STAND. COM. REP. NO. 737

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: H.B. No. 1433

H.D. 2

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 1433, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EVICTION MEDIATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) For a one-year pilot period beginning on February 5, 2026:

(A) Extend the period for a notice of termination of a rental agreement;

(B) Require landlords to engage in mediation and delay filing an action for summary possession if a tenant schedules or attempts to schedule mediation; and

(C) Requires landlords to provide specific information in the ten calendar-day notice to tenants; and

(2) Appropriate funds for the Judiciary to contract for mediation services.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Judiciary; Mediation Center of the Pacific; Kuʻikahi Mediation; Kauai Economic Opportunity Incorporated; Legal Aid Society of Hawaiʻi; and numerous individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Hawaiʻi Association of REALTORS.

Your Committee finds that many people in the State continue to face challenges paying their rent due to the ever-increasing costs of housing. In an effort to reduce evictions and facilitate mediation, the Legislature enacted Act 57, Session Laws of Hawaii 2021 (Act 57), which modified notice requirements for residential summary possession proceedings, mandated pre-filing mediation, and made funding available for pre-filing mediation services and rent relief through subsidies. Your Committee believes that Act 57 was successful in avoiding evictions, thereby keeping people in homes and ensuring landlords received their rent payments. Despite its success, Act 57 ended on August 6, 2022. Your Committee believes the success of Act 57 merits the continuation of a similar eviction mediation program.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the number of days required for a landlord to file an action for summary possession from twenty to thirty days following the tenant's receipt of the ten-day-calendar notice; and

(2) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1433, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it be referred to your Committee on Finance in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1433, H.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________

DAVID A. TARNAS, Chair