STAND. COM. REP. NO. 885

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 825

S.D. 2

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Ways and Means and Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 825, S.D. 1, entitled:

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

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to codify as a one‑year pilot program certain expired amendments to the State's landlord-tenant law that were previously made by Act 57, Session Laws of Hawaii 2021.

More specifically, the measure:

(1) Extends from five business days to ten calendar days the notice required for a landlord to terminate a rental agreement if a tenant fails to pay;

(2) Requires a landlord to engage in mediation and to delay filing an action for summary possession if a tenant schedules or attempts to schedule mediation;

(3) Requires a landlord to provide specific information in the required ten-day notice to a tenant to terminate a rental agreement; and

(4) Requires mediation to take place within thirty days from the date that a mediation center makes contact with both the landlord and the tenant.

Your Committees received written comments in support of this measure from the Judiciary, Department of Human Services, Mediation Centers of Hawaii, Legal Aid Society of Hawaii, Hawaii Children's Action Network Speaks!, Kuikahi Mediation Center, and three individuals.

Your Committees received written comments in opposition to this measure from one individual.

Your Committees received written comments on this measure from Hawaii Realtors.

Your Committees find that the notice and mediation required by this measure will help improve housing stability by reducing evictions and facilitating the resolution of disputes between landlords and tenants.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Extending the length of the pilot program from one year to two years;

(2) Requiring the Judiciary to report its findings and recommendations, including recommendations on whether the pilot program should be made permanent, to the Legislature no later than ninety days after the termination of the pilot program; and

(3) Making permanent the ten-day notice period required for a landlord to terminate a rental agreement for a tenant's failure to pay.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Ways and Means and Judiciary that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 825, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 825, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Ways and Means and Judiciary,

________________________________ KARL RHOADS, Chair

________________________________ DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair