The city is owed over $130 million for building violations involving Oahu properties with outstanding fines over $100,000, according to Department of Planning and Permitting data.

At least 274 properties across the island fell into that category as of the end of October.

The largest fine total for a single property — $15.8 million — was levied on a vacant lot in Kalihi Valley, whose owners were cited for a number of violations but mainly for overgrown weeds. A property in Kahuku racked up $1.6 million in fines largely due to being an illegal short-term rental.

In both cases, the property owners have not paid any portion of the fines, according to records obtained by the Honolulu Star- Advertiser.

In fact, largely across the board, landowners with outstanding fines over $100,000 rarely made any payments to DPP. The largest was $126,000 paid by a Waialua property landowner, who still owes $3.4 million.

DPP acting Director Dawn Takeuchi said the large fines were allowed to accumulate under former department policies that reduced fines by as much as 90% to 95% if owners agreed to correct the violations.

“When I came in about 22 months ago and we realized that there’s this huge number on the books, we had the same question: What is going on?” she said. “The policy was to always use it as an incentive, which is really weird that you would use fines as an incentive, which is a complete paradox, right? You don’t use a penalty as an incentive. It should be the opposite.”

Before levying fines, DPP first issues a notice of violation to the property owner, who then has 30 days to correct the problem. If the owner does not comply, DPP then issues a notice of order, which is when fines begin accumulating. Fines are often charged for each day the violations persist, which is how an initial $50 daily fine can balloon into hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Takeuchi said the department generally did not have an official policy on how the fines are to be collected after notices of order are sent to property owners, or what next steps should be taken. She said that sometimes DPP would put a lien on the property, but that was done haphazardly.

However, since those issues were brought to light about two years ago, she said DPP established a policy that makes it clear that property owners will be expected to pay 100% of the fines levied against their property.

“We said, ‘No more, it’s going to be 100% of the fines unless there’s some exigent circumstances,’ or something that’s like, ‘OK, it makes sense that you shouldn’t be subject to these fines,’” she said. “We also decided that we would have a timeline … At least it’s standardized as far as what we’re going to do.”

The DPP timeline now gives landowners two months to pay any fines once the notice of order has been issued. After that, DPP will send a demand letter. Landowners are given three more months to pay up, and if no payment is forthcoming, DPP will then move to put a lien on the property.

Choon James, a real estate broker and community activist, criticized DPP’s previous lack of standard procedures for fine collection. “There is a huge inconsistency. It seems like some people get punished and some get away with it,” she said.

She also was wary of any policies mandating foreclosures or liens when property owners don’t pay city fines.

“The government should not be of the mindset to punish and to take away private properties,” she said. “We know that even with the residents, not everybody is the same. There are a lot of people who are immigrants or who don’t understand the process well or how the systems work, while some are so good at it that they know how to … take advantage of the loopholes. So there’s inequity there.”

She pointed to a Hauula property that was the subject of a Honolulu City Council resolution passed in February authorizing foreclosure because the owner had racked up more than $400,000 in fines for having several unpermitted structures, conducting unpermitted grading and storing construction materials on agricultural land.

Choon, who has been trying to help the landowner, said that although he did violate building codes, she wanted to know why his property was facing foreclosure while others with higher amounts of unpaid fines were not.

Takeuchi explained that community concerns largely drive how aggressively the department goes after properties with substantial fines.

“It’s the level of fines and then … it’s usually a property owner that’s causing a lot of issues for the community, and they’re already ignoring our fines and our violations, and they’re just a really bad neighbor. So in those cases, we might go after and lien the property or do more,” she said.

“But even when you do that, like there’s someone we want to go after, then lawyers get involved, then that property owner will get an attorney and it kind of slows down for a while.”

City Council Member Heidi Tsuneyoshi, who put the Hauula foreclosure resolution before the Council, said at the time she did so because the violations on the property were so egregious.

THE NUMBER of Oahu properties with outstanding fines over $100,000 varies across each district.

According to DPP data, Tsuneyoshi’s District 2, which encompasses the North Shore, had 51 properties owing at least $100,000 for building violations. District 1, which covers the west side of Oahu, had the second-highest number at 41 properties. And District 3 in Windward Oahu had the third highest at 38 properties.

