Every Hawaii condo bill still alive on May 8 is dead, and none of it carries over
Every Hawaii condo bill still alive on May 8 is dead, and none of it carries over
2026-09-10 · Hawaii · Legislation · Did not pass
Hawaii’s carryover rule is asymmetric, and the asymmetry just wiped out two years of condominium legislation.1
Article III, section 15 of the Hawaii Constitution: “Any bill pending at the final adjournment of a regular session in an odd-numbered year shall carry over with the same status to the next regular session. Before the carried-over bill is enacted, it shall pass at least one reading in the house in which the bill originated.”
What that means in practice
- Bills alive at sine die of the 2025 session carried into 2026 with the same status — the status feeds show a literal “12/8/25 … Carried over to 2026 Regular Session” entry.
- Bills pending at sine die of the 2026 session — May 8, 2026 — are dead. There is no carryover out of an even year.
- The 33rd Legislature ends with the November 2026 election. The 2027 session opens the 34th Legislature, and every measure must be introduced as a brand-new bill with a new number.
The 2026 deadlines that did the killing
Bill introduction cutoff January 28; first decking March 6; first crossover March 12; second lateral March 30; second decking April 10; second crossover April 16; final decking of non-fiscal bills April 29; final decking of fiscal bills May 1; sine die May 8.2
Several condominium bills died not on the merits but by a day: one conference committee was set to reconvene on April 30, one day past the April 29 non-fiscal final-decking deadline.
How to read a Hawaii bill's death certificate
The status feed language tells you which kind of death it was, and the kinds matter for predicting 2027.
“Referred to CPN” and nothing after it. Never heard. The chair did not schedule it. This is the most common outcome and the least informative — it says nothing about the merits, only that it did not clear the first gate.
“The committee deferred the measure.” Heard, and killed in the room. That is a substantive judgment, and it usually means opposition testimony landed.
Died in conference. Passed both chambers in different forms and the conferees could not agree, or ran out of calendar. These are the closest calls and the most likely to return in a recognisable shape.
The defective effective date. Hawaii bills routinely emerge from committee carrying an effective date of “July 1, 3000” or “July 1, 2050.” That is not a drafting error — it is a deliberate device to keep a measure alive while forcing further negotiation, and a bill carrying one is a bill headed for conference. Act 37 (2026) carried a July 1, 3000 date out of committee and had it restored to “upon approval” in conference; that is what a successful one looks like.
What actually survived
Of roughly 120 condominium and homeowner-association measures in play, three reached the Governor and all three were signed:
- Act 37 — cumulative voting extended to write-in candidates in condominium and planned community board elections.
- Act 100 — a narrow reserve-study review waiver for associations under twenty units in buildings of no more than two stories.
- Act 121 — the HCDA 99-year leasehold condominium programme.
No condominium bill was vetoed or became law without signature.
The negative findings, which are also news
No 2026 act touched association fining authority, short-term rentals in associations, accessory dwelling units, solar access, or electric-vehicle charging. Nothing amended HRS ch. 421I (cooperative housing) or ch. 667 (foreclosure). And chapter 514A cannot be amended because it no longer exists.
No legislative committee held an interim informational briefing on condominiums or associations during the 2026 interim. The condominium work happened entirely at DCCA, in the Act 189 task force.
What this means for a board
Stop tracking dead bills. A measure that died in the 2026 session has no number, no status and no committee in 2027. Watching an old bill number is watching nothing.
Watch introductions, not carryovers. Hawaii pre-filing normally opens in December. As of this writing there is no 2027 session directory on the Legislature’s data host at all, and no pre-filed measures exist or are viewable.
Expect the task force package first. The Act 189 Condominium Property Regime Task Force finished its work in June 2026 with recorded recommendations, and two of its members are legislators. That is the most likely source of the substantive 2027 bill.
Do not assume a near-miss returns unchanged. A bill that died in conference in 2026 comes back in 2027 as a fresh introduction, which means a fresh chance for amendment, and a fresh referral to a committee whose chair may not be the same person.
What to watch
December 2026 pre-filing, and the opening weeks of the 2027 session. The introduction deadline will again be in late January, and the bills that matter will be visible by then.
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