STAND. COM. REP. NO. 854

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 1241

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Transportation and International Affairs and Commerce and Consumer Protection, to which was referred H.B. No. 1241, H.D. 2, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ABANDONED VEHICLES,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to increase the number of business days from ten to twenty after the mailing of a notice to an out-of-state owner of an abandoned vehicle during which the owner may repossess their vehicle before the abandoned vehicle is subject to disposal.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from EAN Holdings, LLC and Hawaii Credit Union League.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Customer Services of the City and County of Honolulu.

 

     Your Committees find that extending the time in which the owner of an abandoned vehicle may repossess their vehicle from custody is warranted, particularly with respect to rental car companies with large fleets of vehicles whose lessees may abandon the vehicles.  This measure would help ensure that these companies have sufficient time to recover rental vehicles that may have been abandoned.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Deleting its contents and replacing them with the contents of S.B. No. 30, S.D. 1, which is a substantively similar measure but provides for a twenty-day period before repossession for all motor vehicles, regardless of the location of the address of the motor vehicle's registered owner of record; and

 

     (2)  Changing the effective date to upon approval.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Transportation and International Affairs and Commerce and Consumer Protection that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1241, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1241, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Transportation and International Affairs and Commerce and Consumer Protection,

 

____________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair

 

____________________________

J. KALANI ENGLISH, Chair