STAND. COM. REP. NO. 817-26

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2026

RE: H.B. No. 1776

H.D. 2

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2026

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Finance, to which was referred H.B. No. 1776, H.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE RESIDENTIAL LANDLORD-TENANT CODE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Require the Office of Consumer Protection to periodically publish an accessible, multilingual notice of tenant rights; and

(2) Require a landlord to provide a tenant with a copy of the most recent notice of tenant rights in the tenant's preferred language, if available, before or at the signing of a lease.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs; Disability and Communication Access Board; Medical-Legal Partnership for Children in Hawaii; Hawaiʻi Children's Action Network Speaks!; Hawaiʻi YIMBY; Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice; Roots Reborn; and five individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and Hawaiʻi Association of REALTORS.

This measure proposes that notice of tenant rights to be published by the Office of Consumer Protection be made available in printed and electronic formats. Your Committee requests consideration that notice be required in either a printed or electronic format, rather than both.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Finance that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1776, H.D. 2, and recommends that it pass Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Finance,

____________________________

CHRIS TODD, Chair