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HB124 • 2026

RELATING TO PROFESSIONAL LAND SURVEYORS.

RELATING TO PROFESSIONAL LAND SURVEYORS.

Active

The official status still shows this bill as active or still awaiting another formal step.

Sponsor
TARNAS, LAMOSAO, LEE, M., PIERICK, POEPOE, TAM
Last action
2025-12-08
Official status
Carried over to 2026 Regular Session.
Effective date
Not listed

Plain English Breakdown

The official source material does not provide details on the impact of the statute of repose on ongoing or pre-existing lawsuits.

Setting Limits for Land Surveyor Lawsuits

This bill establishes a ten-year limit after which land surveyors cannot be sued for their work.

What This Bill Does

  • Establishes a statute of repose that prohibits the commencement of civil actions against professional land surveyors if more than ten years have passed since the completion of a contract or final payment for land surveying work.

Who It Names or Affects

  • Professional land surveyors who complete contracts and receive final payments.
  • People or companies trying to sue land surveyors after the ten-year period has ended.

Terms To Know

Statute of repose
A law that sets a time limit after which people can no longer take legal action over certain issues.

Limits and Unknowns

  • The bill does not specify what happens if someone tries to sue before the ten-year period ends.
  • It is unclear how this statute of repose will affect existing lawsuits or claims against land surveyors that are less than ten years old.

Bill History

  1. 2025-12-08 D

    Carried over to 2026 Regular Session.

  2. 2025-01-21 H

    Referred to CPC, JHA, referral sheet 1

  3. 2025-01-16 H

    Introduced and Pass First Reading.

  4. 2025-01-14 H

    Prefiled.

Official Summary Text

RELATING TO PROFESSIONAL LAND SURVEYORS.
Professional Land Surveyors; Statute of Repose
Establishes a ten year statute of repose for land surveyors, after which time a complaint for a civil action cannot be made.

Current Bill Text

Read the full stored bill text 
HB124

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

124

THIRTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2025

STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

RELATING TO PROFESSIONAL LAND SURVEYORS
.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

����
SECTION
1.
�
The legislature finds that Act 207,
Session Laws of Hawaii 2007, authorized the establishment of design claims
conciliation panels to protect design professionals against frivolous
lawsuits.
�
Under chapter 672B, Hawaii
Revised Statutes, the definition of design professional includes a professional
engineer, architect, surveyor, or landscape architect licensed under chapter
464, Hawaii Revised Statutes (chapter 464).

����
The
legislature further finds that under chapter 464, the professional services
provided by architects and professional engineers involve the safeguarding of
life, health, or property.
�
However,
under chapter 464, the professional service provided by a land surveyor does
not.
�
Rather, land surveyors are those
who practice land surveying, which is defined in part as involving "the
application of specialized knowledge of the principles of mathematics, the
physical and applied sciences, and the act of measuring, locating,
establishing, or reestablishing lines, angles, elevations, [and] natural and
manmade features on the surface and immediate subsurface of the earth ... for
the purpose of determining ... [the] legal or geodetic location or relocation,
or orientation of improved or unimproved real property...."

����
The
purpose of this Act is to establish a statute of repose for professional land
surveyors by prohibiting the commencement of a civil action if ten years has
elapsed since the latter of the completion of a contract or final payment for
land surveying work.

����
SECTION
2.
�
Chapter 464, Hawaii Revised Statutes,
is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read
as follows:

����
"
�464-
�
Professional land surveyors; contract;
statute of repose.
�
No civil action shall be commenced
against a professional land surveyor if ten years has elapsed since the latter
of the date of completion of a contract or final payment for professional land
surveying work.
"

����
SECTION
3.
�
New statutory material is
underscored.

����
SECTION 4.
�
This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

_____________________________

Report Title:

Professional
Land Surveyors; Statute of Repose

Description:

Establishes a ten year statute of repose for land
surveyors, after which time a complaint for a civil action cannot be made.

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