STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2675

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2041

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2026

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Water, Land, Culture and the Arts and Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 2041 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO REAL PROPERTY,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Repeal the Land Court;

(2) Transfer functions of the Land Court to the Bureau of Conveyances;

(3) Establish a working group to recommend the implementation of specific reforms to effectively eliminate the Land Court;

(4) Require a report to the Legislature; and

(5) Appropriate funds.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaiʻi Association of REALTORS, Mortgage Bankers Association of Hawaii, CARES, and two individuals.

Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Judiciary, Department of Land and Natural Resources, and one individual.

Your Committees find that the State's Land Court system, established under chapter 501, Hawaii Revised Statutes, was originally designed to provide certainty in land ownership and title records through a Torrens title registration system. Although property may be recorded either in the regular system via the Bureau of Conveyances or the Land Court, few people choose to utilize the Land Court because of the Court's notable barriers to access in the form of delays and increased expenses resulting from complicated procedures and requirements. This measure will reduce redundancies, increase operational efficiency, and modernize and improve the State's property title system by consolidating land records into a single system under the Bureau of Conveyances.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

(2) Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water, Land, Culture and the Arts and Judiciary that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2041, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2041, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water, Land, Culture and the Arts and Judiciary,

________________________________ KARL RHOADS, Chair

________________________________ CHRIS LEE, Chair