Rosita Sipirok-Siregar admits her Makakilo home could be neater.

But the septuagenarian retiree says it was overkill for her condo association to hire Honolulu lawyer Kapono Kiakona to run up a $3,300 legal bill to collect just over $300 in alleged fines. Tensions escalated in December, when Kapono upped the ante, notifying Sipirok-Siregar that her association intended to foreclose on her property to collect past due payments.

Sipiro-Siregar acknowledges that her front stoop has at times been cluttered. She also admits that her shoe rack doesn’t meet association specifications, which her next-door neighbor also doesn’t follow. But Sipirok-Siregar says it’s not justified for the Association of Apartment Owners of Westview at Makakilo Heights to force her to sell her home.

“They go after an old lady who’s single and living alone,” she says. “I’m a law-abiding citizen, and I’m cited for having fricking shoes on the front porch.”

While Sipirok-Siregar plans to contest the fines and charges levied against her in mediation, legislators this session have the chance to look more broadly at the laws governing such disputes and condo associations in general. A handful of bills carried over from the last legislative session would change the way condo associations operate. One measure would provide an alternative to mediation for people like Sipiro-Siregar.

But whether such bills get any traction is another question. 

Rep. Luke Evslin, chairman of the House Housing Committee, says he spent much of the summer working on other housing issues. He plans to introduce bills meant to allow more housing density in urban-zoned areas as a way to promote home building while preserving agriculture and conservation land.

Still, Evslin said, he saw what he believes were excessive power grabs by homeowner associations at the expense of residents when he was a Kauai council member. He said he helped pass county legislation limiting what the associations were doing. Evslin said he hasn’t ruled out holding hearings on bills addressing condo associations on the state level this session.

Condominiums are generally private self-governing entities, run according to various bylaws and house rules. These governing documents are essentially contracts between condo owners and associations, administered by elected boards. The boards typically hire management companies to oversee operations, as well as lawyers, contractors, consultants and the like — all paid by owners. 

Often likened to private governments, the associations have the power to raise money through fees and assessments, fine owners and in some cases foreclose on properties, forcing people to sell their homes to pay debts to the association. Owners often must pay the fees of the lawyers taking action against them on the associations’ behalf.

Still, the associations are ultimately creatures of state law and must operate under the broad framework of the Hawaii condominium statute, which is administered by the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs’ Real Estate Commission. The nine-member commission is made up entirely of real estate brokers and lawyers.

One bill would change the way condo elections are held so they more closely resemble elections for public office. Another amounts to an open records law for condo owners, giving them the power to inspect and copy a range of documents that the condo law requires associations to maintain. 

A third bill would establish a condo ombudsman to serve as “a resource for members of condominium associations.” That includes helping ensure associations are complying with existing laws and association governing documents and helping resolve disputes without attorneys.

“I wouldn’t write off any of these bills,” Evslin said. “But I would admit to not knowing the details of many of those bills and not being able to comment too specifically.”

Bills To Change Hawaii’s Condo Law Face Hurdles

It’s easy to write off the bills simply because they often go nowhere. Lawmakers didn’t grant the open records and ombudsman bills a hearing last session, for instance. And bills that do manage to get hearings often face opposition from condo lawyers, associations, lobbyists and consultants that support the existing system.

The bill proposing change to condo board elections, for instance, faced opposition from the Hawaii Council of Community Associations, a lobbying group, and the Hawaii State Association of Parliamentarians, whose members are hired by associations to help run board meetings. Kapono Kiakona’s law firm, Porter McGuire Kiakona, which is known for running up big tabs on behalf of associations against owners, also testified against the bill. In addition, several current association board members submitted identical testimony opposing the bill.

One of the few voices in support was Lila Mower, president of Kokua Council, an advocacy organization that has been pushing for legal changes designed to help individual owners. 

In an interview, Mower said Sipirok-Siregar’s situation – where she faces an alleged $1,133 in unpaid maintenance fees, fines and late fees and $3,366 in legal fees — is hardly an outlier.  

“The situation where what she really owes is $1,000 but Kapono’s fees are three times that – that’s not unusual. Sometimes it’s more than three times,” said Mower, who was nominated by House Speaker Scott Saiki to a legislative working group established to study condo issues. “It’s sadly not unusual.”

It’s important to make it easier to vote out board directors who bless such behavior, she said.

“It’s excruciatingly difficult” to oust board members, she said.

Homeowner Admits Errors

Sipirok-Siregar acknowledges she has occasionally left items like a broom or mop on her front stoop, in violation of house rules. Her shoe rack also doesn’t meet association specs, which call for a two-tier white or off-white rack. But on a recent morning her rack was hidden from street view by a pillar, as was a vacuum cleaner and trash can she had placed near the front door.

Sipirok-Siregar also admits she hasn’t opened many of the numerous letters she has gotten from Kiakona. The association’s lawyer said he couldn’t comment on the pending matter without written authorization from Sipiro-Siregar, which she had not provided.

But one letter from Kiakona that Sipirok-Siregar did open shows what the association is demanding and potential paths forward for her.

Titled “NOTICE OF DEFAULT AND INTENTION TO FORECLOSE” and dated Dec. 14, 2023, the letter says Sipirok-Siregar owes $4,499.88 in delinquent “assessments, other charges and attorneys fees and costs unpaid to the association.” Although the letter says Sipiro-Siregar must pay $4,938 to bring her account current, she can remove the lien on her property and notice of intention to foreclose by paying $438.49. 

The letter also says she has the right to submit a payment plan and request mediation. It also suggests she hire an attorney to understand potential legal rights and defenses, although that would mean paying two lawyers: her own and Kiakona.

Sipirok-Siregar expresses confusion about the situation, including the sobering reality that the association can foreclose on her property to collect payment under Hawaii’s condo law. At the same time, she denies she has ever fallen behind on paying maintenance fees, as Kiakona’s letter alleges. 

Regardless, she’s hoping to sort things out in mediation.

Whether that results in an agreement remains to be seen. Mower has collected reports published by the Real Estate Commission dating back to 1991. Those indicate that mediation results in an agreement in less than one third of cases, she said. 

Mower and other owner-advocates believe an ombudsman could be more effective in helping resolve disputes between owners and associations. Regardless of whether that’s the best solution, Mower said the current system of associations turning lawyers loose on owners – at the owners’ expense — benefits only the lawyers.

If the associations “want to be good neighbors, there are so many alternatives,” she said. “Where’s the reasonableness? Where’s the rationality? Where’s the humanity?”