After paying their two sewer bills for more than two decades, owners of two contiguous lots on Alii Drive are arguing they should have had to pay only one sewer bill because the structure on one of the lots is an outbuilding, not an unoccupied unit as defined by the county.
Richard Henderson and Richard Henderson II, managers of Kai Ala Partners LLC of Hilo, are asking the county Environmental Management Commission to refund $7,800 in sewer fees the partnership has paid over the past 23 years. The commission on Wednesday rescheduled its contested case hearing on the matter to Jan. 7 after one of the parties in the case was exposed to coronavirus.
The Hendersons, who have owned the property since it was acquired by Walter Irving Henderson and Jean Henderson in the late 1940s, contend a building on one of the parcels does not fit the definition of an unoccupied dwelling because the structure is a storage room, not a dwelling.
The main house and the outbuilding are on two separate parcels with a total value of a little more than $2 million, each with its own street address. The parcels have been listed on the Hawaii Register of Historic Places because the beach house was constructed incorporating the old stone walls of a Catholic Church built in 1864, and thus are charged only the minimum property tax of $200 each annually.
“The Hawaii County Department of Public Works,Sewer Division has mistakenly and repeatedly charged KAPLLC for two sewer user service fees when they made the original billing in July of 1998,” the complaint states.
But the county contends the 264-square-foot outbuilding meets the definition of an unoccupied structure because it has a sink, toilet, shower and washing machine. Environmental Management Director Ramzi Mansour has offered to charge just one sewer hookup if the owners remove the plumbing appliances in the outbuilding connected to the county sewer system.
Furthermore, said Deputy Corporation Counsel Malia Kekai in a response, the time to file a claim “has long passed and expired.” She noted Hawaii contract law gives two years in some cases and six years in others for parties to bring a claim.
“Appellant’s lack of attention to detail does not entitle Appellant to a refund. From July 31, 1998 to August 23, 2021, Appellant wrote one-hundred forty-one (141) checks paying for two units; surely, he looked over his bill and yet still failed to raise a timely complaint,” Kekai said.