If a boat owner is delinquent in the payment of any fee or
charge, including costs of impoundment and removal, or if a vessel is
abandoned, the HCDA may institute proceedings pursuant to law to secure the
attachment and sale of the vessel. In order to recover unpaid indebtedness, the
HCDA may initiate legal process including impoundment and sale of a vessel
following the mailing of three past due invoices, the last billing being
approximately ninety days following the date money was due and payable.
Abandoned vessels or contrivances shall be disposed of at the owner's expense,
and any administrative hearing shall follow the procedure as set forth in
sections 15-212-60 and
15-212-61.
(1) No person shall moor a vessel in Kewalo
Basin without obtaining a permit; nor shall a person continue to moor a vessel
in Kewalo Basin if the permit authorizing the vessel to moor has expired or
otherwise been terminated. A vessel moored without a permit or with a permit
that has expired or been terminated is an unauthorized vessel and is subject to
subsections (2) to (5);
(2) HCDA or
its assigns shall cause to be placed upon, or as near to the unauthorized
vessel as possible, a notice to remove vessel, which shall indicate that the
vessel is in violation of this section, the date and time the notice was
posted, and that the vessel must be removed within seventy-two hours from the
time the notice was posted;
(3) An
unauthorized vessel may be impounded by HCDA or its assigns at the sole cost
and risk of the owner of the vessel, if such vessel is not removed after the
seventy-two hour period or if during said period the vessel is removed and
re-moored in Kewalo Basin without a permit;
(4) Custody of an impounded vessel shall be
returned to the person entitled to possession upon payment to HCDA or its
assigns of all fees and costs due, and fines levied by a court. In addition,
HCDA and its assigns within seventy-two hours of impoundment, shall send by
certified mail, return receipt requested, a notice of impoundment to the
registered owner or operator of any impounded vessel. The owner or operator of
an impounded vessel shall have ten days after receipt of notice of impoundment
of the vessel to request in writing an administrative hearing. This
administrative hearing is solely for the purpose of allowing the owner or
operator of an impounded vessel to contest the basis given by HCDA or its
assigns for the impoundment of the vessel. The administrative hearing must be
held within seventy-two hours of HCDA or its assigns receipt of the written
request. HCDA or its assigns shall adopt rules pursuant to chapter
91 to implement the requirement for
this post-seizure administrative hearing process; and
(5) Any unauthorized vessel impounded under
this section, which remains unclaimed by the person entitled to possession, the
registered owner or lien holder for more than thirty days, may be sold by HCDA
or its assigns at public auction.
