(a) If the owner of a unit rents or leases the unit and is in default for thirty days or more in the payment of the unit’s share of the common expenses, the board, for as long as the default continues, may demand in writing and receive each month from any tenant occupying the unit or rental agent renting the unit, an amount sufficient to pay all sums due from the unit owner to the association, including interest, if any, but the amount shall not exceed the tenant’s rent due each month. The tenant’s payment under this section shall discharge that amount of payment from the tenant’s rent obligation, and any contractual provision to the contrary shall be void as a matter of law.
contract signature

Ask a real estate law question, get an answer ASAP!
Thousands of highly rated, verified real estate lawyers.
Specialties include: All Real Estate Law, Landlord and Tenant Law, Foreclosure, Homeowners' Association, Trespassing, Property Law, General Legal and more.
Click here to chat with a lawyer about your rights.

Terms Used In Hawaii Revised Statutes 514B-145

  • Association: means the unit owners' association organized under section 514B-102 or under prior condominium property regime statutes. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 514B-3
  • Common expenses: means expenditures made by, or financial liabilities of, the association for operation of the property, and shall include any allocations to reserves. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 514B-3
  • Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. Source: U.S. Courts
  • Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. Source: OCC
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • majority of the unit owners: means the owners of units to which are appurtenant more than fifty per cent of the common interests. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 514B-3
  • month: means a calendar month; and the word "year" a calendar year. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 1-20
  • Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
  • Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
  • Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
  • Unit: means a physical or spatial portion of the condominium designated for separate ownership or occupancy, the boundaries of which are described in the declaration or pursuant to § 514B-35, with an exit to a public road or to a common element leading to a public road. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 514B-3
  • Unit owner: means the person owning, or the persons owning jointly or in common, a unit and its appurtenant common interest; provided that to such extent and for such purposes as provided by recorded lease, including the exercise of voting rights, a lessee of a unit shall be deemed to be the unit owner. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 514B-3
(b) Before taking any action under this section, the board shall give to the delinquent unit owner written notice of its intent to collect the rent owed. The notice shall:

(1) Be sent both by first-class and certified mail;
(2) Set forth the exact amount the association claims is due and owing by the unit owner; and
(3) Indicate the intent of the board to collect such amount from the rent, along with any other amounts that become due and remain unpaid.
(c) The unit owner shall not take any retaliatory action against the tenant for payments made under this section.
(d) The payment of any portion of the unit’s share of common expenses by the tenant pursuant to a written demand by the board is a complete defense, to the extent of the amount demanded and paid by the tenant, in an action for nonpayment of rent brought by the unit owner against a tenant.
(e) The board may not demand payment from the tenant pursuant to this section if:

(1) A commissioner or receiver has been appointed to take charge of the premises pending a mortgage foreclosure;
(2) A mortgagee is in possession pending a mortgage foreclosure; or
(3) The tenant is served with a court order directing payment to a third party.
(f) In the event of any conflict between this section and any provision of chapter 521, the conflict shall be resolved in favor of this section; provided that if the tenant is entitled to an offset of rent under chapter 521, the tenant may deduct the offset from the amount due to the association, up to the limits stated in chapter 521. Nothing herein precludes the unit owner or tenant from seeking equitable relief from a court of competent jurisdiction or seeking a judicial determination of the amount owed.
(g) Before the board may take the actions permitted under subsection (a), the board shall adopt a written policy providing for the actions and have the policy approved by a majority vote of the unit owners at an annual or special meeting of the association or by the written consent of a majority of the unit owners.

  Previous
Next  
 OPERATIONS Contents