HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.C.R. NO.

203

TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2002

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 
   


HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

requesting the department of commerce and consumer affairs to amend the residential landlord-tenant code.

 

 

WHEREAS, Hawaii's residential landlord-tenant code, chapter 521, Hawaii Revised Statutes, provides that a tenant may terminate a month-to-month tenancy only by providing written notice to the landlord at least twenty-eight days in advance of the anticipated termination; if the tenancy is less than month-to-month, the tenant must notify the landlord at least ten days before the anticipated termination; and

WHEREAS, the residential landlord-tenant code also provides that a tenant shall not unreasonably withhold consent to the landlord to enter the dwelling unit to show the unit to prospective purchasers, mortgagees, or tenants; the law requires the landlord not to abuse the right of access; and

WHEREAS, newspaper ads or other notices concerning vacant residential rental units in Hawaii are normally for dwelling units that are immediately available; and

WHEREAS, because of the notice requirements of the residential landlord-tenant code, Hawaii residents who occupy residential rental units often have difficulty when they decide to relocate, and are sometimes forced to pay double rental fees --for the last month of the old tenancy and the first month of the new tenancy; and

WHEREAS, landlords seeking a tenant for a currently vacant rental unit face similar difficult decisions of whether to let a rental unit stay vacant another month so that a potential new tenant can give the tenant's current landlord the notice required to terminate the tenancy, or whether to continue efforts to find a new tenant; and

WHEREAS, landlords and tenants alike would benefit from revisions to the landlord-tenant code that would require notice of residential unit vacancies to be published or advertised twenty days before the unit becomes vacant and would require tenants to allow landlord to show the dwelling unit to prospective tenants during the last thirty days of the current tenancy; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2002, the Senate concurring, that the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs is requested to consider and evaluate amendments to the residential landlord-tenant code to require notice of vacancy to be given to potential new tenants before the dwelling unit becomes vacant under the current tenancy and to require tenants to reasonably allow a landlord to show the dwelling unit to prospective tenants during the last thirty days of the current tenancy; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that as part of the Department's evaluation of changes to the residential landlord-tenant code, the Department is requested to hold public hearings, community meetings, or otherwise provide a forum for landlords and tenants to submit their views and recommendations; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Director of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and the Executive Director of the Office of Consumer Protection.

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title:

Landlord-Tenant Code; DCCA