HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

1009

TWENTY-NINTH LEGISLATURE, 2017

H.D. 3

STATE OF HAWAII

S.D. 1

 

 

 

 

 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

 

RELATING TO THE LANDLORD TENANT CODE.

 

 

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

 


PART I

     SECTION 1.  Section 521-7, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

     "§521-7  Exclusions from application of chapter.  Unless created solely to avoid the application of this chapter, this chapter shall not apply to:

     (1)  Residence at an institution, whether public or private, where residence is merely incidental to detention or the provision of medical, geriatric, educational, religious, or similar services;

     (2)  Residence in a structure directly controlled and managed by:

         (A)  The University of Hawaii or any other university or college in the State for housing its own students or faculty or residence in a structure erected on land leased from the university or college by a nonprofit corporation for the exclusive purpose of housing students or faculty of the college or university; or

          (B)  A private dorm management company that offers a minimum of fifty beds to students of any college, university, or other institution of higher education in the State;

     (3)  Occupancy under a bona fide contract of sale of the dwelling unit or the property of which it is a part where the tenant is, or succeeds to the interest of, the purchaser;

     (4)  Residence by a member of a fraternal organization in a structure operated without profit for the benefit of the organization;

     (5)  Transient occupancy on a day-to-day basis in a hotel or motel;

     (6)  Occupancy by an employee of the owner or landlord whose right to occupancy is conditional upon that employment or by a pensioner of the owner or landlord or occupancy for a period of up to four years subsequent thereto, pursuant to a plan for the transfer of the dwelling unit or the property of which it is a part to the occupant;

     (7)  A lease of improved residential land for a term of fifteen years or more, measured from the date of the commencement of the lease;

     (8)  Occupancy by the prospective purchaser after an accepted offer to purchase and prior to the actual transfer of the owner's rights;

     (9)  Occupancy in a homeless facility or any other program for the homeless authorized under part XVII of chapter 346;

    (10)  Residence or occupancy in a public housing project or complex directly controlled, owned, or managed by the Hawaii public housing authority pursuant to the federal low rent public housing program; [or]

    (11)  Residence or occupancy in a transitional facility for abused family or household members[.]; or

    (12)  Residence or occupancy in a structure or on a property directly controlled, owned, and managed by the Hawaii public housing authority."

PART II

     SECTION 2.  Section 356D-44, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

     "§356D-44  Administration of state low-income public housing projects and programs.  (a)  The authority shall construct, develop, and administer property or housing for the purpose of state low-income public housing projects and programs.

     (b)  The authority shall offer any decommissioned low-income public housing project, except for federal housing projects, to nonprofit or for-profit organizations or government agencies for rehabilitation into emergency or transitional shelter facilities for the homeless or rehabilitation into rental units that set aside at least fifty per cent of the units to persons or families with incomes at or below fifty per cent of the area median family income; provided that:

     (1)  The housing project is wholly owned by the State on either state-owned or ceded lands;

     (2)  The authority has determined that the housing project is not eligible for rehabilitation using the authority's current resources; and

     (3)  The nonprofit or for-profit organization or government agency demonstrates expertise in rehabilitation of housing projects and has community, public, and private resources to substantially pay for the rehabilitation.

The land and improvements may be leased to the nonprofit or for-profit organization or government agency for a period not to exceed ninety-nine years for a sum of $1 per year.

     [(c)  State low-income housing projects shall be subject to chapter 521.

     (d)] (c)  The authority shall adopt necessary rules in accordance with chapter 91, including the establishment and collection of reasonable fees for administering the state low-income housing projects or programs and to carry out any state program under subsection (a)."

     SECTION 3.  Section 356D-71, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

     "[[]§356D-71[]]  Resident selection; dwelling units; rentals.  In the administration of elder or elderly housing, the authority shall observe the following with regard to resident selection, dwelling units, and rentals:

     (1)  Except as provided in this section, the authority shall accept elder or elderly households as residents in the housing projects;

     (2)  It may accept as residents in any dwelling unit one or more persons, related or unrelated by blood or marriage.  It may also accept as a resident in any dwelling unit or in any housing project, in the case of illness or other disability of an elder who is a resident in the dwelling unit or in the project, a person designated by the elder as the elder's live-in aide whose qualifications as a live-in aide are verified by the authority, although the person is not an elder; provided that the person shall cease to be a resident therein upon the recovery of, or removal from the project of, the elder;

     (3)  It may rent or lease to an elder a dwelling unit consisting of any number of rooms as the authority deems necessary or advisable to provide safe and sanitary accommodations to the proposed resident or residents without overcrowding; and

     (4)  Notwithstanding that the elder has no written rental agreement or that the agreement has expired, during hospitalization of the elder due to illness or other disability so long as the elder continues to tender the usual rent to the authority or proceeds to tender receipts for rent lawfully withheld, no action or proceeding to recover possession of the dwelling unit may be maintained against the elder, nor shall the authority otherwise cause the elder to quit the dwelling unit involuntarily, demand an increase in rent from the elder, or decrease the services to which the elder has been entitled[; and

     (5)  Elder or elderly housing shall be subject to chapter 521]."

PART III

     SECTION 4.  Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken.  New statutory material is underscored.

     SECTION 5.  This Act shall take effect upon its approval; provided that parts I and II shall take effect on July 1, 2018.

 



 

Report Title:

Landlord Tenant Code; Hawaii Public Housing Authority; Exemption

 

Description:

Exempts residence or occupancy in a structure or on a property directly controlled, owned, and managed by the Hawaii Public Housing Authority from the requirements of the residential landlord-tenant code.  Substantive provisions effective 7/1/2018.  (SD1)

 

 

 

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