Landlord Atlas

What is the eviction process and timeline in Hawaii?

Verified July 25, 2026 All Hawaii topics →

To evict a Hawaii tenant for unpaid rent you must serve a written ten-calendar-day notice to pay or quit under HRS 521-68(a), send a copy of that same notice to a state-funded mediation center, and then file a summary possession case in the district court for the circuit where the property sits - and if the tenant schedules mediation within those ten days you must wait twenty calendar days from receipt before filing.

Cited to HRS 521-3 (b) and 34 more Hawaii statutes · Verified July 25, 2026

That ten-day period replaced Hawaii's old five-BUSINESS-day notice on February 5, 2026, and the mediation step is a real pre-filing requirement: the complaint has to include proof that the mediation center got the notice. For a lease or rule violation the landlord gives a written notice allowing at least ten days to fix the problem, and may sue if the breach continues after that date - but must do so within thirty days of the continued or recurring breach. Ending a month-to-month tenancy without cause takes forty-five days' written notice, or one hundred twenty days if the landlord is demolishing the units, converting to a condominium, or switching to transient vacation rentals. There is no waiting period for the cure notice when the tenant's conduct causes or threatens irremediable damage to a person or property. After judgment a writ of possession may issue immediately and is executed by a sheriff, deputy sheriff, police officer or listed independent civil process server; the tenant can still stop the writ by paying rent, interest, costs and fees before it actually issues. Locking a tenant out overnight or cutting off water, power or gas to force them out is illegal and exposes the landlord to two months' rent or triple-rent damages.

Hawaii eviction process at a glance

Nonpayment notice (pay-or-quit) 10 days
Nonpayment notice rules (day counting, cure rights, service)

The demand must be in writing, and the days are calendar days running from the tenant's receipt of it. A copy must also go to a state-funded mediation center before the landlord may file, and if the tenant schedules mediation within the window the wait becomes 20 calendar days from receipt (HRS 521-68).

HRS 521-68(a), as amended by L 2025, c 278, sec. 2 (effective February 5, 2026), requires a written demand for payment giving the tenant a period 'not less than ten calendar days after receipt thereof' before the rental agreement terminates. The statute uses the word 'calendar'; it replaced the 'five business days' that governed through February 4, 2026, and that extension is permanent (L 2025, c 278, sec. 7(2) exempts the subsection (a) amendment from the Act's February 4, 2028 repeal-and-reenactment). Counting default is HRS 1-29: exclude the first day and include the last, unless the last day is a Sunday or holiday, in which case it is also excluded; Saturday is excluded only where the rules of court so provide.

RECEIPT IS STATUTORILY DEFINED AND MIXES UNITS: notice posted in a conspicuous place on the dwelling unit 'shall be deemed received on the date of the posting,' but notice mailed by USPS properly addressed with appropriate postage 'shall be deemed to have been received two business days after the date of the postmark' unless returned undeliverable - so the ten-CALENDAR-day clock runs from a receipt date that, for mailed notices, is itself computed in BUSINESS days.

Notice content is mandatory and itemized at 521-68(b)(1)-(8): landlord/agent name and contact details; unit address; every tenant named on the rental agreement with contact details; the current rent due after applying all rent paid from all sources; notice that a copy is going to a state-funded mediation center; notice that the landlord may file if rent is unpaid and mediation is not scheduled within ten calendar days; a bold-typeface warning in substantially the form set out in 521-68(b)(7); and notice that the landlord shall engage in mediation if scheduled. The Judiciary is directed to publish a usable form and has done so.

