STAND. COM. REP. NO. 895

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 31

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 Commerce and Consumer Protection and Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 31, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PROPERTY,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Allow a person who discovered a recorded discriminatory restrictive covenant to take certain actions to invalidate the covenant, without liability; and

(2) Define discriminatory restrictive covenant.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaiʻi Civil Rights Commission and one individual.

Your Committees find that discriminatory restrictive covenants violate the rights and protections of certain protected classes. The State's people have the right to fair, safe housing environments, but discriminatory restrictive covenants on real property infringe on this right. Therefore, this measure expands the protections available in the State by allowing a person who discovers a discriminatory restrictive covenant to take certain actions to invalidate it without liability.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

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

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Commerce and Consumer Protection and Judiciary that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 31, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 31, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Commerce and Consumer Protection and Judiciary,

________________________________ KARL RHOADS, Chair

________________________________ JARRETT KEOHOKALOLE, Chair