Terms Used In Hawaii Revised Statutes > Chapter 521 - Residential Landlord-Tenant Code

• Abatement: means any measure or set of measures designed to permanently eliminate asbestos or lead-based paint hazards, including but not limited to removal, enclosure, encapsulation, or disposal. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342P-1
• Advice and consent: Under the Constitution, presidential nominations for executive and judicial posts take effect only when confirmed by the Senate, and international treaties become effective only when the Senate approves them by a two-thirds vote.
• Asbestos: means the asbestiform varieties of serpentine (chrysotile), riebeckite (crocidolite), cummingtonite-grunerite (amosite), anthophyllite, actinolite, and tremolite. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342P-1
• Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
• boarder: means a tenant occupying a dwelling unit:

  (1) [That] lacks at least one major bathroom or kitchen facility, such as a toilet, refrigerator, or stove[;]

  (2) In a building where one or more such major facilities are supplied to be used in common by the occupants of the tenant's dwelling unit and by the occupants of one or more other dwelling units[;] and

  (3) In a building in which the landlord resides. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 521-8

• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Counterclaim: A claim that a defendant makes against a plaintiff.
• county: includes the city and county of Honolulu. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 1-22
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the department of health. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342P-1
• Department: means the department of health. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342L-1
• Director: means the director of health. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342L-1
• Director: means the director of health or a duly authorized agent, officer, or inspector. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342P-1
• Dwelling unit: means a structure, or part of a structure, which is used as a home, residence, or sleeping place by one person or by two or more persons maintaining a common household, to the exclusion of all others. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 521-8
• 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}
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Facility: means any institutional, commercial, public, private, or industrial structure, installation or building. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342P-1
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Indemnification: In general, a collateral contract or assurance under which one person agrees to secure another person against either anticipated financial losses or potential adverse legal consequences. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• 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.
• Landlord: means the owner, lessor, sublessor, assigns or successors in interest of the dwelling unit or the building of which it is a part and in addition means any agent of the landlord. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 521-8
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• month: means a calendar month; and the word "year" a calendar year. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 1-20
• 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.
• Operator: means any person in control of, or having responsibility for, the daily operation of the underground storage tank. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342L-1
• Owner: means one or more persons, jointly or severally, in whom is vested:

  (1) All or any part of the legal title to property; or

  (2) All or any part of the beneficial ownership and a right to present use and enjoyment of the property; and

  includes a mortgagee in possession. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 521-8

• Owner: means :

  (1) In the case of a particular underground storage tank or tank system in use or brought into use on or after November 8, 1984, any person who owns an underground storage tank or tank system; and

  (2) In the case of a particular underground storage tank or tank system in use before November 8, 1984, but no longer in use after that date, any person who owned such a tank or tank system immediately before the discontinuation of its use. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342L-1

• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Party: means each person or agency named as a party or properly entitled to be a party in any court or agency proceeding. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342P-1
• Party: means each person or agency named as a party or properly entitled to be a party in any court or agency proceeding. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342L-1
• Person: means an individual, trust, estate, firm, joint stock company, corporation (including a government corporation), partnership, association, commission, consortium, joint venture, commercial entity, the State or a county, the United States government, federal agency, interstate body, or any other legal entity. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342L-1
• Person: means any individual, partnership, firm, association, public or private corporation, federal agency, the State or any of its political subdivisions, trust, estate, or any other legal entity. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342P-1
• Person: includes an individual, corporation, government or governmental agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership or association, two or more persons having a joint or common interest, or any other legal or commercial entity. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 521-8
• Petroleum: means petroleum, including crude oil or any fraction thereof which is liquid at standard conditions of temperature and pressure (60 degrees Fahrenheit and 14. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342L-1
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• Premises: means a dwelling unit, appurtenances thereto, grounds, and facilities held out for the use of tenants generally and any other area or facility whose use is promised to the tenant. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 521-8
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Provider of financial assurance: means a person that provides evidence of financial responsibility for one or more underground storage tanks or tank systems. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342L-1
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Release: includes , but is not limited to, any spilling, leaking, emitting, discharging, escaping, leaching, or disposing from an underground storage tank or tank system. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342L-1
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• Rental agreement: means all agreements, written or oral, which establish or modify the terms, conditions, rules, regulations, or any other provisions concerning the use and occupancy of a dwelling unit and premises. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 521-8
• Repair: means the restoration of asbestos-containing material that has been damaged to seal exposed areas where asbestos fibers may be released, including the repair of enclosures around asbestos-containing materials. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342P-1
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• Single family residence: means a structure maintained and used as a single dwelling unit. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 521-8
• tank: means any one or combination of tanks (including pipes connected thereto) used to contain an accumulation of regulated substances, and the volume of which (including the volume of the underground pipes connected thereto) is ten per cent or more beneath the surface of the ground. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342L-1
• tank system: means an underground storage tank, connected underground piping, underground ancillary equipment, and containment system, if any. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 342L-1
• Tenant: means any person who occupies a dwelling unit for dwelling purposes under a rental agreement. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 521-8
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Utility service: means service for electricity, water, sewer, and natural gas. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 521-8
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.