Senate committees pass pet-insurance, condominium budget fixes; defer e-bike, construction-defect and condo-loan measures for further work

The Hawaii State Senate Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee, meeting jointly with the Senate Transportation Committee and the Senate Committee on Culture and the Arts on March 14, 2025, voted to advance several measures and deferred others for additional work. Lawmakers approved legislation establishing a regulatory framework for pet insurance and a measure tightening condominium budget-summary requirements, converted an eviction-records bill into a judicial study, and postponed decision making on an e-bike bill, a major construction-defect reform (HB420) and a condominium loan program until later dates.

The committees opened with two joint items from the Transportation agenda. The committees deferred House Bill 958, an e-bike provisions bill, to the Transportation, Culture and the Arts committee decision-making meeting on March 18 and scheduled its Commerce and Consumer Protection committee vote for March 19 at 10 a.m., staff announced. Larry Dill, highways administrator for the Hawaii Department of Transportation, testified in support during the joint hearing. "We stand in support of this measure and stand on our testimony," Dill told the committees.

House Bill 226, which amends windshield-tinting rules, passed both committees with amendments. The committees removed certain text and raised a numeric tint figure from 20 to 35 in a technical change intended to align sedan rules with existing provisions for vans, trucks and buses. The Transportation, Culture and the Arts committee recorded that Chair Lee and Senator Elefante voted aye and Senator DeCote voted no; the Commerce committee recorded a separate voice vote with the chair and vice chair voting aye and Senator Owa voting no. Committee minutes show the measure "is adopted."

Lawmakers advanced condominium budget disclosure reform, House Bill 70 HD1, with amendments that struck language removing a good-faith defense and noted a defective effective date that will be handled in conference. The recommendation to pass with amendments was adopted in Committee, with Chair Keohokalole and vice chair voting aye and Senator Awa recorded as aye; two senators were excused.

The committee deferred decision making on House Bill 420 (construction-defect remedies and changes to the Contractor Repair Act) to give members time to review a large volume of testimony. The chair said more than 320 pieces of testimony, including many submitted that morning, required additional review and scheduled the item for further action on March 19 at 10 a.m. Testifiers on HB420 were strongly divided: builders and contractors such as Tracy Tonaki of D.R. Horton Hawaii, Quentin Machida of Gentry Homes and Daryl Takamiya of Castle & Cooke urged reforms to limit litigation and preserve builders' ability to address repairs, while attorneys and tenant advocates urged caution and opposed changes they said would make it harder for homeowners to obtain repairs through the courts. "We stand behind our product," Tracy Tonaki said. "We strongly believe that the CRA needs some reform so that it can work in the way it's intended to." By contrast, attorney William McKeon cautioned that some proposed changes would increase homeowner burdens to prove defects.

On housing- and tenant-related items, the committees converted House Bill 463 (eviction records) into a study. The judiciary asked that language be amended so the measure funds a study to evaluate how to implement tenant disassociation from eviction records and the technical impacts on court technology. Michelle Costa, representing the judiciary, said the courts had done preliminary research "but we don't have a full understanding and the full breadth of the impact" on court systems and therefore recommended a study.

House Bill 544, creating a regulatory framework for pet insurance based on the NAIC model act, passed with amendments; the committee recorded the vote as passing with the chair and vice chair voting aye and other senators excused. The Hawaiian Humane Society and the North American Pet Health Insurance Association both submitted support testimony and urged the committee to proceed.

House Bill 807 HD2, establishing a condominium loan program and a loan-loss reserve to incentivize lending for association repairs, was deferred to March 19 to allow ongoing stakeholder negotiations. Representatives from the Hawaii Green Infrastructure Authority described multiple financing programs and explained that some program lines had a moratorium because applications exceeded available funding; the agency said it had received a modest number of condo requests for CPACE proposals and acknowledged private lenders remain cautious.

The committees recessed and completed decision-making votes later in the session. Committee chairs emphasized scheduling and the need to review extensive written testimony before acting on several contested measures; for others the committees adopted technical amendments and referred measures forward with amended language for final steps in the legislative process.

Votes at a glance: - HB226 (window tinting): Passed with amendments (TCA: Chair Lee aye, Senator Elefante aye, Senator DeCote no; CPN: chair aye, vice chair aye, Senator Owa no). Outcome: approved. - HB544 (pet insurance): Passed with amendments. Outcome: approved. - HB70 HD1 (condominium budget summaries): Passed with amendments (defective effective date flagged; good-faith-defense language retained). Outcome: approved (to conference). - HB463 HD3 (eviction records): Converted into a judiciary study and passed with amendments to fund study. Outcome: approved (study). - HB958 (e-bike provisions): Deferred for decision making to TCA on 2025-03-18 and CPN vote scheduled for 2025-03-19. Outcome: postponed. - HB420 HD3 (construction-defect remedies/Contractor Repair Act): Deferred to 2025-03-19 to allow review of voluminous testimony. Outcome: postponed. - HB807 HD2 (condominium loan program / HGIA): Deferred to 2025-03-19 for continued stakeholder negotiation. Outcome: postponed.

Next steps: Measures deferred to March 18–19 will return to committee for decision making; other passed measures proceed with committee recommendations and technical edits noted in the committee records.