CONFERENCE COMMITTEE REP. NO. 52

Honolulu, Hawaii

                 , 2011

RE:    H.B. No. 1241

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 2

       C.D. 1

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Conference on the disagreeing vote of the House of Representatives to the amendments proposed by the Senate in H.B. No. 1241, H.D. 2, S.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ABANDONED VEHICLES,"

having met, and after full and free discussion, has agreed to recommend and does recommend to the respective Houses the final passage of this bill in an amended form.

     The purpose of this bill is to provide a more practicable timeframe within which abandoned vehicles may be reclaimed by extending the time period during which a legal and registered owner of an abandoned vehicle may repossess the vehicle before disposal from ten days to 20 business days after mailing of a written notice of the intended disposition of the vehicle.

     Currently, an abandoned vehicle will be auctioned approximately 23 days after it is marked abandoned and towed, based on statutorily-established investigation, owner notification, and auction publication requirements.  Unfortunately, this negatively impacts some vehicle owners.  As the registered owners of some vehicles, in particular vehicles owned by rental car companies, are located on the mainland, it may be more than 23 days before the owners of these vehicles or local representatives for these companies are aware the vehicle is going to be disposed of.  This measure attempts to address this issue.

     As this problem mainly affects vehicles whose registered owners reside on the mainland, your Committee on Conference finds that it is prudent to amend this bill by applying the 20-business-day notification requirement only to vehicles whose registered owner resides out-of-state and maintaining the ten-day notification requirement for in-state registered owners.

     Technical, nonsubstantive amendments have also been made for clarity, consistency, and style.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the managers of your Committee on Conference that is attached to this report, your Committee on Conference is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1241, H.D. 2, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Final Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1241, H.D. 2, S.D. 2, C.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the managers:

ON THE PART OF THE SENATE

ON THE PART OF THE HOUSE

____________________________ J. KALANI ENGLISH, Chair	____________________________ JOSEPH M. SOUKI, Co-Chair
____________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Co-Chair	____________________________ ROBERT N. HERKES, Co-Chair
____________________________ CLAYTON HEE, Co-Chair	____________________________ KARL RHOADS, Co-Chair