing charges."
SECTION 11. Section 437D-8.6, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is repealed.
["§437D-8.6 Collision
damage waiver statistics. Lessors shall submit data or information to the
director regarding their sale of collision damage waivers in a given year and
amounts expended to repair damage to rental vehicles caused while the vehicles
are subject to the collision damage waiver. Lessors shall maintain all records
reflecting these statistics. Neither the director, nor any other employee of
the department of commerce and consumer affairs, nor any other person appointed
by the director as provided by law, shall release or divulge any of the
information or data required by this section, except as may be required or
allowed by rules adopted pursuant to section 437D-18."]
SECTION 12. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.
SECTION 13. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2009.
|
INTRODUCED BY: |
_____________________________ |
|
|
|