PRE-FILING MEDIATION IS A LIVE PREREQUISITE, NOT A SUNSET RELIC: 521-68(c) requires the landlord or agent to provide the ten-calendar-day notice to a state-funded mediation center offering free residential landlord-tenant mediation, and the summary possession complaint must include verification from the center that the notice was provided (or the landlord's affirmation and the means used), plus the scheduled mediation date if any (521-68(d)(1)-(2)). If a center schedules mediation within the ten-day period and the tenant participates - whether or not the session itself occurs inside those ten days - the landlord may file only 'after the expiration of twenty calendar days from the date of the tenant's receipt of the ten-calendar-day notice,' unless the tenant fails to appear or cancels (521-68(c); 521-68(i)(1)). If no mediation is scheduled within the ten calendar days, the landlord may file once those ten days expire. Mediation must take place within thirty days of the center contacting both parties, and may be remote, in person, or both (521-68(c), (g)). Each side bears its own costs, but if the tenant defaults on a mediated agreement or fails to attend a scheduled mediation the landlord may request all costs including reasonable attorney's fees incurred in pre-litigation mediation (521-68(h)).

An unintentional or immaterial defect in the notice may be cured without dismissal (521-68(e)). No notice is required where the action is based on breach of a mediated or other settlement agreement, or is for possession on grounds other than nonpayment; and in an action on a breached mediated agreement 'the court shall not require any further mediation before trial.'

Cure after filing: HRS 666-14 stays issuance of the writ if, 'before the writ is actually issued,' the tenant pays the rent due plus interest at eight per cent a year, all costs and charges of the proceedings, and the landlord's expenses including a reasonable attorney's fee. Do NOT apply HRS 666-2's five-day nonpayment notice to a chapter 521 residential tenancy: HRS 521-3(b) makes chapter 521 control in case of conflict, so 666-2's five-day and twenty-five-day periods govern only tenancies outside chapter 521.
Lease-violation notice period 10 days
Lease-violation notice rules (cure vs. termination)

The notice must be written and must specify the breach and the time allowed to fix it. Hawaii has two ten-day cure provisions, one for breach of a landlord's rule and one for the tenant's maintenance duties under 521-51, and in each the cure window and the earliest termination date are both ten days.

Hawaii's two cure-or-quit provisions each carry a ten-day period, and unusually the cure window and the termination date COINCIDE rather than diverging. (1) Breach of a landlord rule authorized by 521-52 - HRS 521-72(a) requires written notice specifying 'the time, not less than ten days, within which the tenant is required to remedy the breach,' and the statutory form warns the tenant that if the tenant continues violating or again violates the rule 'after (a date not less than ten days after this notice), the landlord may terminate the rental agreement and sue for possession of your dwelling unit.' BOTH figures in 521-72(a) are TEN: the cure window is not less than ten days and the earliest termination date is not less than ten days after the notice. THE 10-DAY FIGURE SHOWN HERE IS THE TERMINATION DATE - the number of days that must elapse before the landlord may file - which here happens to equal the cure window.

(2) Material noncompliance with the tenant's maintenance duties under 521-51 - HRS 521-69(a) lets the landlord terminate and bring summary possession only 'after notifying the tenant in writing of the noncompliance and allowing a specified time not less than ten days after receipt of the notice, for the tenant to remedy the noncompliance,' and termination is available only where the noncompliance is with 521-51(1), i.e. applicable building and housing laws materially affecting health and safety; for other 521-51 breaches the landlord's remedy under 521-69(a)(2) is to cure the condition and bill the tenant, the charge being treated by all parties as rent.

CAUTION - the 'thirty days' in 521-72(b) is NOT a notice period and is deliberately not the figure shown here: it is an outer deadline to sue, providing that where the breach continues or recurs after the noticed date 'the landlord may bring a summary proceeding for possession within thirty days after such continued or recurring breach.' A landlord who reads that as a waiting period has it exactly backwards and may forfeit the remedy.

