How much notice must a landlord give before entering in Hawaii?

Verified July 11, 2026 All Hawaii topics →

Hawaii landlords must give tenants at least two days' notice before entering a rental unit and may enter only during reasonable hours, with no-notice entry allowed in an emergency or where notice is impracticable (HRS 521-53).

The notice does not have to be in writing — the statute requires only 'notice,' unlike Hawaii's rent-increase rules — and permitted purposes are limited to inspections, necessary or agreed repairs and improvements, agreed services, and showings to prospective purchasers, mortgagees, or tenants, plus court-ordered entry, apparent abandonment, and entry reasonably necessary during a tenant's extended absence. A landlord who abuses the access right faces real teeth under HRS 521-73: liability for any theft or casualty damage from certain non-consensual entries, a tenant right to terminate over repeated unreasonable entry demands, injunctions, and a fine of up to $100 — and lease clauses waiving those protections are void, except a tenant's consent to a particular entry.

Hawaii entry notice at a glance

Advance notice required	2 days
Notice standard	HRS 521-53(b): except in case of emergency 'or where impracticable to do so,' the landlord must give the tenant at least two days' notice of intent to enter and may enter only during reasonable hours. The statutory unit is DAYS ('at least two days notice'), and the notice need not be written — unlike Hawaii's rent-increase notices, 521-53 does not say 'written.' The landlord may not abuse the access right or use it to harass the tenant.
Permitted reasons	The tenant may not unreasonably withhold consent for the landlord to inspect the premises; make necessary or agreed repairs, decorations, alterations, or improvements; supply services as agreed; or exhibit the unit to prospective purchasers, mortgagees, or tenants (521-53(a)). Subsection (c) makes the list exhaustive: no other right of entry except by court order, where the tenant appears to have abandoned the premises, or during a tenant's extended absence as reasonably necessary for inspection, maintenance, and safe-keeping (521-70(b)).
Emergency exception	Yes
Time-of-day restrictions	None by the clock — entry must be during 'reasonable hours' only; the statute sets no hour windows.

Notes and caveats

notice_hours encoded 48 from the statutory 'at least two days notice' (521-53(b)) — the statute speaks in DAYS, so render page copy as 'two days,' not '48 hours.' The section is bracketed [§521-53] in the official HRS: never substantively amended since enactment (L 1972, c 132; gen ch 1985 only), so there is no stale-amendment risk; double-read on the official page (two hash-identical fetches) and corroborated twice in the official DCCA 2024 handbook ('at least two days notice... only during reasonable hours'). Two honesty flags for page copy: (1) the no-notice escape valve covers emergencies AND 'where impracticable' — broader than emergency-only carve-outs in most states; (2) no writing requirement — charts saying '48 hours' written notice' add a requirement the statute lacks (Hawaii requires written notice for rent increases and terminations, not entry). Waivability: effectively non-waivable — 521-31(a) bars waiving chapter rights generally, and 521-73(d) voids exculpatory agreements about entry liability except consent to a particular entry. Remedies: tenant liability for damage from unreasonably refusing lawful access (521-73(a)); landlord liability for theft/casualty from non-emergency entries made over a refusal, without a present tenant's actual consent, or negligently (521-73(b)); repeated unreasonable demands or an unreasonable non-consented entry are grounds for tenant termination, injunction, and a fine up to $100 (521-73(c)).

Statute citations

HRS § 521-53 (a)-(c) Official source
HRS § 521-70 (b) Official source
HRS § 521-73 (a)-(d) Official source
DCCA Office of Consumer Protection, Landlord-Tenant Handbook (2024) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text on the official Hawaii State Legislature site (capitol.hawaii.gov, hrscurrent edition; fetched via curl with a browser user agent because the host 403s automated fetchers): sections 521-44, 521-21, 521-53, and 521-71 each fetched twice with SHA-1-identical results, and every load-bearing figure additionally reconciled against two more official documents — the Session Laws of Hawaii act PDFs on capitol.hawaii.gov (Act 179 (2017), S.B. 119, which sets out amended section 521-21 in full including the 45-day/15-day rent-increase notices and the 8 per cent late-charge cap, effective 2017-11-01 with an entered-into-or-renewed applicability clause; Act 206 (2013), S.B. 328, which sets out amended section 521-44(a)-(b) including the one-month cap plus the additional one-month pet deposit, applicable to agreements entered into on or after 2013-11-01) and the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Office of Consumer Protection's official 2024 Landlord-Tenant Handbook (cca.hawaii.gov), which matches on the 14-day return, forfeiture rule, treble small-claims penalty, one-year limitation, two days' entry notice, 45-day termination and rent-increase notices, 8 per cent cap and its 2017-11-01 applicability, and the no-interest negative. Also read in full: 521-7, 521-8, 521-10, 521-22, 521-31, 521-43, 521-46, 521-63, 521-66, 521-70, 521-73, 521-74, 521-75, 521-77, 521-85, 666-20, and 127A-30. Verified negatives (no deposit interest, no separate-account rule, no grace period, no rent-increase frequency or size tiers, no express rent-control preemption) each run against the full chapter 521 table of contents sweep. Legislative check 2026-07-11 on official capitol.hawaii.gov status pages and the LRB Bills Passed 2026 list: the 2026 regular session adjourned sine die 2026-05-08 ending the 2025-2026 biennium; no 2025 or 2026 act amended any topic section; SB 2539 (3% rent cap), SB 347 (late fee 8%-to-5%), HB 464 (60/90-day notices), HB 693 (increase increments), and SB 822 (code working group) all died.