2026-09-10 · Hawaii · Legislation · Did not pass

The largest rewrite of Hawaii’s condominium dispute-resolution scheme in years reached a conference committee twice and died there twice.¹

HB 1897 (2026) and its predecessor SB 146 (2025, carried over) targeted HRS §§ 514B-161, 514B-162, 514B-162.5, 514B-157, 514B-163 and a dozen more, and would have added new sections 514B-A through 514B-F.

How close it got

HB 1897 passed the Senate 22–3 on April 14, 2026. Conferees were appointed — Matayoshi and Tarnas as House co-chairs with Pierick, Keohokalole as Senate chair with Rhoads and Awa. Its last action:

“4/28/26: Bill scheduled for Conference Committee Meeting on Wednesday, 04-29-26 3:30PM in conference room 224.”

No conference committee report was ever filed. It missed the April 29 final-decking deadline for non-fiscal bills.

SB 146 had already been emptied out: Senate conferees discharged March 20, 2026, House conferees April 1, with its 2025 conference having been seated the previous April and never producing a draft.

What it would have done

Two things, per the Real Estate Commission’s own testimony on the House draft:

• Statutory minimum qualifications for mediators and arbitrators whose services are supported by the Condominium Education Trust Fund, in a proposed new § 514B-F.
• An initial fee of $150 per party for both mediation and arbitration — down from the current $375 for evaluative mediation and $175 for voluntary binding arbitration — with the Commission authorised to waive the fee for economic hardship.

1. HB 1897 (2026), Hawaii State Legislature status feed ↩
2. Real Estate Commission testimony on HB 1897 H.D. 1, Senate CPN, March 24, 2026 ↩
3. SB 146 (2025, carried over), status feed ↩