Tenants need help in landlord disputes

Many landlord-tenant disputes will end inevitably in eviction. There are some problems that no amount of mediation will solve, and homeowners-investors have the right to recover reasonable rental revenue from their property.

But the fact that the disputed-eviction rate is so high is indeed a problem for Hawaiʻi. There’s no justifiable reason that 85-95 percent of all lawsuit-dispute cases end in eviction, but that is where a report from Lawyers for Equal Justice (LEJ), released this week, places the rate for Hawaiʻi.

The repercussions of that are felt not only by the renter — most landlords end up losing money in such legal disputes. Further, many of these evicted families soon join the ranks of the homeless. The social costs of that are now plain to everyone in the islands, especially in urban Honolulu.