What the task force recommended instead

On June 5, 2026, by a recorded 6–1 vote: expand the authority of RICO and the Hawaii Real Estate Commission by amending chapter 514B “to make statutory rights enforceable through reviewable standards, practical enforcement mechanisms, and meaningful remedies that deter misconduct, provide real relief to owners, and promote personal accountability for knowing violations by responsible decision makers.”

That is a different answer to the same complaint. Both proceed from the premise that chapter 514B confers rights nobody enforces. The ombudsman answer creates a new office; the task force answer arms two that already exist.

The gap both are aimed at, in the regulator's own words

A DCCA condominium specialist, quoted in owner-advocacy commentary: “We don’t have enforcement authority. We don’t have authority to advocate or mediate.”³

That is an accurate description of the current design. Chapter 514B gives owners rights — to records within thirty days under § 514B-154.5(c), to a properly constituted budget summary under § 514B-148, to notice and an opportunity to be heard on a fine under § 514B-104(a)(11) — and routes essentially every remedy through private mediation, arbitration or litigation the owner pays for.

Section 514B-71 charges the Real Estate Commission with education, research and “the improvement and more efficient administration of associations,” not enforcement. Registration under § 514B-103 is a filing requirement, not a supervision programme.

What owners actually have today

• Subsidised mediation — up to $600 facilitative, $3,000 evaluative, from the Condominium Education Trust Fund, for registered chapter 514B associations only.
• Voluntary binding arbitration under § 514B-162.5, available only after evaluative mediation has been attempted.
• Mandatory arbitration on request under § 514B-162 for disputes over interpretation, application or enforcement of the chapter or the documents — with eight carve-outs, including actions to collect assessments.
• A hearings officer, authorised on a part-time basis by Act 43 (2024).
• The police, for criminal conduct. Honolulu Police Department leadership told the task force in April 2026 that HPD has full jurisdiction inside condominiums, that there is “no condominium exception” to criminal law, and that it will take reports of alleged embezzlement and fraud involving associations and refer them to the Criminal Investigation Division.

That last one is worth knowing, because owners are frequently told the opposite.

And what planned community owners have

Less. The Commission states that chapter 421J planned community associations have no state agency with oversight authority, and their owners pay full mediation costs with no subsidy. Every ombudsman proposal in 2026 except the HB 837 / SB 1498 pair was confined to condominiums.

What to watch in 2027

Whether the ombudsman idea is reintroduced anyway. Owner advocates have run it for four sessions, and the task force declining to recommend it removes the most obvious sponsor rather than the constituency.

The more likely vehicle is the task force package, and one part of it stands out: “personal accountability for knowing violations by responsible decision makers” is aimed at directors and managers individually, not at associations. For a volunteer director, the reform most likely to pass is the one that reaches them personally.