Terms Used In Hawaii Revised Statutes > Chapter 516 > Part I - General Provisions

• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Corporation: means the Hawaii housing finance and development corporation created by chapter 201H. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 516-1
• county: includes the city and county of Honolulu. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 1-22
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Development tract: means a single contiguous area of real property not less than five acres in size which has been developed and subdivided into residential lots, including residential lots which may have been converted to fee simple and streets and roadways developed as an integral part of the development tract. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 516-1
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• Fair market value: means that amount of money that a purchaser willing, but not obliged, to buy an interest in land would pay an owner willing, but not obliged, to sell it, taking into consideration all uses to which the land is adapted or might in reason be applied. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 516-1
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Fee simple lands: means absolute ownership of land for an indefinite duration, freely transferable and inheritable. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 516-1
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Guarantor: A party who agrees to be responsible for the payment of another party's debts should that party default. ^{Source: OCC}
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Lease: means a conveyance of land or an interest in land, by a fee simple owner as lessor, or by a lessee or sublessee as sublessor, to any person, in consideration of a return of rent or other recompense, for a term, measured from the initial date of the conveyance, twenty years or more (including any periods for which the lease may be extended or renewed at the option of the lessee). See Hawaii Revised Statutes 516-1
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• leased fee interest: means all of the interests of the fee owner, lessor, and all legal and equitable owners of the land which is leased, other than the lessee's interest as defined by this chapter. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 516-1
• legal and equitable owners: include individuals, both masculine and feminine, and, except as to the term "lessee" the terms also include corporations, firms, associations, trusts, estates, and the State or its political subdivisions. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 516-1
• Lessee: means any person to whom land is leased or subleased, and the lessee's heirs, successors, legal representatives, and assigns. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 516-1
• Lessor: means any person who leases or subleases land to another, and the lessor's heirs, successors, legal representatives, and assigns. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 516-1
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Offsite improvements: means all physical improvements such as, but not limited to, roads, sewer lines, sewage treatment plants, gutters, curbs, sidewalks, fire hydrants, street lights, land dedicated for public purposes and underground electric cables, constructed or placed in a subdivision off the lots intended for occupancy, which improvements are to be used in common by occupants of all lots adjoining such improvements or by the occupants of all lots for whose benefit the improvements have been constructed or placed. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 516-1
• Onsite improvements: means all physical improvements placed on a residential lot intended for occupancy which improvements are for the benefits of occupants of that lot, including, but not limited to, dwelling units, garages, service buildings, stairs, walkways, driveways, walls, trees, shrubs, landscaping, and pools. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 516-1
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• Sustainable affordable development: means a development tract that satisfies all of the following requirements:

  (1) The sales price at the time of initial sale of at least thirty per cent of all the residential lots in the development tract shall be limited in accordance with directly applicable state or county law, regulation, policy, or agreement, such that households earning not more than the required percentages of the median income for the applicable county (according to the directly applicable law, regulation, policy or agreement) will be required to spend no more than the allowable percentage of their gross incomes for housing costs as determined by secondary mortgage market standards or as otherwise agreed, all as determined as of the time of the initial sale of the residential lots;

  (2) The sales price at the time of the initial sale of at least fifty-one per cent of the residential lots in the development tract, including the lots subject to the requirements of paragraph (1), and the sales price at the time of a resale of at least fifty-one per cent of all the residential lots in the development tract, shall be no higher than eighty per cent of the fair market value of the residential lots in fee at the time of initial sale or resale, as appropriate, including all buildings and improvements, unencumbered by the restrictions of the lease;

  (3) All residential lots sold in satisfaction of paragraph (1) or (2) shall be leased under sustainable affordable leases;

  (4) The state or county agency that approves the sustainable affordable development may reduce the minimum percentage of residential lots to be sold in satisfaction of paragraph (1) or (2) upon a showing that the sustainable affordable development comprises a portion of a housing project that includes other housing, which together with the residential lots comprising the sustainable affordable development, satisfies the state or county agency's affordable housing requirements as set forth in the applicable state or county law, regulation, policy, or agreement; and

  (5) For the purposes of this chapter, the residential lots in a development tract comprising a sustainable affordable development are not required to be in a single contiguous area as long as all non-contiguous lots are:

  (A) Within a ten-mile radius of each other; and

  (B) Leased by the same fee owner under a sustainable affordable lease. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 516-1

• Sustainable affordable lease: means a residential lot lease in a sustainable affordable development that satisfies all of the following requirements:

  (1) The lease provides for a consideration to the fee owner below a fair market return on the fair market value of the land; provided that compensation to the fee owner for land, including lease rent, shall be either:

  (A) Totally capitalized into the initial sales price for the residential lot, including all buildings and improvements; or

  (B) Partially capitalized with a share of appreciation paid to the lessor upon resale of the residential lot;

  (2) In order to maintain the continued affordability of the residential lot, the lease limits the lessee's maximum sales price on the residential lot upon resale, including all buildings and improvements, to the lesser of:

  (A) The fair market value of the residential lot, including all buildings and improvements, encumbered by the restrictions of the lease; or

  (B) The sum of:

  (i) The lessee's purchase price for the residential lot, including all buildings and improvements;

  (ii) Any appreciation on the residential lot, including all buildings and improvements as measured by multiplying the amount in clause (i) by the increase in the consumer price index for all urban consumers as determined by the United States Department of Labor for the applicable county (or if not published for the county, then for the State), from the date of the purchase to the date of the contract for resale; and

  (iii) The fair market value of all lessor-approved capital improvements made by the lessee; and

  (3) The lease may allow the lessor to receive a share of the appreciation in accordance with paragraph (2), as agreed to by the lessor and lessee, and as set forth in the sustainable affordable lease. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 516-1

• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.