STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3462

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 1561

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 1561 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO NUISANCE ABATEMENT,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to amend the nuisance abatement laws to authorize civil suits to abate violations of trespass and other offenses that involve the unlawful occupation of real property, including an order of abatement permanently prohibiting the perpetrators from residing in or entering into the subject real property.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Association of REALTORS and twenty-three individuals.

 

     Your Committee finds that squatters may use unscrupulous means to obtain a fraudulent lease agreement and live rent-free on property until someone notices and decides to take legal action.  However, legal action, such as eviction proceedings, may take months to resolve at a high financial cost.  This measure will help accelerate the process of removing unlawful occupants on real property.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Inserting a savings clause;

 

     (2)  Inserting an effective date of January 7, 2059, to encourage further discussion; and

 

     (3)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1561, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1561, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

 

 

 

________________________________

GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair