SB253 • 2026

RELATING TO CONDOMINIUM RESERVES.

Budget

Active

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

Sponsor: KEOHOKALOLE, FUKUNAGA, SAN BUENAVENTURA, McKelvey, Moriwaki, Wakai
Last action: 2026-04-21
Official status: Received notice of appointment of House conferees (Hse. Com. No. 800).
Effective date: Not listed

Plain English Breakdown

Using official source text because the generated explanation was unavailable or could not be confirmed against the official bill text.

RELATING TO CONDOMINIUM RESERVES.

What This Bill Does

RELATING TO CONDOMINIUM RESERVES.
Condominiums; Budget Summaries; Condominium Associations; Boards of Directors; Compliance; Standing; Good Faith Defense; Burden of Proof Requires a detailed budget summary to contain all required information without referring the reader to other portions of the budget or reserve study.
Excludes the good faith defense for associations whose boards adopt a budget that omits the required detailed budget summary.
Clarifies a unit owner's standing and the association's burden of proving substantial compliance.

Limits and Unknowns

This entry is temporarily using official source text because the generated explanation could not be confirmed against the official bill text during the last sync.

Amendments

These notes stay tied to the official amendment files and metadata from the legislature.

HD1

Hawaii published version HD1

Plain English: SB253 HD1 THE SENATE S.B.

SB253 HD1 THE SENATE S.B.
NO.
253 THIRTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2025 S.D.
2 STATE OF HAWAII H.D.

SD1

Hawaii published version SD1

Plain English: SB253 SD1 THE SENATE S.B.

SB253 SD1 THE SENATE S.B.
NO.
253 THIRTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2025 S.D.
1 STATE OF HAWAII A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CONDOMINIUM RESERVES .

SD2

Hawaii published version SD2

Plain English: SB253 SD2 THE SENATE S.B.

SB253 SD2 THE SENATE S.B.
NO.
253 THIRTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2025 S.D.
2 STATE OF HAWAII A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CONDOMINIUM RESERVES .

Bill History

2026-04-21 S
Received notice of appointment of House conferees (Hse. Com. No. 800).
2026-04-21 H
House Conferees Appointed: Matayoshi, Tarnas Co-Chairs; Pierick.
2026-04-02 S
Received notice of the discharge of all House Conferees (Hse. Com. No. 457).
2026-04-01 H
House Conferee(s) discharged.
2026-03-20 H
Received notice of all Senate conferees being discharged (Sen. Com. No. 409).
2026-03-20 S
Senate Conferee(s) discharged.
2025-12-08 D
Carried over to 2026 Regular Session.
2025-04-21 S
Received notice of appointment of House conferees (Hse. Com. No. 754).
2025-04-17 H
House Conferees Appointed: Matayoshi, Todd Co-Chairs; Pierick.
2025-04-16 H
Received notice of Senate conferees (Sen. Com. No. 811).
2025-04-16 S
Senate Conferees Appointed: Keohokalole Chair; Rhoads Co-Chair; Fukunaga, McKelvey, Awa.
2025-04-10 H
Received notice of disagreement (Sen. Com. No. 779).
2025-04-10 S
Senate disagrees with House amendments.
2025-04-10 S
Received from House (Hse. Com. No. 633).
2025-04-08 H
Passed Third Reading with none voting aye with reservations; none voting no (0) and Representative(s) Cochran excused (1). Transmitted to Senate.
2025-04-04 H
Reported from JHA (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 2035), recommending passage on Third Reading.
2025-04-02 H
The committee on JHA recommend that the measure be PASSED, UNAMENDED. The votes were as follows: 9 Ayes: Representative(s) Tarnas, Poepoe, Belatti, Hashem, Kahaloa, Perruso, Takayama, Todd, Shimizu; Ayes with reservations: none; 1 Noes: Representative(s) Garcia; and 1 Excused: Representative(s) Cochran.
2025-03-28 H
Bill scheduled to be heard by JHA on Wednesday, 04-02-25 2:00PM in House conference room 325 VIA VIDEOCONFERENCE.
2025-03-18 H
Passed Second Reading as amended in HD 1 and referred to the committee(s) on JHA with none voting aye with reservations; none voting no (0) and Representative(s) Cochran, Ward excused (2).
2025-03-18 H
Reported from CPC (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 1295) as amended in HD 1, recommending passage on Second Reading and referral to JHA.
2025-03-12 H
The committee on CPC recommend that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes were as follows: 8 Ayes: Representative(s) Matayoshi, Chun, Ilagan, Iwamoto, Kong, Marten, Tam, Pierick; Ayes with reservations: none; Noes: none; and 2 Excused: Representative(s) Ichiyama, Lowen.
2025-03-10 H
Bill scheduled to be heard by CPC on Wednesday, 03-12-25 2:00PM in House conference room 329 VIA VIDEOCONFERENCE.
2025-03-06 H
Referred to CPC, JHA, referral sheet 19
2025-03-06 H
Pass First Reading
2025-03-04 H
Received from Senate (Sen. Com. No. 115) in amended form (SD 2).
2025-03-04 S
Report Adopted; Passed Third Reading, as amended (SD 2). Ayes, 25; Aye(s) with reservations: Senator(s) San Buenaventura. Noes, 0 (none). Excused, 0 (none). Transmitted to House.
2025-02-28 S
48 Hrs. Notice 03-04-25.
2025-02-28 S
Reported from JDC (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 907) with recommendation of passage on Third Reading, as amended (SD 2).
2025-02-26 S
The committee(s) on JDC recommend(s) that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes in JDC were as follows: 3 Aye(s): Senator(s) Rhoads, Gabbard, Chang; Aye(s) with reservations: none ; 1 No(es): Senator(s) San Buenaventura; and 1 Excused: Senator(s) Awa.
2025-02-21 S
The committee(s) on JDC will hold a public decision making on 02-26-25 9:40AM; Conference Room 016 & Videoconference.
2025-02-14 S
Report adopted; Passed Second Reading, as amended (SD 1) and referred to JDC.
2025-02-14 S
Reported from CPN (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 508) with recommendation of passage on Second Reading, as amended (SD 1) and referral to JDC.
2025-02-07 S
The committee(s) on CPN recommend(s) that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes in CPN were as follows: 5 Aye(s): Senator(s) Keohokalole, Fukunaga, McKelvey, Richards, Awa; Aye(s) with reservations: none ; 0 No(es): none; and 0 Excused: none.
2025-02-05 S
The committee(s) on CPN deferred the measure until 02-07-25 9:46AM; Conference Room 229.
2025-01-31 S
The committee(s) on CPN has scheduled a public hearing on 02-05-25 10:00AM; Conference Room 229 & Videoconference.
2025-01-27 S
Re-Referred to CPN, JDC.
2025-01-21 S
Referred to CPN.
2025-01-15 S
Introduced and passed First Reading.
2025-01-13 S
Pending Introduction.

