Does Hawaii have rent control?

No — Hawaii has no statewide rent control or stabilization. No statewide rent control, and no county has a general rent control 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). One temporary overlay does bite: a proclaimed emergency or a severe-weather warning freezes residential rents in the area it covers (HRS 127A-30). The freeze ends twenty-four hours after a severe-weather warning is canceled, or seventy-two hours after an emergency declaration takes effect unless the governor or mayor continues it in the proclamation or a supplementary proclamation (HRS 127A-30(c)).

Does Hawaii preempt local rent control ordinances?

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).

Can a landlord raise the rent during a fixed-term lease in Hawaii?

Rent is locked for the fixed term as a matter of contract, and no Hawaii statute permits a mid-term increase.

How much notice is required to raise the rent in Hawaii?

Verified October 1, 2026 All Hawaii topics →

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.

Cited to HRS § 521-21 (d), (e) and 4 more cited sources · Verified October 1, 2026

Termination runs on a separate track: a landlord ending a month-to-month tenancy needs 45 days' written notice (the tenant needs only 28), and a termination notice issued to dodge the rent-increase notice duty is void by statute. There are no limits on the size or frequency of increases and no general rent control anywhere in Hawaii, though a retaliation statute bars increases on the heels of tenant complaints or repair requests, and a declared emergency or severe-weather warning temporarily freezes residential rents in the area it covers under HRS 127A-30. Hawaii has no statute preempting county rent control — no county has a general rent control ordinance (county rent limits reach units built under affordable or workforce housing requirements), and a 2026 bill for a statewide 3% cap died in committee.

Hawaii rent increase notice at a glance

Notice — month-to-month	45 days
Varies by increase size	Not addressed by statute
Fixed-term leases	Rent is locked for the fixed term as a matter of contract, and no Hawaii statute permits a mid-term increase. HRS 521-21(d)-(e) governs periodic tenancies only. Bills to require pre-expiration notice of renewal-rent increases (HB 464, 2025-26) died without passage.
Statewide rent control / stabilization	No
Rent control details	No statewide rent control, and no county has a general rent control 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). One temporary overlay does bite: a proclaimed emergency or a severe-weather warning freezes residential rents in the area it covers (HRS 127A-30). The freeze ends twenty-four hours after a severe-weather warning is canceled, or seventy-two hours after an emergency declaration takes effect unless the governor or mayor continues it in the proclamation or a supplementary proclamation (HRS 127A-30(c)). HRS 127A-30 freezes prices of 'commodities', a term expressly defined to include residential dwellings, whenever the governor or a mayor proclaims an emergency or a severe-weather warning issues, which operates as a proclamation-bound rent-increase freeze (documented cost pass-throughs and pre-signed written increases excepted); it also restricts tenancy terminations during the freeze (amended by Act 206 (2024)). A statewide 3% annual rent-increase cap (SB 2539) was introduced in the 2026 session and died in committee at sine die 2026-05-08.
Local rent regulation	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).
Frequency limits	Not addressed by statute

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Hawaii Rent Increase Notice Laws (verified October 1, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/rent-increase-notice/hawaii/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Everything above is cited in the citations section below.

Create a Hawaii rent-increase notice — free, no signup, built on the same verified Hawaii law as this page.

Notes and caveats

45 days is an express statute — and it must be written — 521-21(d) itself requires 'forty-five consecutive days' written notice; it is not a derivation from termination-notice law. The SLH 2017 Act 179 slip law and the official DCCA handbook set out the same requirement.
Don't confuse Hawaii's three 45s — 45 days appears three times: the rent-increase notice (521-21(d)), the landlord's month-to-month termination notice (521-71(a), written), and the tenant's 45-day vacate notice needed to apply the deposit to last month's rent (521-44(b)). The tenant's own month-to-month termination notice is only 28 days (521-71(b)).
Shorter and longer tracks — tenancies shorter than month-to-month take a 15-day rent-increase notice (521-21(e)) and a 10-day termination notice (521-71(d)); demolition, condominium conversion, or conversion to transient vacation rentals takes 120 days (521-71(c)).
Anti-evasion rule — 521-71(f) voids any termination notice initiated to evade the rent-increase notice duty.
Preemption is genuinely unsettled — that's why it isn't a yes or no — no Hawaii statute expressly preempts or authorizes county rent control in either direction. HRS 666-20 (enacted 1943) even preserves county emergency rent-control ordinances against chapter 666, but the county powers it cites (former 62-34(11) and 70-65) are repealed per the revisor's note — and no county has a general rent control ordinance; the county rent limits that exist reach units built under affordable or workforce housing requirements.
Dead bills some 2026 charts print as law — SB 2539 (2026 statewide 3% cap plus first-year increase ban) was never heard; HB 464 (60-day renewal-increase notice and 90/60-day termination tiers) appears in some 2026 charts as if enacted — it is not; HB 693 (increase-increment limits) never advanced; SB 2762 (2024 county rent-ceiling enabling bill) died in 2024. The 2025–26 biennium ended at sine die May 8, 2026.
No frequency limit exists in chapter 521 — chapter 521 contains no limit on how often rent may rise; the blank answer records the statute's silence, not missing information.

Common questions: Hawaii rent increase notice

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 many days' notice must a landlord give before raising rent in Hawaii?: 45 days.
Does Hawaii have rent control?: No — Hawaii has no statewide rent control or stabilization. No statewide rent control, and no county has a general rent control 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). One temporary overlay does bite: a proclaimed emergency or a severe-weather warning freezes residential rents in the area it covers (HRS 127A-30). The freeze ends twenty-four hours after a severe-weather warning is canceled, or seventy-two hours after an emergency declaration takes effect unless the governor or mayor continues it in the proclamation or a supplementary proclamation (HRS 127A-30(c)).
Does Hawaii preempt local rent control ordinances?: 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).
Can a landlord raise the rent during a fixed-term lease in Hawaii?: Rent is locked for the fixed term as a matter of contract, and no Hawaii statute permits a mid-term increase.
How often can a landlord raise the rent in Hawaii?: Not addressed by statute.

Citations

HRS § 521-21 · (d), (e) (verified 2026) Official source
HRS § 521-71 · (a)-(f) (verified 2026) Official source
HRS § 521-74 · (a), (d) (verified 2026) Official source
HRS § 666-20 (verified 2026) Official source
HRS § 127A-30 · (a)-(c) (verified 2026) Official source

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).