Aloha, my name is Tim the founder of The 521 Tenant & Landlord website, this website shouldn’t even exist and I should be on the Island of Hawai’i working on my manual removal of invasive species, things don’t always work out the way we plan them to. Below is my testimony on laws and procedures that need to be changed to ensure that every person receives due process.
( Note: I have since updated the following testimony and will be updating the site after this Thanks Giving weekend.)
STATE CONTROLLED RENT DEPOSIT ACCOUNT
The first advantages of having a state control account would be, security for the tenants not having to fear the landlord ( or kiss ass) about getting their deposits back. Nobody should have to go through them uneasy feelings about getting back some money that is theirs, that’s why it’s called a deposit.
Second, we’d have more actuate numbers on how many landlords there are, and how much money is actually being reported to the State Of Hawaii.Oahu has 533,000 single one story structures, how many landlords actually have a g. e. tax license and are paying taxes, who know. If the landlord was required by law to deposit the money into the state ran account, the state would have better numbers on how many landlords there are and how much came in. We should also put the deposit money into an interest bearing account, that way we could use the interest towards helping a family get off the streets. There’s a lot of good possibilities with having a state ran deposit account.
AMEND LANDLORD & TENANT COURT PROCEDURES:
Court Procedures are unconstitutional in Hawaii’s landlord & tenant cases, tenants are assumed to be in the wrong and owing something to the landlord. No one from the court system will even talk to you about your case, like it’s a big secret. They continue to tell you that they can’t help you because you could use it has legal advice.
- No Attorney’s:Any property owner who does not have a property management company taking care of their property from the start of the rental agreement, must represent themselves in court. The landlord nor the tenant had an attorney in making the rental agreement, therefore the landlord nor tenant should have an attorney represent them during the closing of a rental agreement.
- Mandatory Video: When court action is taking against the landlord or tenant during a rental agreement, both parties on the first day of court, must watch a mandatory 30 minute video on how court procedures are dealt with in Hawaii, by doing this, it insures both parties are giving equal protection on knowing there rights and obligations before the legal procedures start. Upon the ending of the video, the mediator can then, try to do an out of court settlement between the two parties. (Note: Any landlord or tenant that refuses to watch the mandatory video, will have an automatic judgment against them).
INCENTIVES RELIEFS FOR LANDLORD & TENANTS:
- We should definitely set up some incentive reliefs for landlords and tenants, I experimented with some programs and they work, for example; say you’re the landlord, and you’ve had this family in your rental unit for the last 11 months, they always pay on time, there quiet, respectful, then all of the sudden, the transmission goes out in their car, they can’t pay that month, if the landlord is not compassionate person, they’re going to fall behind, and most of the time, there going to get evicted, hopefully they have some family or friends to stay with, if not they will end up on the streets. I can’t count how many times, I ate it., for some reason, I got a better feeling off that tenants smile than trying to make money, Landlords should be more like this, and the state should allow it to be written off on taxes. It keeps another person off the street, and it’s a good right off.
TASK FORCE
- Real property transactions in Hawaii is about 30% commerce transactions, which is high. Hawaii landlords have been taking the law into their own hands for years now, reason being, there is no kind of monitoring of landlord tenant relationships. Landlords have always had the upper hand in the courts cases, because they own the property. If we set up a small task force that would be able to go ask tenants how everything is going, it’s only going to help. We have a lot of land owners out there that shouldn’t be landlords, and they abuse their power. We really should have some monitoring.
Task Force that monitors landlord tenant relationships:
Tenant Move-In Packet:
( Packet has to include the following items )
- Rental Agreement
- Payment Deposit Receipt
- Itemize Inventory List
- Damage Inventory List
- The Hawaii Residential Landlord-Tenant Code handbook
Finally, for reasons I don’t know, the system have giving or shown more respect to the land owners, than the tenants in the legal proceedings. Landlords and everyone else should realize, tenants are customers, they should be treated with respect and dignity as in any fare dealing transactions.
The 521 