STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1450

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: S.B. No. 825

S.D. 2

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 S.B. No. 825, S.D. 2, 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 required period for notice of termination for failure to pay rent from five business days to ten calendar days;

(B) 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;

(C) Require landlords, or their agents, and tenants to be responsible for their own attorneys' fees and costs in prelitigation mediation, unless the tenant defaults on a mediated agreement; 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 Judiciary; Department of Human Services; Mediation Center of the Pacific; Kuʻikahi Mediation Center; Hawaiʻi Children's Action Network Speaks!; Mediation Centers of Hawaii; and five individuals. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Hawaii State Bar Association Collection Law Section and one individual. 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 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 S.B. No. 825, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it be referred to your Committee on Finance in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 825, S.D. 2, H.D. 2.

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

____________________________

DAVID A. TARNAS, Chair