Credit to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser for identifying a key issue in the vacation-rental dialogue: Without enforcement of transient vacation rental (TVR) laws, illegal operators will prevail.

The Rental by Owner Awareness Association was formed in 2012 when bills introduced in the Legislature to catch illegal TVRs inadvertently caught legal operators in the net.

One of our roles is to disseminate information to assist operators in understanding and complying with the laws.

But as the Star-Advertiser noted in recent commentaries and articles, TVR laws have lacked enforcement (“TAT already applies to TVRs but state lacks capability to ensure compliance,” Island Voices, Dec. 13).

This has hurt everyone but the illegals.

Owners of legal vacation-rental properties saw their obligations increase.

Neighborhoods beset by illegal operations saw no change.

Providers of other accommodation, such as hoteliers, saw that illegals could continue to operate with impunity.

Without enforcement of laws — be they speed laws, crime laws or vacation-rental laws — those who act outside the law win.

The focus on illegal operators is helpful (“Vacation rental ads must reveal tax ID,” Star-Advertiser, Jan. 2); clearly, TVR regulation exists. Indeed, with Act 204, the new state law on TVRs that replaces Act 326 from 2012, Hawaii has five regulatory regimes governing TVRs — one for the state and one for each county. That is four more regulatory regimes than in the five boroughs comprising New York City. Additional regulation is not required.

When Act 204 was passed in 2015, legal operators of timeshares, homes and other vacation rentals prepared for the new requirements in time for its implementation on Jan. 1, 2016.

But for operators not yet legal, the requirements of Act 204 deserve repetition, as there are significant fines for non-compliance:

>> Operators must name a local contact if they don’t live on the same island as their rental.

The local contact is a person or a company resident on the island able to assist in emergency or natural disaster, and to answer any questions regard- ing the accommodation.

The local contact is not necessarily a real estate agent or an employee of the owner.

Operators must identify this contact’s name, phone number and email to guests before they arrive and within the rental.

>> Operators must post their transient accommodation registration number (TAT number), conspicuously in all advertisements and in the rental.

>> Online advertisers, such as Airbnb, must ensure that advertisements display the TAT number.

In a Jan. 2 article, the Star-Advertiser wrote that the new law “aims at reining in illegal lodging and collecting revenue from all innkeepers.”

Act 326 had the same laudable goal.

But absent increased funding to the state Department of Taxation to give it the human and technological resources to enforce Act 204, and absent cooperation between the counties and the state, illegals will continue to prove Hawaii law ineffectual.

The continuing enforcement failure will bring renewed calls from hoteliers and others for legislation to ban all owner- operated vacation rentals.

Such bills serve only to rein in consumers’ accommodation options to those supplied by the bills’ backers, and effectively impair Hawaii’s tourism industry by reducing the range and supply of accommodation.

In the end, Act 204, coordinated enforcement of regulation, and the continuing scrutiny of the Star-Advertiser to ensure a legal and competitive accommodation offering, will see illegals reduced.

And that’s good news for all.