Bill Text: HI SB2127 | 2024 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Relating To The Residential Landlord-tenant Code.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2024-03-12 - The committee(s) on CPC recommend(s) that the measure be deferred. [SB2127 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2024-SB2127-Amended.html
THE SENATE |
S.B. NO. |
2127 |
THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2024 |
S.D. 2 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
RELATING TO THE RESIDENTIAL LANDLORD-TENANT CODE.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. The legislature finds that there are
numerous barriers to accessing affordable housing for low-income households and
people experiencing homelessness. There
is significant competition for rental units in the State, with landlords often
receiving multiple applications per unit.
Individuals and families must often apply to as many open rentals as
possible, which can cost hundreds of dollars.
While the legislature recognizes that landlords and their agents need to
collect application fees in order to vet all applicants, the legislature
believes that the costs of multiple applications for prospective tenants can
result in significant economic hardship, especially in a tight housing market.
The legislature further finds that to help
individuals and families seeking rental housing in the State, the legislature
enacted Act 200, Session Laws of Hawaii 2023, which authorizes an application
screening fee for rental applications to ensure that costs associated with
vetting an application are used only for that purpose and any remaining fees
are returned to the applicant. However,
an applicant will still be required to submit multiple application fees to
landlords or their agents who are using those fees to obtain similar
information. Allowing an applicant to
receive a copy of certain information to provide to another landlord or the
landlord's agent will further reduce the financial burden of applying for
rental units and reduce the work of landlords and their agents to obtain
certain information.
Accordingly, the purpose of this Act is to allow an applicant to request a copy of the applicant's criminal background check and credit report from one landlord or the landlord's agent to provide to another landlord or that landlord's agent in lieu of paying a fee to cover the costs of obtaining another criminal background check or credit report.
SECTION 2. Section 521-46, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
"[[]§521-46[]] Application screening fee. (a) When a landlord or the landlord's agent
receives a request from an applicant to rent a dwelling unit, the landlord or
the landlord's agent may charge the applicant an application screening fee at
the time the application is processed for the dwelling unit to cover the costs
of obtaining information about the applicant; provided that [a]:
(1) A landlord
or the landlord's agent shall only charge an application screening fee for an
applicant who is eighteen years of age or older or an emancipated minor[.];
(2) If an applicant
provides a landlord or the landlord's agent with a copy of the applicant's
criminal background check or credit report received within thirty days from
another landlord or that landlord's agent that has not been falsely altered,
the landlord or the landlord's agent shall not charge an application fee to
cover the costs of obtaining another criminal background check or credit report;
and
(3) If a comprehensive reusable tenant screening report is made available to the landlord or the landlord's agent and is received within thirty days, the landlord or the landlord's agent shall not charge an application fee.
Information sought by the landlord or the landlord's agent charging the fee may include personal reference checks, tenant reports, criminal background checks, and credit reports produced by any consumer credit reporting agency.
(b) Upon request by the applicant, a landlord or the landlord's agent shall provide to the applicant a:
(1) Receipt for
payment of the application screening fee; [and]
(2) Breakdown of costs
covered by the application screening fee[.]; and
(3) Copy of
the applicant's criminal background checks and credit reports that are less
than thirty days old.
(c) A landlord or the landlord's agent shall return to the applicant any amount of the application screening fee that is not used for the purposes authorized by this section within thirty days after the landlord has submitted screening requests.
(d) It is a violation, punishable by a fine of
$1,000, for an applicant to present a copy of the applicant's criminal
background check or credit report that has been falsely altered.
[(d)] (e) For the purposes of this section:
"Consumer credit reporting agency" has the same meaning as in section 489P-2.
"Credit report" has the same meaning as in section 489P-2.
"Falsely
altered", in relation to a written instrument, means a written instrument
that has been changed, without the authority of the ostensible maker, drawer,
or issuing commercial establishment, whether complete or incomplete, by means
of erasure, obliteration, deletion, insertion of new matter, transposition of
matter, or in any other manner, so that the instrument so altered falsely
appears or purports to be in all respects an authentic creation of its
ostensible maker, or authorized by the maker or issuing commercial
establishment."
SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.
SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2040.
Report Title:
Rental Application Screening Fee; Criminal Background Check; Credit Report
Description:
Prohibits
a landlord or the landlord's agent from charging an application fee for a
criminal background check or credit report if an applicant provides a copy of a
criminal background check or credit report that has not been falsely altered or
makes a comprehensive reusable tenant report available to the landlord or the
landlord's agent. Requires a landlord or
the landlord's agent to provide, upon request, a copy of an applicant's
criminal background check or credit report.
Establishes penalties for providing a falsely altered copy of a
background check or credit report. Defines
"falsely altered". Takes
effect 7/1/2040. (SD2)
The summary description
of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is
not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.