The Hawaii Legislature has wrapped up their 2012 session and have returned to sipping cocktails on the beach or whatever they do when they are not in session. During the session this year a numbers of bills were passed relating to things such as tourism, athletic trainers (the people not the sneaker), seawater air-conditioning, boiler and elevator safety, land conservation and many more (see full list here). One of particular interest relates directly to those who owners/operators of properties used as transient rentals, or vacation rentals (HB2078 CD1)

HB2078 CD1 attempts to clarify landlord-tenant code for transient rentals and zeroes in on operators of vacation rentals that are not in compliance with state and local laws (read tax laws). The final bill, as sent to Governor Abercrombie, can be read here. Below are some highlights and how this law will affect you if you own/operate a vacation rental in the State of Hawaii or are anticipating doing so:

• All vacation rentals must be registered with the state and the registration number assigned by the state to a property must be made available on advertisements and websites promoting the rental of the property.
• All vacation rentals must provide relevant contact information for a local person or company on the island that the subject property is located on.
• Owner/operators must provide homeowner associations (or any non-governmental entity that has covenants or by-laws and is associated with the subject property) with the relevant contact information for the on-island contact.
• The HOA, or other entity in turn will provide this information to the state. This information will be provided annually and any changes in this information must be updated within 60-days.

Fun huh? Effective date for this bill is July 1, 2012. Anyway, now back to reading each and every one of the new laws passed this year (not really). Aloha!