Neither 521-69 nor 521-72 attaches the word 'calendar' or 'business' to its ten days, so HRS 1-29 supplies the default (exclude the first day, include the last; exclude the last day if it is a Sunday or holiday). Roomers and boarders: 521-69(b) permits termination for material 521-51 noncompliance if they fail to comply within the time specified in the notice. Repeat violations are handled inside 521-72 itself - its form addresses a tenant who will 'continue violating' or 'again violate' the rule - rather than by a separate escalation statute. Materiality is a real limit: where there was no evidence a tenant's failure to replace damaged tiles violated building and housing laws materially affecting health and safety under 521-51(1), the landlord was not authorized under 521-69(a) to terminate (87 H. 353 (App.), 956 P.2d 1285 (1998)).
Unconditional-quit grounds Hawaii has no free-standing unconditional-quit statute; instead its two cure-or-quit provisions switch off the cure period when the conduct is dangerous. HRS 521-69(a), flush paragraph: 'No allowance of time to remedy noncompliance shall be required when noncompliance by the tenant causes or threatens to cause irremediable damage to any person or property.' HRS 521-72(a), flush paragraph: 'No allowance of time to remedy the breach of any rule authorized under section 521-52 shall be required when the breach by the tenant causes or threatens to cause damage to any person or constitutes a violation of section 521-51(1) or (6)' - that is, violation of building and housing laws materially affecting health and safety, or wilfully destroying, defacing, damaging, impairing or removing any part of the premises. In both cases the landlord still terminates and must still bring a chapter 666 summary possession action: the statute removes the waiting period, not the court process. Separately, HRS 666-3 supplies a genuine TWO-NOTICE nuisance track for tenancies created by or described in 666-2: a written warning to abate a common nuisance (as defined in HRS 712-1270) 'within twenty-four hours from the time the notice is delivered,' and if it remains unabated, a second written notice to vacate 'within five days from the date the second notice is delivered,' after which the landlord may proceed to evict 'without further notice.' Holdover: under 521-71(e) a tenant remaining after termination without consent may be liable for up to twice the monthly rent prorated daily, and the landlord may bring summary possession at any time during the first sixty days of holdover - but if the landlord fails to commence within those sixty days, a month-to-month tenancy at the prior rent arises by operation of law. No-cause termination is not an unconditional quit: 521-71(a) requires at least forty-five days' written notice to end a month-to-month tenancy, and 521-71(c) requires at least one hundred twenty days where the landlord contemplates voluntary demolition, conversion to a condominium property regime under chapter 514B, or changing the building's use to transient vacation rentals. A rental-agreement clause allowing eviction of a tenant holding a valid medical-cannabis certificate is void under HRS 521-39, subject to the smoking and condominium-document exceptions.
Court and action The action is 'summary possession' under HRS chapter 666, brought in the district court of the circuit where the land and premises are situated (HRS 666-6). Hawaii has four judicial circuits (First/Oahu, Second/Maui, Third/Hawaii Island, Fifth/Kauai; the Fourth was merged into the Third), so venue and the assigned state-funded mediation center are island-specific. District courts try these matters without a jury (HRS 604-5(b)); where a matter is triable of right by a jury and a jury is timely demanded, the case transfers to circuit court. HRS 604-5(a) gives the district court jurisdiction over a counterclaim arising out of and referring to the premises regardless of amount, and original jurisdiction to issue injunctive relief in residential landlord-tenant cases under chapter 521. The plaintiff may join claims for rent, lodging, board, profits, damages and waste arising out of the premises, irrespective of amount (HRS 666-7), and chapter 666 does not preclude joining a breach-of-contract action seeking future rent as damages (84 H. 75, 929 P.2d 88 (1996)). Accepting rent during the litigation is not a recognition of the tenancy and is without prejudice to the landlord's rights at the inception of the proceedings (HRS 666-5). Procedure is governed by the District Court Rules of Civil Procedure: DCRCP 12(a) fixes the return day and DCRCP 8(b) permits an oral general denial in summary possession; DCRCP 12.1 governs a defendant raising title, which ousts district court jurisdiction. Substantive rules come from HRS chapter 521, the Residential Landlord-Tenant Code, which controls over chapter 666 in case of conflict (HRS 521-3(b)). Long-term residential ground leases cannot be cancelled or forfeited in a district court summary possession action under chapter 666 (74 H. 294, 845 P.2d 1186 (1992)).
Filing to hearing Set by court rule, not by statute. HRS 666-9 provides only that 'the summons shall be returnable within such time as is fixed by the court in conformity with the rules of court,' and HRS 666-8 leaves service to the rules of court - so no statutory number exists. The operative figures sit in DCRCP Rule 12(a), which is eviction-specific and runs from SERVICE, not from filing: in summary possession proceedings under chapter 666, defendants must appear on or answer by a return day that is 'the next court session no less than five days following the date of service if made in the circuit in which the action was commenced,' 'the next court session not less than seven days following the date of service if made in another circuit,' and, where a defendant cannot be found in the State, 'the next court session not less than ten days following the required posting on the premises and delivery or mailing of the complaint and summons as ordered by the court.' These are floors tied to each court's sitting calendar rather than fixed windows: the rule's own commentary explains the periods were written to accommodate rural Oahu and neighbor-island courts that did not convene more than once a week. No statute or rule sets a deadline to serve, so the interval is bounded at one end only. Because these numbers come from a court rule and are expressed as 'next court session no less than' floors, no single day count represents the state.
Writ of possession and lockout The instrument is a 'writ of possession' (HRS 666-11). There is no statutory waiting period between judgment and issuance: on proof that the plaintiff is entitled to possession, 'the plaintiff shall have judgment for possession, and for the plaintiff's costs. Execution shall issue accordingly,' and the case note to the section records that the writ may issue at any time after judgment unless stayed by law (23 H. 65 (1915)). The writ issues to 'the sheriff, deputy sheriff, police officer, or independent civil process server from the department of law enforcement's list under section 353C-11,' commanding that officer 'to remove all persons from the premises, and to put the plaintiff, or the plaintiff's agent, into the full possession thereof' (HRS 666-11, as amended through L 2022, c 278). The officer 'shall execute the same according to the tenor thereof' (HRS 666-12); no statutory execution deadline, and no statutory notice-before-lockout period, is prescribed. Issuance of the writ cancels and annuls the contract for use of the premises and the landlord-tenant relation (HRS 666-13), though a warrant terminates that relation only upon final judgment for possession (27 H. 362, 368 (1923)). Stay: in a proceeding for nonpayment of rent, issuance of the writ is stayed if, 'before the writ is actually issued,' the person owing the rent pays the rent due and interest at eight per cent a year, all costs and charges of the proceedings, and all expenses incurred by the plaintiff including a reasonable attorney's fee (HRS 666-14). A tenant's possessions left behind are dealt with under HRS 521-56.
Appeal window No eviction-specific deadline — the standard civil appeal window applies (see notes)
Best-case uncontested timeline (derived from statutory minimums — contested cases run longer)

