Does Hawaii have rent control?

No — Hawaii has no statewide rent control or stabilization. No statewide rent control, and no Hawaii county has adopted rent control. One temporary overlay does bite: a proclaimed emergency or a severe-weather warning freezes residential rents statewide for as long as it lasts (HRS 127A-30).

Does Hawaii preempt local rent control ordinances?

Hawaii has no statute barring counties from regulating rents — state law expressly preserves county rent control ordinances adopted during a declared housing-shortage emergency — but no statute currently grants counties an express rent-control authorization and no Hawaii county regulates rents today.

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 July 11, 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 Hawaii statutes · Verified July 11, 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 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 statewide under HRS 127A-30. Hawaii has no statute preempting county rent control — none of the four counties has adopted any, 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 Hawaii county has adopted rent control. One temporary overlay does bite: a proclaimed emergency or a severe-weather warning freezes residential rents statewide for as long as it lasts (HRS 127A-30). 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 — state law expressly preserves county rent control ordinances adopted during a declared housing-shortage emergency — but no statute currently grants counties an express rent-control authorization and no Hawaii county regulates rents today.
Frequency limits	Not addressed by statute

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Hawaii Rent Increase Notice Laws (verified July 11, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/rent-increase-notice/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.

Create a Hawaii rent-increase notice — free, no signup, built on the same verified Hawaii rules 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 Hawaii county has rent control today.
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 Hawaii county has adopted rent control. One temporary overlay does bite: a proclaimed emergency or a severe-weather warning freezes residential rents statewide for as long as it lasts (HRS 127A-30).
Does Hawaii preempt local rent control ordinances?: Hawaii has no statute barring counties from regulating rents — state law expressly preserves county rent control ordinances adopted during a declared housing-shortage emergency — but no statute currently grants counties an express rent-control authorization and no Hawaii county regulates rents today.
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.

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 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.