HB276 amends Hawaii’s condominium law to create a narrow exemption from the developer annual report requirement and the associated $50 annual fee. Under current law, a person who subdivides property into condominium units can be treated as a “developer” and must keep filing annual reports until all units are sold. The bill recognizes that this can unfairly burden homeowner-developers who live in one of only two units and may never be able to satisfy the existing “all units sold” condition.
The bill would relieve a developer, successor, or assign from filing subsequent annual reports after filing the report that notifies the state that the initial sales of all units have been completed, but only for developments with no more than two units where one unit is the developer’s principal residence and the other unit has already been initially sold. In effect, it carves out small owner-occupied two-unit condominium projects from the continuing reporting and fee obligation that applies to larger or non-owner-occupied developments.
Impact
HB276 would amend section 514B-58, Hawaii Revised Statutes, governing condominium developer annual reports. The practical effect is to exempt a limited class of small condominium projects—those with two or fewer units and an owner-occupied unit—from ongoing annual filing requirements and the $50 annual fee once the other unit has been initially sold. This reduces administrative and financial obligations for certain homeowner-developers while leaving the broader developer reporting framework intact for other condominium developments.
Sentiment
The bill appears generally favorable and corrective in tone, aimed at relieving what the legislature describes as an undue burden on homeowner-developers. The bill text frames the change as a targeted fairness measure rather than a broad policy shift, and there is no recorded committee testimony or vote history in the provided materials indicating opposition or controversy. The absence of recorded dissent suggests the proposal was presented as a narrow technical fix.
Contention
The main policy issue is whether small owner-occupied condominium projects should be treated like commercial developer projects for annual reporting purposes. Supporters would likely argue that requiring ongoing reports and fees from a resident-owner of a two-unit development is unnecessary and inequitable once the initial sale of the other unit is complete. Any concern would likely come from those favoring uniform enforcement of developer reporting rules or worried about creating a special exemption that could be difficult to administer, but no specific opposition is documented in the provided record.