Report Title:

Mortgage Foreclosures; Tenant Notification

 

Description:

Requires notification of mortgage foreclosure to the tenant of rental property by the successor in interest prior to termination of the rental agreement and commencement of summary possession proceedings.  Provides that holdover tenants are liable to the successor in interest for the pro-rated share of rent and other charges authorized under the previous rental agreement, for each day the tenant remains in possession up until the commencement of summary possession proceedings, after which higher charges authorized under existing law apply.

 


HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

202

TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2009

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

 

A BILL FOR AN ACT


 

 

relating to foreclosures.

 

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 


     SECTION 1.  Section 521-71, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

     "§521-71  Termination of tenancy; landlord's remedies for holdover tenants[.]; foreclosure.  (a)  When the tenancy is month-to-month, the landlord may terminate the rental agreement by notifying the tenant, in writing, at least forty-five days in advance of the anticipated termination.  When the landlord provides notification of termination, the tenant may vacate at any time within the last forty-five days of the period between the notification and the termination date, but the tenant shall notify the landlord of the date the tenant will vacate the dwelling unit and shall pay a prorated rent for that period of occupation.

     (b)  When the tenancy is month-to-month, the tenant may terminate the rental agreement by notifying the landlord, in writing, at least twenty-eight days in advance of the anticipated termination.  When the tenant provides notice of termination, the tenant shall be responsible for the payment of rent through the twenty-eighth day.

     (c)  Before a landlord terminates a month-to-month tenancy where the landlord contemplates voluntary demolition of the dwelling units, conversion to a condominium property regime under chapter 514A or 514B, or changing the use of the building to transient vacation rentals, the landlord shall provide notice to the tenant at least one hundred twenty days in advance of the anticipated demolition or anticipated termination.  If notice is revoked or amended and reissued, the notice period shall begin from the date it was reissued or amended.  Any notice provided, revoked, or amended and reissued shall be in writing.  When the landlord provides notification of termination pursuant to this subsection, the tenant may vacate at any time within the one-hundred-twenty-day period between the notification and the termination date, but the tenant shall notify the landlord of the date the tenant will vacate the dwelling unit and shall pay a prorated rent for that period of occupation.

     (d)  When the tenancy is less than month-to-month, the landlord or the tenant may terminate the rental agreement by notifying the other at least ten days before the anticipated termination.

     (e)  Whenever the term of the rental agreement expires, whether by passage of time, by mutual agreement, by the giving of notice as provided in subsection (a), (b), (c), or (d) or by the exercise by the landlord of a right to terminate given under this chapter, if the tenant continues in possession after the date of termination without the landlord's consent, the tenant may be liable to the landlord for a sum not to exceed twice the monthly rent under the previous rental agreement, computed and prorated on a daily basis, for each day the tenant remains in possession.  The landlord may bring a summary proceeding for recovery of the possession of the dwelling unit at any time during the first sixty days of holdover.  Should the landlord fail to commence summary possession proceedings within the first sixty days of the holdover, in the absence of a rental agreement, a month-to-month tenancy at the monthly rent stipulated in the previous rental agreement shall prevail beginning at the end of the first sixty days of holdover.

     (f)  Before the successor in interest to a foreclosed property may terminate a tenancy under subsection (a), (c), or (d) that is month-to-month or less than month-to-month and commence a summary proceeding for possession, the successor in interest shall notify the tenant of the foreclosure.  Notice shall be given at least one hundred twenty days prior to the date of the summary proceeding for possession.  Notwithstanding subsection (e), after the giving of notice under this subsection, for each day the tenant remains in possession after termination of the rental agreement under subsection (a), (c), or (d) and to the date of commencement of the summary proceeding for possession, the tenant may be liable to the successor in interest for a sum not to exceed the monthly rent under the rental agreement and any other charges specified under the terms of the rental agreement, computed and prorated on a daily basis.  Thereafter, the tenant may be liable to the successor in interest for the sums authorized under subsection (e) for each day the tenant remains in possession.  For the purposes of this subsection, "successor in interest" means a fee simple owner or owners of the property whose interest was acquired through a foreclosure action.

     [(f)] (g)  Any notice of termination initiated for the purposes of evading the obligations of the landlord under subsections 521-21(d) or (e) shall be void."
     SECTION 2.  Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken.  New statutory material is underscored.

     SECTION 3.  This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

 

INTRODUCED BY:

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