Tsuneyoshi did not have any comment about the high number of properties in her district with large fines, but North Shore Neighborhood Board member Racquel Achiu said she has noticed many illegal structures going up in the community.

“It’s overwhelming, the amount of properties,” she said. “People are buying (agricultural) lands out here and they buy them deep in the mountain or out in the middle of nowhere where they’re kind of not seen. And they just go for it. It’s a free-for-all.”

Because the city has not been collecting the fines, Achiu said people build their structures illegally because it’s less expensive or consequential to pay a fine than to go through the drawn-out permitting process that costs landowners and developers time and money.

“The reason people go for the fines and they don’t care is because it’s worth it for them to pay a fine than it is to pay for a permit,” she said.

THE FINES that DPP collects go into the city’s general fund, except for fines for illegal short-term rentals, which go to the department for short-term rental enforcement.

Even though the department now has a stricter policy on fine collections, Takeuchi emphasized the effort has been hampered by a lack of employees. She said the Commercial and Multi-Family Code Enforcement Branch currently has only two staffers after two others left in recent months.

“We have notices of violations from three different divisions: Site Development Division, Building Division and Customer Service Division … They’re all issuing (notices of violations) and we only have two people that can collect them. So we’re trying to add the capacity.”

She estimated that having five more workers to do the paperwork to collect fines would dramatically help DPP aggressively go after problem properties. She also pointed to the seven enforcement positions that were created under Hono­lulu’s new short-term rental law enacted this year, portions of which have been put on hold by a court order, as another tool the department will be able to use.

However, those positions are still in the process of being filled, as the city across all departments has had trouble recruiting and retaining workers. Takeuchi hopes to have people hired by February or March.

Council Chair Tommy Waters said that collecting the large fines could help DPP solve some of its issues.

“It’s encouraging to hear that recently the department has been hiring and plans to implement systems and processes to increase efficiency,” he said in an email. “We intend to continue to work with DPP so that it can clear its backlog of permits and fines that need collection. The collection of this $130 million in fines could make a significant difference for the department and the services it provides.”

Former Councilmember Bran­don Elefante, who chaired the Council’s Zoning and Planning Committee, said properties that have accumulated large DPP fines have come through his committee for action. He said that in several instances, the main issue was trying to find and contact the property owners, especially in the cases where a family member dies and leaves the property to someone who doesn’t live in Hawaii.

This happened to a property in his district that fell into disrepair. He said squatters were living in it and there were multiple fires there. Eventually, a bank got involved and the house was sold at auction, but in the meantime, the surrounding community suffered due to the owner’s noncompliance in addressing the violations.

“At the end of the day the city doesn’t want to be a caretaker for dilapidated private property because then the city will have to go over the title; it becomes a liability … But that’s why they do the first approach as compliance,” he said.

“That’s why we thought of a creative way, ‘Why don’t we put a lien on these people, on their driver’s license or other thing where you’re not able to drive or you’re not able to get all these applications, unless you pay your fines or come into compliance.’”

Takeuchi said the department is now doing this and will attach outstanding fines to driver’s license and car registration renewals as part of DPP’s compliance system.

She also said the department will again pursue a bill at the state Legislature that would allow the city to do nonjudicial foreclosures on properties when all notices, orders and appeal proceedings are exhausted. Currently, if DPP wants to foreclose on a property it has to go to court, which often takes long periods of time and city legal resources that it may not be able to spare.

Nonjudicial foreclosure would allow the process to be done administratively for particularly troublesome properties.

During the last legislative session, the measure was killed in conference committee late in the session. Opponents of the bill were concerned it would not be fairly executed and could strip away property rights.

Elefante, who just won election to the state Senate after reaching his term limit as a Council member, said it’s something the Legislature could revisit but emphasized that nonjudicial foreclosure should be used by the city only as a last resort.

Takeuchi said that in order to solve the problems, DPP will need to demonstrate that it is serious about collecting fines.

“Generally, people will just pay the fine and correct the violation. But then there’s just some of those who don’t think they’re doing anything wrong. They don’t see the seriousness of the fines,” she said.

“I think we have to show more that we’re doing this and people will realize, ‘OK, I shouldn’t let these things keep accruing and I should do something about it.’”