Roughly 15 days from notice to writ in an uncontested nonpayment case where no mediation is scheduled. That is a statutory floor, not a promise. The return day must fall on a day the district court actually sits, and if the tenant schedules mediation the floor rises to about 25 days.

Adding the statutory minimums: 10 calendar days for the 521-68(a) notice to expire, plus filing and service (no statutory deadline to serve), plus a return day that under DCRCP 12(a) is the next court session no less than 5 days after in-circuit service, plus judgment, at which point the 666-11 writ of possession may issue with no statutory waiting period.

If the tenant schedules mediation within the ten-day window and participates, the pre-filing period becomes 20 calendar days from receipt (521-68(c), (i)(1)), pushing the floor to roughly 25 days. A no-cause termination of a month-to-month tenancy starts from 45 days under 521-71(a), a floor of roughly 50 days, and 120 days under 521-71(c) for demolition, condominium conversion or transient-vacation-rental conversion, a floor of roughly 125 days. A cure-or-quit case under 521-69 or 521-72 starts from 10 days.

These are derived statutory minimums, not observed averages; contested cases, mediation that produces an agreement, a title defense under DCRCP 12.1, a jury demand transferring the case to circuit court, or a 666-14 payment before the writ issues all run longer.
Self-help eviction (lockout, utility shutoff) barred Yes
Self-help scope and tenant remedies

Two express statutes bar it: locking the tenant out overnight without a court order, and cutting off water, electricity, gas or other essential service to force a move-out. A landlord who does either owes the tenant statutory damages on top of losing possession (HRS 521-63(c), 521-74.5).

HRS 521-63(c): if the landlord 'removes or excludes the tenant from the premises overnight without cause or without court order so authorizing, the tenant may recover possession or terminate the rental agreement and, in either case, recover an amount equal to two months rent or free occupancy for two months, and the cost of suit, including reasonable attorney's fees'; the court may also order injunctive or other equitable relief, and there is no discretion to deny those damages once the breach is shown (67 H. 549, 696 P.2d 839 (1985)).

HRS 521-74.5: 'The landlord shall not recover or take possession of a dwelling unit by the wilful interruption or diminution of running water, hot water, or electric, gas, or other essential service to the tenant contrary to the rental agreement or section 521-42, except in case of abandonment or surrender'; a landlord who does so is deemed to have engaged in an unfair method of competition or unfair or deceptive act under HRS 480-2, and beyond the HRS 480-3.1 penalties there are minimum damages of three times the monthly rent or $1,000, whichever is greater.

Both the lockout route and the utility-shutoff route are therefore closed for residential tenancies; the lawful route is a chapter 666 summary possession action and a writ executed by an officer under HRS 666-11 and 666-12. Important contrast: a case note to HRS 666-1 records that a COMMERCIAL landlord is not precluded from self-help eviction for nonpayment of rent (67 H. 252, 686 P.2d 12 (1984)); that holding does not reach chapter 521 residential tenancies.

Retaliation is separately prohibited by HRS 521-74, which bars maintaining a possession action, causing the tenant to quit involuntarily, raising rent or decreasing services after the tenant complains in good faith to a government agency or the landlord about conditions violating health law or chapter 521, so long as the tenant keeps tendering the usual rent.

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Hawaii Eviction Process Laws (verified July 25, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/eviction-process/hawaii/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Every figure above is cited to the Hawaii statute in the citations section below.

Notes and caveats

Common questions: Hawaii eviction process

Each answer is the verified value from the table above, restated as a direct answer. Free to quote with a link to this page.

How much notice does a landlord have to give before filing an eviction for unpaid rent in Hawaii?
10 days. The demand must be in writing, and the days are calendar days running from the tenant's receipt of it. A copy must also go to a state-funded mediation center before the landlord may file, and if the tenant schedules mediation within the window the wait becomes 20 calendar days from receipt (HRS 521-68).
How much notice is required to evict for a lease violation in Hawaii?
10 days. The notice must be written and must specify the breach and the time allowed to fix it. Hawaii has two ten-day cure provisions, one for breach of a landlord's rule and one for the tenant's maintenance duties under 521-51, and in each the cure window and the earliest termination date are both ten days.
How long does an eviction take in Hawaii?
Roughly 15 days from notice to writ in an uncontested nonpayment case where no mediation is scheduled. That is a statutory floor, not a promise. The return day must fall on a day the district court actually sits, and if the tenant schedules mediation the floor rises to about 25 days.
How long does a tenant have to appeal an eviction judgment in Hawaii?
No eviction-specific deadline — the standard civil appeal window applies (see notes).
Can a landlord change the locks or shut off utilities instead of going to court in Hawaii?
No — Hawaii bars self-help eviction by statute; a landlord must go through the court process. Two express statutes bar it: locking the tenant out overnight without a court order, and cutting off water, electricity, gas or other essential service to force a move-out. A landlord who does either owes the tenant statutory damages on top of losing possession (HRS 521-63(c), 521-74.5).

Statute citations

How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text on the official Hawaii State Legislature site (capitol.hawaii.gov, hrscurrent edition): sections 521-44, 521-21, 521-53, and 521-71 each read twice with character-identical results, and every decisive 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.