Free Hawaii Residential Lease Agreement

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A configurable Hawaii residential lease agreement that generates a signable multi-page PDF. Built to the Hawaii Residential Landlord-Tenant Code — the one-month deposit cap with its separate pet deposit, the 14-day return, and the 45-day landlord / 28-day tenant termination notice.

Hawaii HRS Chapter 521 45 / 28 Day Notice Free PDF 2026 Edition

A Hawaii residential lease agreement is the written contract governed by the Hawaii Residential Landlord-Tenant Code at HRS chapter 521. Hawaii is not a uniform-act state: chapter 521 is its own 1972 code, and four of its rules are reported wrongly almost everywhere. Termination notice is asymmetric — forty-five days from the landlord under HRS 521-71(a), twenty-eight days from the tenant under HRS 521-71(b). The security deposit is capped at one month’s rent under HRS 521-44(b), but a separate pet-animal deposit of up to another month sits on top of it, and nothing else at all may be collected at the start of the tenancy. The fourteen-day deadline in HRS 521-44(c) is not just a refund clock: miss the written notice and the landlord forfeits the whole deposit. And since 5 February 2026 the nonpayment notice under HRS 521-68 has been ten calendar days with mandatory pre-litigation mediation, not the five business days every competing template still publishes.

Complete the fields below to generate a Hawaii residential lease agreement as a signable multi-page PDF. Every field you fill is written into the document, including the island, the utility allocations and each disclosure you check, and the generated lease cites the controlling section of HRS chapter 521 at each point. Before handing over keys, run proper tenant screening — the lease governs the relationship, screening decides whether you want it. Pair the signed lease with a Hawaii move-in / move-out checklist, which is how the statutory inventory under HRS 521-42 actually gets made.

Hawaii recognizes the usual range of residential arrangements, and HRS 521-22 sets the default: the landlord and tenant may agree in writing to any period as the term, and in the absence of such an agreement the tenancy is month to month, or week to week in the case of boarders. So a Hawaii tenancy with no written term is not a legal void; it is a periodic tenancy with the notice periods that follow from it.

A fixed-term lease runs for a stated period and expires on its own terms. A periodic tenancy renews each period until one side gives notice — forty-five days from the landlord, twenty-eight from the tenant, or ten days either way where the tenancy is less than month to month. A sublease passes the tenant’s interest to a subtenant, and in Hawaii the tenant may enter one without consent unless the written agreement says otherwise. A roommate arrangement may make the occupant a “roomer or boarder” under HRS 521-8, which has its own definition: a unit lacking at least one major bathroom or kitchen facility, in a building where such facilities are shared, and in a building in which the landlord resides.

Several arrangements sit outside chapter 521 entirely. HRS 521-7 lists thirteen exclusions, and three of them matter in Hawaii more than elsewhere: transient occupancy on a day-to-day basis in a hotel or motel, occupancy in university or qualifying private dorm housing, and — the one that surprises people — a lease of improved residential land for a term of fifteen years or more. Hawaii’s long residential ground leases are therefore not governed by the Code at all. Occupancy under a bona fide contract of sale, occupancy by a seller after transfer, homeless facilities, transitional facilities for abused family members and Hawaii public housing authority property are also excluded. A commercial lease is outside the Code by definition.

One drafting note that applies to every category: HRS 521-43(d) requires the landlord to furnish the tenant a copy of the written lease. A lease that exists only in the landlord’s file does not satisfy it, and under HRS 521-67 a failure to comply with any HRS 521-43 requirement, uncured within ten days of proper demand, makes the landlord liable for one hundred dollars plus reasonable attorney’s fees.

One month’s rent — plus a separate pet-animal deposit of up to one more month. HRS 521-44(b) allows the landlord to require, as a condition of the rental agreement, a security deposit for the purposes listed in HRS 521-44(a) “and no others,” in an amount not in excess of a sum equal to one month’s rent, plus an amount agreed by the parties to compensate the landlord for damage caused by a pet animal allowed to reside in the premises.

That structure is what template summaries flatten. A flat statement that Hawaii caps the deposit at one month understates what a landlord may lawfully collect where a pet is allowed; a statement that the pet money comes out of the one month overstates the tenant’s protection. The statute reads them as two distinct amounts. The pet-animal deposit carries two express limits of its own: it shall not be required from any tenant who does not have a pet animal residing in the premises, and it shall not be required for an assistance animal that is a reasonable accommodation for a tenant with a disability under HRS 515-3. It is also capped, independently, at one month’s rent. Our Hawaii pet and assistance animal rules cover the accommodation side.

What the deposit may be used for is closed-ended. HRS 521-44(a) lists five purposes: remedying tenant defaults for accidental or intentional damage from a failure to comply with HRS 521-51; failure to pay rent due; failure to return all keys, including key fobs, parking cards, garage door openers and mail box keys; cleaning the unit to as fit a condition as when the tenant took possession; compensating for damage caused by a tenant who wrongfully quits; compensating for pet-animal damage; and covering money owed for utility service the landlord provided but did not include in the rent. Anything outside that list is not a deposit purpose. The key-fob language was added in 2015 and is unusually specific — which is why the form above asks you to itemize what was issued.

