Hawaii Landlord-Tenant Law for DIY Landlords (2026)

Security deposits, the 8 percent late fee cap, 45-day notices, the 5-business-day rent demand and the eviction timeline in Hawaii, in plain English for landlords who manage their own rentals.

Last updated September 23, 2026

Hawaii runs most of its rental rules through one statute, the Residential Landlord-Tenant Code at HRS chapter 521. Evictions run through a second one, summary possession at HRS chapter 666. The deadlines are short and several of them are shorter than what mainland landlords expect.

Here is what a small landlord in Hawaii has to get right, with the section behind each rule.

Security deposits

The cap is one month's rent. A landlord can require a security deposit of no more than one month's rent (HRS § 521-44).

A pet deposit can add one more month. You can agree on an extra amount to cover damage from a pet, capped at one additional month's rent. An assistance animal does not count as a pet for this (§ 521-44).

You can't stack anything else on top. At the start of a tenancy you may collect the first month's rent and the deposit, and nothing more. Postdated checks for rent are out too (§ 521-44).

What the deposit covers. Unpaid rent, damage beyond the tenant's normal use, unreturned keys, cleaning the unit back to the condition the tenant received it in, pet damage, and unpaid utilities you supplied (§ 521-44).

You have 14 days. After the rental agreement ends you have fourteen days to return the deposit or to send written notice of what you kept. That notice has to give the particulars and the grounds, backed by written evidence of the costs, meaning estimates, invoices or receipts (§ 521-44).

Miss the 14 days and you owe all of it. No timely notice with evidence means the entire deposit goes back (§ 521-44).

Withhold it wrongfully and it gets expensive. A tenant can recover the amount plus the cost of suit. Retain it wrongfully and willfully and the tenant can recover three times the sum wrongfully withheld, plus costs (§ 521-44).

There is no state requirement that a Hawaii landlord hold deposits in a separate escrow or trust account. That duty falls on licensed brokers under their own rules, covered in the companion guide on switching managers.

Late fees

Eight per cent is the ceiling. If your rental agreement provides for a late charge, it cannot exceed eight per cent of the amount of rent due (§ 521-21). Hawaii is one of the few states with a hard number here, so check your lease template against it.

The code sets no grace period. The fee has to be in the written agreement to be charged at all.

Rent increases and rent control

Forty-five days' written notice on a month-to-month. You cannot raise the rent on a month-to-month tenancy without written notice given forty-five consecutive days before the increase takes effect (§ 521-21). On a fixed-term lease the rent is what the lease says until it ends.

Hawaii sets no cap on the size of an increase, and no county currently limits residential rents. Chapter 666 does contemplate county rent control ordinances tied to a declared housing emergency, and the enabling sections it points to have since been repealed (§ 666-20). Check your county before you assume.

Entering the unit

Two days' notice. Give the tenant at least two days notice before entering, and enter only during reasonable hours. Emergencies are the exception, as is a situation where notice is impracticable. You cannot abuse the right of access or use it to harass (§ 521-53).

Outside those rules, your only route in is a court order or an abandoned unit (§ 521-53).

Ending a month-to-month tenancy

You give 45 days. The tenant gives 28. A landlord terminates a month-to-month tenancy with at least forty-five days' written notice. A tenant needs twenty-eight days (§ 521-71).

Make it 120 days for a conversion. Plans to demolish, to convert to a condominium property regime, or to convert the unit to a transient vacation rental push the notice out to one hundred twenty days (§ 521-71, § 521-38).

A holdover has a price, and a clock. A tenant who stays past termination without your consent can owe up to twice the monthly rent, figured daily. File for summary possession within sixty days, or a month-to-month tenancy at the old rent takes hold again (§ 521-71).

When rent isn't paid

Serve written notice demanding payment and stating that the rental agreement ends if the tenant does not pay. The time you give in the notice has to be at least five business days after the tenant receives it. If the tenant cannot be served in person, the notice can be posted on the dwelling unit (§ 521-68).

For a breach other than rent, the notice has to give the tenant at least ten days to fix the problem, and you then have thirty days to bring the summary possession case. Conduct that damages or threatens a person skips the cure period (§ 521-72).

An oral tenancy that has not been terminated any other way takes a notice to quit of at least ten days (§ 666-1).

The eviction timeline

Notice. Five business days for rent, ten days to cure most other breaches, forty-five days to end a month-to-month (§ 521-68, § 521-72, § 521-71).
File. Summary possession goes in the district court for the circuit where the property sits (§ 666-6).
Serve. The tenant is served with the complaint and summons (§ 666-8).
Return day. The court sets the return day under its rules, and the case is heard from there (§ 666-9).
Judgment and writ. Win, and you get judgment for possession and costs, and a writ directing a sheriff, police officer or independent civil process server to remove everyone and put you back in possession (§ 666-11, § 666-12).

Two things that can interrupt it. A tenant in a nonpayment case can stop the writ by paying the rent due, interest at eight per cent a year, costs, charges and a reasonable attorney fee, any time before the writ actually issues (§ 666-14). And either side can ask the court to order disputed rent paid into a rent trust fund during the case (§ 666-21).

Repairs and habitability

You have to keep the unit up to applicable building and housing codes affecting health and safety, keep common areas clean and safe, make the repairs that keep the place livable, and keep electrical, plumbing and supplied appliances working (§ 521-42). Before the tenant moves in, prepare a written inventory of the condition of the unit and have both sides sign it (§ 521-42).

Tenants can repair and deduct. After written notice, a tenant can have work done and deduct the cost. The limits run from $500 to the greater of $500 or one month's rent depending on the defect, with the six-month total capped at three months' rent (§ 521-64).

A locked-out tenant collects. Remove or exclude a tenant overnight without cause or court authority and the tenant can recover possession or end the agreement, and either way collect two months' rent or two months of free occupancy, plus costs and attorney fees (§ 521-63).

No retaliation. You cannot evict, raise rent or cut services in retaliation for a good-faith complaint about code violations or a repair request. A tenant dispossessed in violation of this recovers damages, costs and reasonable attorney fees (§ 521-74).

The short version

Deposit capped at one month's rent, plus up to one month more for a pet
Fourteen days to return it or to send an itemised statement with written evidence
Late fees capped at 8 per cent of the rent due, and only if the lease says so
45 days' written notice to raise rent on a month-to-month
2 days' notice before you enter
45 days from you to end a month-to-month, 28 from the tenant
5 business days on a rent demand, 10 days to cure most other breaches

Let Taz handle the paperwork

Taz is an AI property manager for landlords who would rather not live in the code books. It tracks the 14-day deposit clock, sends rent reminders, takes maintenance requests day and night, and keeps the records a Hawaii district court would ask for. See how Taz works.

Where this guide says a state has no rule on something, that means we found no statute setting one, which is not the same as none existing. Local ordinances and court practice can add requirements. Confirm anything you plan to rely on.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Laws change, and your county may add rules. Talk to a Hawaii attorney before acting on a specific situation. Last checked September 2026.