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Governor signs new laws aimed at providing financial relief to condo owners
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Gov. Josh Green signed a series of bills Thursday aimed at addressing the growing challenges for condo owners in Hawaii.
Raelene Tenno, education chair for the Hawaii Council of Community Associations, said she and many other property owners are fighting to pay huge insurance increases.
“We already planned our budgets for next year and then we got the news that it went up so much, so it kind of went over budget,” Tenno said.
“Even for my condo I own, the maintenance fees are almost equal to the rent you charge.”
But help is on the way, thanks to several bills signed by the governor on Thursday.
One offers government loans to help condominiums make improvements such as fire sprinklers and pipe replacement.
House Speaker Scott Saiki said condos were a priority this legislative session.
“One is that because the loan is amortized, you avoid a large upfront assessment for unit owners,” Saiki said. “The second benefit is that the loan is repaid by the individual unit owners in the building.”
“So if a unit owner sells the unit and moves, the new owner will assume that obligation, so it goes from owner to owner over a period of time.”
Another bill allows individual condo owners to invest in a fund to finance solar panels, roof panels and batteries.
“For people who live in homes who can’t afford these systems, or who can’t even get conventional financing for these systems… People who receive these roof improvements will repay that loan over time, through of real money. property through your electricity bill,” explained Saiki.
Richard Emery works for the largest condominium management company in the country, Associa.
He said about 70 percent of condos in Hawaii are more than 40 years old.
“So all of these components are starting to need replacement or upgrading and certainly the cost of energy is a big concern,” Emery said. “So anything we can do to provide another tool that condominiums can use to refinance their capital components and reduce their operating costs through energy retrofit is a good thing.”
“It will be good in the long run, especially when you use energy efficiency projects like elevators where they need to do elevator upgrades,” Tenno said. “It will always involve an electrical upgrade.”
The other sanctioned projects will streamline the bureaucracy for purchasing a condominium and modernize the procedures for condominium meetings and the voting process.
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