STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1234

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: S.B. No. 825

S.D. 2

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce, to which was referred S.B. No. 825, S.D. 2, 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 required period for notice of termination for failure to pay rent from five business days to ten calendar days;

(B) Specify required notice provisions;

(C) Require landlords, or their agents, and tenants to engage in mediation and require landlords or their agents to delay filing an action for summary possession if a tenant schedules mediation; and

(D) Require landlords or their agents 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 Department of Human Services; Judiciary; Kuʻikahi Mediation Center; Mediation Centers of Hawaii; The Mediation Center of the Pacific, Inc.; Hawaiʻi Children's Action Network Speaks!; Kauai Economic Opportunity, Incorporated; and four individuals. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Collection Law Section of the Hawaii State Bar Association. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Hawaiʻi Association of REALTORS.

Your Committee finds that Act 57, Session Laws of Hawaii 2021 (Act 57), established a temporary Pre-Litigation Mediation Program to address the potential high volume of evictions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the program, mediation assisted many low-income renters to avoid eviction or allowed a negotiated move-out that avoided further judicial proceedings and judgments, while also ensuring that landlords received their payments. The Program succeeded in mediating agreements for eighty-five percent of disputes, allowing tenants to remain in their residences and providing stability to their housing situation.

Your Committee further finds that even after the expiration of Act 57, mediation has shown to be an effective tool in amicably resolving eviction disputes. After the expiration of Act 57, The Mediation Center of the Pacific, Inc., continued to offer mediation services for eviction disputes. Over the past two years, the Center mediated ninety-six early eviction cases, ninety percent of which resulting in final agreements between landlord and tenant when no rental assistance was available. This measure will reimplement some of the successful provisions of Act 57 by requiring mediation between tenants and landlords to prevent evictions, thereby allowing families to remain in stable housing and children to continue to attend their community schools and maintain their social connections.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Clarifying that a landlord's agent may fully act on behalf of the landlord;

(2) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

(3) 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 Consumer Protection & Commerce that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 825, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 825, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce,

____________________________

SCOT Z. MATAYOSHI, Chair