Official Summary Text

RELATING TO CONDOMINIUM RESERVES.
Condominiums; Budget Summaries; Condominium Associations; Boards of Directors; Compliance; Standing; Good Faith Defense; Burden of Proof
Requires a detailed budget summary to contain all required information without referring the reader to other portions of the budget or reserve study. Excludes the good faith defense for associations whose boards adopt a budget that omits the required detailed budget summary. Clarifies a unit owner's standing and the association's burden of proving substantial compliance. Effective 7/1/3000. (HD1)

Current Bill Text

Read the full stored bill text

SB253

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

253

THIRTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2025

STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

RELATING
TO CONDOMINIUM RESERVES
.

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

����
SECTION 1.
�
The
legislature finds that existing law requires condominium owners to be entitled
to disclosure of information about the replacement reserves maintained by an
association in which they own a unit.
�

Recent efforts to increase transparency and accuracy include Act 62 (2022),
which provides for periodic review of a reserve study by an independent reserve
study preparer and lengthens the study period to thirty years, and Act 199
(2023), which requires that a detailed budget summary be prepared to better
inform owners of the financial condition of an association.

����
Despite these efforts to emphasize the
importance of compliance with the disclosure requirements relating to
association fiscal matters, further amendments are needed to explicitly state
that the defense of good faith compliance shall be unavailable to any
association whose board adopts a budget that omits the mandated budget summary.
�
Moreover, clarifications are needed
concerning unit owners' standing to enforce compliance and that an association
has the burden of proving compliance when violations are alleged.

����
Accordingly, the purpose of this Act is to:

����
(1)
�
Exclude
the good faith defense for an association whose board adopts a budget that
omits a detailed budget summary as required by section 514B‑148(a),
Hawaii Revised Statutes; and

����
(2)
�
Clarify
a unit owner's standing and the association's burden of proving compliance.

����
SECTION 2.
�

Section 514B-148, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended as follows:

����
1.
�

By amending subsection (d) to read:

����
"
(d)
�
No association or unit owner, director,
officer, managing agent, or employee of an association who makes a good faith
effort to calculate the estimated replacement reserves assessments

for an association shall be liable if the
estimate subsequently proves incorrect[
.
]
; provided that this
subsection shall not apply to an association if its board adopts a budget that omits
the summary required by subsection (a).
"

����
2.
�

By amending subsection (g) to read:

����
"(g)
�
[
Subject to the procedures of section 514B‑157
and any rules adopted by the commission, any
]
Any
unit owner whose
association board fails to comply with this section [
may
]
shall have
standing to bring an action to
enforce compliance by the board.
�
In any [
proceeding
]
action
to
enforce compliance, a board [
that has not prepared an annual operating
budget and reserve study
] shall have the burden of proving it has complied
with this section.
"

����
SECTION 3.
�

Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken.
�
New statutory material is underscored.

����
SECTION 4.
�

This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

_____________________________

Report Title:

Condominiums;
Budget Summaries; Associations; Boards; Compliance; Standing; Good Faith
Defense; Burden of Proof

Description:

Excludes
the good faith defense for associations whose boards adopt a budget that omits
a detailed budget summary as required by section 514B-148, HRS.
�
Clarifies a unit owner's standing and the
association's burden of proving compliance.

The summary description
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not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.