Council considers measure to crack down on ‘monster homes’

The Honolulu City Council is taking up a measure to target “monster home” development which would impose higher fines and blocks on permit applications for continuous violators of building codes. However, questions from builders have yet to be addressed.

Council Chair Tommy Waters introduced Bill 43 to crack down on monster homes, new large structures in older neighborhoods that often illegally rent out rooms for both short- and long-term rentals.

“The point of this bill is to empower the Department of Planning and Permitting with a tool to go after bad actors who continue to construct these illegal monster homes in our residential communities,” he said in a written statement.

“I will continue to fight for our local families and our communities who continue to suffer from these bad actors.”

When city building inspectors find a violation at a property, the inspector will sign a notice of violation that gets sent to the property owner. The violation also will express some amount of discretionary fine but allow the property owner time to fix the violation before the daily fines begin to accumulate.

If the violation is still not fixed, the department will then issue an order, signed by the DPP director, notifying the owner that fines are officially accumulating. The order becomes final after 30 days.

Within that 30-day period, the owner can then appeal the order.

Bill 43 would apply to those who have a finalized order. The measure first bans building officials from accepting any permit applications from people who have accrued over three final orders in three years. It also imposes a $10,000 fine for any subsequent violation orders within the three-year period.

Oftentimes, DPP will waive or reduce fines once the owner has either corrected or initiated actions to resolve violations. However, in Bill 43 the department would not be allowed to reduce or waive the $10,000 fine for subsequent violation orders within a three-year period.

Both the General Contractors Association of Hawaii and the Building Industry Association Hawaii submitted written testimony raising concerns about the measure.

They wanted to know how the bill would affect multi-unit projects with repeat violations per unit, or how people with multiple construction firms would be treated if only one firm becomes subject of the measure.

Another issue they raised is whether the volume of projects under one builder is being taken under consideration. The example they offered is if a builder works on 100 projects a year, they are at higher risk of having multiple violations than one that is doing only 10.

“(General Contractors Association of Hawaii) understands the problem that this measure is trying to address and suggests amending the measure to narrow the scope and applicability to specifically address the issue,” said the General Contractors Association of Hawaii in its written testimony for the measure.

“While we want to see the City succeed in its efforts to crack down on Monster Homes, we are concerned that regular builders could inadvertently be hurt and even forced out of business.”

Waters said that he appreciated the association’s concerns but that Bill 43 was narrow in scope, only for serious violators.

“I want to emphasize that the applicability of this bill is in instances of three notices of order over a three-year period,” he said.

“In instances where there are notices of violation, there is the opportunity to cure the violation by working with DPP. A notice of order is issued only when the applicant fails to work with DPP to correct the violation within a required period of time.”

Choon James, a real estate broker and concerned community member, said the measure was too punitive, especially with the $10,000 fine, and instead of adding a new law, DPP should instead better enforce the ones currently on the books.

“The monster home was allowed because DPP gave them the approval permit,” she said.

“If DPP gives them the permanent approval, whose fault is it?”

There were several instances when DPP gave and later revoked permits for monster home developments, one more recently on a Sierra Drive property.

DPP is in support of Bill 43.

The Council will vote on the measure at today’s full City Council meeting, which starts at 10 a.m.