No. The closing sentence of HRS 521-44(b) is the one most often skipped: “The landlord may not require or receive from or on behalf of a tenant at the beginning of a rental agreement any money other than the money for the first month’s rent and a security deposit as provided in this section.”

The practice of collecting first month, last month and a deposit — routine on the mainland and permitted in several states — is not available in Hawaii. There is a narrow exception, and it runs the other way: no part of the security deposit is construed as payment of the last month’s rent unless the landlord and tenant mutually agree in writing, and then only if the tenant gives forty-five days’ notice of vacating. Entering that agreement does not waive the landlord’s right to pursue legal remedies for damage the tenant causes.

Two further rules sit in the same section and are worth knowing before signing. Under HRS 521-44(e) the landlord shall not require the delivery of any postdated check or other negotiable instrument to be used for payment of rent. And under HRS 521-44(f), where the landlord transfers the property, the original landlord must give the successor an accounting of deposits at or before the transfer and the successor must notify each tenant of the credited amount within twenty days — failing which the tenant is presumed to have paid a deposit of no less than one month’s rent at the original rate, and the successor is bound by that figure. The tenant’s claim to the deposit also ranks ahead of the landlord’s creditors, including a trustee in bankruptcy, even where deposits are commingled.

Fourteen days after termination of the rental agreement, under HRS 521-44(c) — and the deadline does far more work than a refund clock.

If the landlord proposes to retain any amount, the landlord must notify the tenant in writing within those fourteen days, “together with the particulars of and grounds for the retention, including written evidence of the costs of remedying tenant defaults, such as estimates or invoices for material and services or of the costs of cleaning, such as receipts for supplies and equipment or charges for cleaning services.” Estimates or invoices, not an assertion.

Then comes the consequence that separates Hawaii from most states: if the landlord does not furnish that written notice and information within fourteen days, the landlord is not entitled to retain the deposit or any part of it, and must return the entire amount. Not a reduced retention, not a penalty on top — the right to retain is gone. A landlord with a genuinely damaged unit who simply misses the notice ends up returning the whole deposit and suing separately for the damage.

Compliance is presumptively proven if the return or the written notice is mailed to an address the tenant supplied, with acceptable proof of mailing, postmarked before midnight of the fourteenth day after termination, or if the tenant acknowledges receipt within the fourteen-day limit. Actions for the recovery of a landlord’s complete or partial retention must be instituted not later than one year after termination of the rental agreement. Build the itemization with our Hawaii security deposit itemization form and send it with a Hawaii deposit return letter. The deeper treatment lives in our Hawaii security deposit laws guide.

HRS 521-44(g) sends the dispute to the small claims division of the district court under chapter 633, and HRS 521-44(h) then sets three outcomes and one procedural rule that catches everyone by surprise.

Where the court determines that the landlord wrongfully and wilfully retained a deposit or part of one, it may award the tenant damages equal to three times the amount wrongfully and wilfully retained, plus the cost of suit. Where the retention was wrongful but not wilful, the court shall award the amount retained plus the cost of suit. Where the landlord was entitled to retain, the court shall award the landlord the disputed amount plus costs — so the risk runs both ways.

The procedural rule is HRS 521-44(h)(4): in any such action, neither the landlord nor the tenant may be represented by an attorney, including salaried employees of either party. A property management company cannot send in-house counsel. The dispute is designed to be argued by the people who lived it, on the documents — which is precisely why the written inventory and the itemized notice matter so much.

One related trap sits in HRS 521-44(d): a tenant absent from the dwelling unit for a continuous period of twenty days or more without written notice to the landlord is deemed to have wrongfully quit, and the landlord may then retain the entire deposit. The tenant is not treated as absent during any period for which the landlord has received rent, so a tenant who travels and keeps paying is safe; a tenant who goes quiet and stops paying is not.

Because HRS 521-42 makes it a landlord duty, and omitting it hands the tenant a presumption. Prior to the date of initial occupancy the landlord “shall inventory the premises and make a written record detailing the condition of the premises and any furnishings or appliances provided.” Duplicate copies are signed by both parties, and a copy is given to each tenant.

Two consequences follow directly from the statute. In any action arising under the section, the executed copy of the inventory is presumed to be correct — a signed move-in record is close to conclusive. And if the landlord fails to make the inventory, “the condition of the premises and any furnishings or appliances provided, upon the termination of the tenancy shall be rebuttably presumed to be the same as when the tenant first occupied the premises.”

The Hawaii appellate courts have applied that presumption exactly as written. In a 2006 decision reported at 112 Hawaii 302, a landlord who had not produced the required inventory was held to the presumption, and because no evidence was presented to rebut it, the trial court’s damages award for property damage was improper. The inventory is not paperwork hygiene; it is the evidentiary foundation of every deduction the landlord will ever want to make. The Hawaii move-in / move-out checklist is the practical form of it.

