Hawaii Landlord-Tenant Laws

Verified October 1, 2026 Correction October 2, 2026

Hawaii at a glance

Rule	Hawaii	Cited to
Max security deposit	1 month's rent	HRS § 521-44 +5 more
Deposit return deadline	14 days	HRS § 521-44 +5 more
Rent-increase notice (month-to-month)	45 days	HRS § 521-21 +4 more
Statewide rent control / rent cap	No	HRS § 521-21 +4 more
Late-fee cap	8% of the amount of rent due (HRS 521-21(f))	HRS § 521-21 +3 more
Entry notice	2 days	HRS § 521-53 +3 more
Eviction notice (nonpayment)	10 days	HRS 521-3 +34 more
Application fee cap	No dollar cap, but the fee may cover only the costs of obtaining information about the applicant.	HRS 521-46 +15 more
Interest owed on deposits	No — no statute addresses it	HRS § 521-44 (security deposits — the commingling and creditor-priority sentence) +1 more
Repair deadline after tenant notice	12 days	HRS § 521-3 (supplementary principles of law and equity) +12 more
Repair and deduct	Yes — authorized by statute	HRS § 521-3 (supplementary principles of law and equity) +12 more
Landlord notice to end a month-to-month tenancy	45 days, from delivery	HRS § 521-71 +18 more
Owner and agent identity disclosure	Required — in the lease, in a separate writing, by posting, or on request	Haw. Rev. Stat. § 521-8 (definitions) +34 more
In-force state hazard disclosures beyond the federal lead-paint rule	None in force	Haw. Rev. Stat. § 521-8 (definitions) +34 more
Pet deposit	Capped	HRS § 521-44 +14 more
Assistance animals: the state instrument	Documentation statute or rule	HRS § 521-44 +14 more

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Hawaii Landlord-Tenant Laws (verified October 1, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/hawaii/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Every figure above is cited to the Hawaii statute it comes from on the linked topic page.

Local rent regulation in Hawaii

Hawaii has no statute barring counties from regulating rents. Counties hold a broad delegated power to regulate the renting, subletting, and rental conditions of places of abode by ordinance (HRS § 46-1.5(20)), and state law separately preserves county rent control ordinances adopted during a declared housing-shortage emergency (HRS § 666-20). No statute grants counties an authorization that names rent amounts. No county has a general rent control or rent stabilization ordinance; the county rent limits that exist reach units built under affordable or workforce housing requirements (for example, Maui County Code § 2.96.070, Kauai County Code § 7A-4.3 and Hawaii County Code § 11-11).

Cited to Haw. Rev. Stat. § 46-1.5(20) (general county power over renting and rental conditions) , Haw. Rev. Stat. § 666-20 (rent control ordinances savings clause) · Verified October 1, 2026 · Full Hawaii rent-increase rules →

Hawaii landlord-tenant laws by topic

Hawaii security deposits

Hawaii caps security deposits at one month's rent — plus, since November 1, 2013, a separate pet deposit of up to one more month's rent for tenants with a pet (never for assistance animals) — and the landlord must return the deposit within 14 days after the rental agreement ends.

Hawaii rent increase notice

Hawaii landlords must give at least 45 consecutive days' written notice before raising the rent on a month-to-month tenancy — an express statutory rule in HRS 521-21(d), not a derivation from termination notice — and 15 days' written notice for tenancies shorter than month-to-month.

Hawaii late fees

Hawaii caps residential late fees at 8% of the amount of rent due, and the cap applies to a late charge the rental agreement provides for (HRS 521-21(f)).

Hawaii entry notice

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).

Hawaii eviction process

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.

Hawaii application & screening fees

Hawaii regulates rental application fees directly: a landlord or the landlord's agent may charge an application screening fee, but only to cover the cost of obtaining information about the applicant, and only from an applicant who is eighteen or older or an emancipated minor.

Hawaii deposit interest

Hawaii does not require landlords to pay tenants interest on a security deposit, and it does not require the deposit to be held apart either — its statute expressly contemplates that deposits are mixed with other money.

Hawaii habitability & repairs

Hawaii law requires a landlord to make all repairs necessary to put and keep a rented home in habitable condition and to comply with all applicable building and housing laws materially affecting health and safety.

Hawaii lease termination

A Hawaii landlord ends a month-to-month tenancy on 45 days' written notice and the tenant on 28, one of the few states where the two periods differ on purpose, and neither may be shortened by the lease.

Hawaii lease disclosures

A Hawaii landlord must tell the tenant in writing, at or before the tenancy begins, who manages the building and who owns it, with an address for each, and must make a written move-in inventory of the premises and of any furnishings and appliances, signed by both sides with a copy to each tenant, before the tenant moves in.

Hawaii pets & assistance animals

A Hawaii landlord may take an ordinary security deposit of up to one month's rent and, on top of it, a pet deposit of up to one more month's rent.

Hawaii mobile home park laws

Hawaii has no manufactured-home or mobile-home community tenancy act, and its Residential Landlord-Tenant Code, HRS chapter 521, reaches the rental of a dwelling unit, meaning a structure used as a home, rather than the rental of a bare lot to someone who owns the home standing on it.

Hawaii Fair Market Rents (FY 2027) — HUD's benchmark rents for every Hawaii metro area and county.

Editable Hawaii deposit kit · Editable Hawaii disclosure packet — editable documents built on the verified Hawaii rules on this page, in Word, fillable PDF and Excel.

Changes since last full verification

The Verified date above (October 1, 2026) marks the last time every figure on this page was verified end-to-end against official sources. The changes below were published since then, each verified against the official source it names (what these dates mean).

Correction, October 2, 2026 — Notice periods now print in the unit each statute uses (correction). Entry notice: the statutes of Alabama, Arizona, Hawaii, Kentucky, Rhode Island and Washington say two days and Oklahoma's says one day, and those pages show days; Delaware's and Vermont's say 48 hours, and their pages, which had shown 2 days, now show 48 hours. Eviction notice for unpaid rent: California, Florida and Utah give three days that leave out Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays, and their pages now show 3 business days, as does California's lease-violation notice; Nevada's shows 7 judicial days; Alabama's two notices show 7 business days. Each statute was read on its official site on October 1, 2026. No period changed.

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 section the security deposit, rent increase, late fee or entry answers rest on; 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. On October 1, 2026 every section the security deposit, rent increase, late fee, entry and eviction answers rest on was read again on capitol.hawaii.gov. The pages served that day carry the 2025 session, including Act 278 of 2025 in section 521-68, and not the 2026 session; the 2026 act list and the Legislative Reference Bureau's list of bills passed show no 2026 act touching chapter 521, chapter 666 or section 127A-30. Also read: sections 633-27 and 603-1, the District Court Rules of Civil Procedure (amended through July 6, 2026) and Rule 4 of the Hawaii Rules of Appellate Procedure on courts.state.hi.us, and the four county codes for rent regulation (Honolulu, 2026 S-11 supplement; Maui, through Ordinance 5980; Kauai, through Ordinance 1192; Hawaii County, 2016 edition as amended).