The mad rush for short-term rental owners in resort districts to register under the city’s new short-term rental law, Ordinance 22-7 (Bill 41), didn’t happen Monday, the first day that the city made the online process available.

Dawn Takeuchi Apuna, acting director, Department of Planning and Permitting, told the Honolulu Star-­Advertiser that as of 3:30 p.m. Monday, only 10 owners had submitted applications. Apuna said the city had conditionally approved one, and all others are pending.

The registration process is a requirement of Ordinance 22-7 (Bill 41) for short-term rental owners in defined resort districts who want to rent their properties for 30 days or less. The city cannot enforce a minimum 90-day stay provision for those outside of resort districts due to an Oct. 13 court order from U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson ordering the city to stop its planned enforcement for owners outside of resort districts.

However, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi said Thursday that the city plans to fight the court challenge, and that the city is ready to begin enforcing its new rules on rentals of less than 30 days and all other provisions of the ordinance, which sets fines at up to $10,000 a day.

Apuna said DPP is “unsure” of how many short-term renters in resort districts are eligible to register, and that they “expect more volume over time.”

“If you are in the right location and you have all the information, yes, certainly we would like to ask people to register,” she said. “It’s a process, especially because it’s new. We’re here and online registration is always open, so they can go ahead and go to the website anytime and upload and then we’ll review it.”

Apuna said online registration went well the first day.

“We understand that some potential applicants are not happy with the registration requirements, but these requirements are taken directly from the ordinance,” she said.

Dawn Borjesson, chair of the Friends of Kuilima, a North Shore resort neighborhood where the city allows rentals of less than 30 days, said Monday that she knew of many owners who were trying to register. However, Borjesson said she knew of none who had succeeded given the breadth of the requirements and the eleventh-hour rollout of the registration site, which went up a day after enforcement was to begin.

“It was total craziness,” she said. “I don’t think that there will be many people registered, because you can’t follow the rules. They don’t give you enough information. We’re trying our best.”

Apuna said that as of 3 p.m. Monday the city had received approximately 68 calls through the DPP STR hotline and 60 through the online registration vendor.

She said, “Due to staff speaking to callers, some went to voicemail and will be addressed in the order received.”

Borjesson said she has asked DPP for a 45-day grace period to give owners, some with active, legally binding short-term rental contracts, time to comply.

Apuna said Ordinance 22-7 (Bill 41) provided a grace period for owners outside of resort zones but did not provide a grace period for resort owners.

“The ordinance basically says at this point that we need to enforce on Oct. 23,” Apuna said. “What that means practically speaking, though, people are not going to be able to go out and cite every single person that’s not registered. It’s not going to happen, so I don’t think people should be too fearful or worried if they are trying to get things together.

“I mean, they shouldn’t be renting if they don’t have registration yet. It’s hard, I understand. But our hands our tied as much as their (hands) are right now.”

Some resort owners, who were operating legally before Ordinance 22-7, are questioning this stance, which could open up the possibility of selective enforcement. Also, they said, short-term rental owners outside of resort districts seem to have an advantage because they aren’t required to complete the cumbersome registration process, and the city has been temporarily blocked from enforcing against those who are renting from 30 to 89 days.

Borjesson said resort owners are scrambling to keep up with the city’s guidance, which has changed even since Friday. She said those trying to register most often ran into problems meeting the title report requirement because the city did not put out guidance ahead on what title report was needed. Also, the city’s last-minute decision to require uploading of all documents instead of allowing an affidavit put some owners in a bind, she said.

Apuna said the city received several questions from resort owners on the delays they were experiencing in receiving title reports. In some cases it was taking a couple of months for the title reports to be issued. She said Monday that DPP will update the STR FAQs to reflect that the city has decided to accept a preliminary or conditional title report, which she believes will be easier for applicants to get.

Borjesson said another issue is the city’s $1 million commercial insurance requirement. She said owners who rent on hosting platforms are covered for the insurance requirement; however, many could not figure out how to show that during the registration process.

Apuna said Monday that “the applicant should make a copy or screenshot of the applicant’s coverage under the platform’s insurance policy and download it as part of the insurance document requirements.”

Borjesson said applicants who weren’t on the hosting platforms were unclear on whether the city would accept umbrella insurance policies, rather than boutique coverage, which could be five to 10 times more expensive.

The Blangiardi administration has said the insurance issue “needs to be resolved on a case-by-case basis, depending on the terms of the umbrella policy at issue. However, supplemental umbrella coverage is generally acceptable if it covers the same liabilities addressed by the required primary coverage.”