Taking Hawaii County to Court
Giving the Planning Department more power over our industry has been one of the defining themes of Heather Kimball's effort to shove Bill 121 down our throats.
The problem is that the Planning Department is already abusing their authority to illegally target hosted rental operators. Giving the Planning Department more power is going to make it worse.
So we're taking legal action against them to make sure they follow the law.
To do this we need your help. If you've been targeted by the Planning Department for enforcement on STVR issues, please share your Notice of Violation Order (NOVO) letter with us. Send it to [email protected]. The Planning Department already has it, so there is no down side to providing us with a copy.
Abuse of Power - Unfair Practices
How is the Planning Department abusing their power? They are making up new definitions of "Short-term vacation rental" and then using them to fine and shut down legitimate hosted rental operators.
Here is the definition of STVR as it is written into County Code in Chapter §25-1-5.
“Short-term vacation rental” means a dwelling unit of which the owner or operator does not reside on the building site, that has no more than five bedrooms for rent on the building site, and is rented for a period of thirty consecutive days or less. This definition does not include the short-term use of an owner’s primary residence as defined under section 121 of the Internal Revenue Code. ( Emphasis Added ).
That is the legal definition as it is written into the law.
Here are two actual examples of definitions that the Planning Department has made up and used in NOVOs against hosted rental operators this year.
Notice of Violation 1
Section 25.1.5 Definition:
STVR. To be considered a "HOSTED" Rental, you must reside within the dwelling unit that has received a building permit
Notice of Violation 2
Online advertising represents that there is a caretaker living in a separate unit on site. If the short-term rental is renting the (3) permitted bedrooms, this does not allow for a caretaker to live in an unpermitted portion of the dwelling to operate as a host. Therefore, it is considered un-hosted until unpermitted portions of the dwelling are permitted.
Headed to Court
The Planning Department made these definitions up out of thin air. They are in contravention of the law and by using them to target residents they've done serious financial and emotional damage to local families.
Our first stop on the way to Federal District Court is the County Ethics Commission. We've filed a complaint and have our first hearing on August 14th at 10:00AM.
Our next step will depend on the outcome of this hearing.
The good news is that some of the parties involved in this litigation are based out of state ( their rentals are hosted by local operators ), we are preparing to file suit in Federal District Court where we are likely to get a highly qualified judge to oversee the case.
Our goal in litigation will be to enjoin Hawaii County from further enforcement efforts, recover damages for impacted owners and recover our legal fees.
How Can You Help?
If your hosted rental has been targeted with similar language we want to hear from you. Send us your Notice of Violation Order.
We are going to get all of the relevant NOVOs anyways as part of the discovery process, but having copies from targeted families will help us at the Board of Ethics. It will also allow us to build a list of complainants so we have them readily available if we decide to seek class action status.