HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - A year after the Honolulu City Council approved foreclosure on a short-term rental owner, the case remains unresolved — and nearly $3 million in fines remains uncollected.

The lack of action has critics saying the city is sending a message that building and zoning violations are not being taken seriously.

A house in Alewa Heights was to be the example for the city’s get-tough attitude toward illegal short-term rentals. But a year after the council approved foreclosure, the city still has not gone to court.

Homeowner Anson Lee, a California resident, said, “It’s been very stressful. We worry almost every day what the city’s going to do. Is it really, is this true that they really can foreclose my mom’s house and take it away?”

Learn more:

• City moves to foreclose over illegal rental violations
• City has no mercy for illegal vacation rental operators

Complaints and violations tied to an illegal rental

Lee ran the house on Aulii Street as a short-term vacation rental, drawing many complaints from neighbors and multiple violations from the city threatening $10,000 a day in fines from back in 2021.

He said he did not know about the city’s notices by certified mail until he got an email from the city’s collection agency in April 2024 demanding $2.5 million, and still rising.

“The house is worth a little bit over a million, but I’m getting like $3 million in fines,” Lee said.

Lee said that is when he stopped the vacation rental business. But the city said it still got neighbor complaints and started building a foreclosure case, which was approved by the council in May 2025 as part of a get-tougher policy.

“This is actually a good example of what can happen if you’re not going to follow the law,” city Department of Planning and Permitting director Dawn Takeuchi Apuna said in May 2025.

Apuna said the fines, liens and foreclosure threats have accomplished the main goal of ending illegal behavior.

But Honolulu City Council member Tyler Dos Santos-Tam said in the long run, threats will not work without faster action.

“The fact that it’s taken a year I think sends the wrong message. The city needs to be as aggressive as possible,” Dos Santos-Tam said.

City says $200 million in fines uncollected

Being aggressive could also pay off. The city estimates there are more than $200 million in fines for all sorts of zoning and building violations that have not been collected.

It has been making progress. After collecting just over $500,000 in 2021, the city collected well over $2 million in 2024 and 2025, and is on pace to reach $3 million after collecting well over $1.5 million in the first third of this year.

“We’re looking to actually capture close to 100% of those fines,” Apuna said in May 2025.

In a review of data from the building department, the vast majority of violations are corrected before fines are needed. But the ones that are not addressed are highly visible, like an overgrow property in Kaneohe with $11,000 in unpaid taxes and over $30,000 in fines.

State Rep. Scot Matayoshi, chair of the House Consumer Protection Committee, said, “It’s creating health concerns because rats, roaches, other vermin breed in there and then spread out through the neighborhood.”

Matayoshi proposed letting the attorney general or private attorneys take on city foreclosure cases for part of the collection.

“What that would do is the city would still collect 90% of that fine once the property is foreclosed upon, and it would lighten the load significantly from the city on the number of backlog cases that they have,” Matayoshi said.

Matayoshi has done commercial foreclosure cases as an attorney and said the city would have to prove notice and an exact amount owed to get into court and has to face owners willing to fight to defend their properties and their conduct.

“There’s nothing firm. You know, it’s very confusing. The law, the law is confusing,” Lee said.

The city said it has the evidence and the law on its side to foreclose but also said it is negotiating with the Lee family attorney for a possible settlement.