The two provisions boards lost

The producer commission disclosure. An association’s insurance producer is compensated out of the premium the association pays, and in most Hawaii buildings the board does not know the number. SB 2686 would have required disclosure before placement and renewal, with verification in the annual audit under § 514B-150 — which is the only recurring independent check most associations have.

The two-quote requirement above $250,000. In a market where the Insurance Division says only three admitted carriers write condominium master policies and most placements go to surplus lines whose rates it cannot regulate, a competitive-quote requirement is one of the few tools that does not depend on the regulator having authority it lacks.

A board can adopt both voluntarily, today. Ask the producer for compensation in writing before renewal; require two quotes above a threshold you set; and put both in the management or brokerage arrangement rather than relying on custom.

What Act 296 actually delivered

The 2025 act is doing the work the 2026 bills were meant to supplement:

• The Hawaii Hurricane Relief Fund, reactivated and writing hurricane excess for associations — two declination letters and total insured value above $10 million to qualify, a $10 million minimum underlying limit, a $140 million ceiling and a fixed 2% per-building deductible.
• Expanded Hawaii Property Insurance Association powers. DCCA said HPIA’s expanded products were estimated for the second quarter of 2026; as of September 10, 2026 HPIA’s own site advertises only homeowners and dwelling fire coverage, with no association or master-policy product listed. That is not capacity a renewal plan can rest on yet.
• The Condominium Loan Program, which launched in May 2026 and is currently on hold, with new commitments limited to June 30, 2027 in any case.
• A condominium loan revolving fund, to be abolished June 30, 2047 with any balance lapsing to the general fund.

The 2025 carryovers that quietly expired

A long list showed no 2026 action at all beyond the December 8, 2025 carryover entry — among them a Hawaii Condominium Mutual Insurance Company for high-rise residential condominiums with a loan fund for associations facing premium spikes; bills requiring insurers to offer premium discounts for associations adopting risk mitigation upgrades or disaster response plans, and to give actuarial justification for increases that ignore fire and life safety improvements; hurricane fortification grants for condominium associations on behalf of low-income owners; and a measure allowing admitted insurers to undercut a building’s prior surplus lines rate.

That last one is worth a second look. The structural problem the Division describes is that associations are pushed into surplus lines and then cannot get back — and a bill making it easier for an admitted carrier to take the risk back is a small, cheap intervention that never got a hearing.

What a board can do without legislation

• Apply to the HHRF if you qualify, and start early — applications must reach a servicing facility 30 days before the effective date, and a statewide moratorium closes the window whenever a hurricane watch or warning is issued for any island, until 72 hours after it expires.
• Get the producer’s compensation in writing, and require competitive quotes on large placements, as a matter of board policy.
• Do the maintenance that moves the quote. The Division names deferred maintenance and losses from aging water and sewage pipes as leading causes of nonrenewal. Re-piping is the intervention with the clearest link to insurability.
• Then tell the carrier. The Division’s own advice is for the board, after the work is done, to meet with its agent and show what was done.

What to watch

Whether HPIA’s association product actually reaches the market; whether the Insurance Commissioner’s Act 296-mandated market study is published — it was not posted as of this writing; and whether the 2027 session revives the captive and disclosure bills, both of which died from inattention rather than opposition.