Ige’s eviction moratorium doesn’t do what he says it does

Ever since attorney and landlord David Chee watched Governor David Ige announce Hawaiʻi’s eviction moratorium on April 17, Chee has been telling his clients that they could go to jail if they force their non-paying tenants to leave.

“This proclamation will immediately place a moratorium on eviction by preventing any eviction from a residential dwelling for a failure to pay rent,” Ige said in a press conference. “Any violation of this mandate is now a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 and or a year in jail.”

Except that’s not what the moratorium actually does, a spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office told Civil Beat. The punishment is a civil fine, not a misdemeanor, which explains why the Honolulu Police Department hasn’t been enforcing the moratorium despite the city’s unprecedented policing of the pandemic stay-at-home order.

Enforcement of the eviction moratorium is instead being handled by the Office of Consumer Protection, which has launched fewer than 10 investigations thus far into misbehaving landlords and hasn’t fined or taken anyone to court yet.