Four under HRS 521-43, one more under HRS 521-42, and one federal — and two of them exist nowhere else in the United States.

Manager and owner identification — HRS 521-43(a). In writing, at or before the commencement of the tenancy, the name and address of each person authorized to manage the premises, and of each person who is an owner or is authorized to act for the owner for service of process and for receiving and receipting for rents, notices and demands. The information must be kept current and is enforceable against any successor landlord, owner or manager. A person who fails to comply becomes, by operation of HRS 521-43(b), the agent of each landlord for service of process and for performing the landlord’s obligations — a real consequence, not a nominal one.

General excise tax number — HRS 521-43(h). “Landlords shall provide their general excise tax number to all tenants for the purpose of filing for a low-income tax credit.” Hawaii’s low-income renter’s credit requires the tenant to identify the landlord’s GET number, so the disclosure exists to make the credit claimable. It is a genuinely Hawaii-only lease disclosure, and no template written for a mainland state carries the field.

On-island agent — HRS 521-43(f). Any owner or landlord who resides outside the State, or on another island from where the rental unit is located, shall designate on the written rental agreement an agent residing on the same island as the unit to act on the owner’s behalf. For an oral agreement the information must be supplied on demand in a written statement. Because it must appear on the agreement itself, this is one of the few disclosures a lease template can actually fail on its face.

Copy of the agreement and rent receipts — HRS 521-43(d) and (e). The landlord must furnish a copy of the written lease to the tenant, and must furnish a written receipt for rents paid at the time of payment. Cancelled checks also satisfy the receipt requirement, and where rent is paid by check the landlord must furnish a receipt if the tenant requests one. In a multi-unit building, HRS 521-43(g) allows the identification information to be posted conspicuously instead — in every elevator and one other conspicuous place, in at least two conspicuous places where there is no elevator, or within the unit in a multi-unit dwelling structure.

Written inventory of condition — HRS 521-42. Covered above. It is not in the disclosure section, which is exactly why it is the item most often missed.

Lead-based paint — federal, 42 U.S.C. 4852d. Any dwelling built before 1978 requires the federal disclosure, the EPA pamphlet, and any known records or reports. Our Hawaii lead-based paint disclosure form handles it.

Hawaii does not require a radon, flood-zone, bed bug, mold, asbestos, methamphetamine, ordnance, demolition or sex-offender registry disclosure in a residential lease. That first one deserves a flat statement, because several AI-generated guides now assert a Hawaii flood-zone lease disclosure: HRS 521-43 has eight subsections and none of them mentions flooding, and no other section of chapter 521 creates one. Hawaii goes the other way on one point that other states regulate heavily — HRS 521-85(j) states expressly that a landlord has no obligation to disclose the death of a tenant, or a history of deaths in a rented unit, to a prospective tenant.

Two days — and only during reasonable hours. HRS 521-53(b) says the landlord “shall not abuse this right of access nor use it to harass the tenant,” and then: “Except in case of emergency or where impracticable to do so, the landlord shall give the tenant at least two days notice of the landlord’s intent to enter and shall enter only during reasonable hours.” Both halves are statutory. Coverage that reports Hawaii as a twenty-four-hour state is simply wrong, and coverage that reports the two days without the hours limit reports half the rule.

The tenant’s side is HRS 521-53(a): the tenant shall not unreasonably withhold consent to entry to inspect the premises, make necessary or agreed repairs, decorations, alterations or improvements, supply services as agreed, or exhibit the unit to prospective purchasers, mortgagees or tenants. But HRS 521-53(c) then closes the door on everything else: the landlord “shall have no other right of entry, except by court order, unless the tenant appears to have abandoned the premises, or as permitted by section 521-70(b)” — entry during an extended absence as reasonably necessary for inspection, maintenance and safe-keeping.

HRS 521-73 supplies the remedies, and they are sharper than most states’. The tenant is liable for damage caused by an unreasonable refusal of access. The landlord is liable for theft, casualty or other damage proximately caused by an entry made after the tenant refused consent to that specific entry while absent, or made without actual consent while the tenant was present and able to consent, or otherwise caused by the landlord’s negligence. On repeated demands for unreasonable entry, the tenant may treat the conduct as grounds for terminating the lease, a circuit court judge may issue an injunction, and the court may assess a fine of up to one hundred dollars. And HRS 521-73(d) makes void every agreement purporting to exempt the landlord from liability under the section, except a tenant’s consent to a particular entry — so a broad “landlord may enter at will” clause is not merely unenforceable, it is void. Serve entry notices with our Hawaii notice to enter, and see Hawaii landlord entry laws.

For unpaid rent, ten calendar days — and mediation. This is the single most out-of-date figure on the Hawaii template SERP. Act 278 of the 2025 session laws repealed and reenacted HRS 521-68 with effect from 5 February 2026. The official statute page carries both versions, each with a bracketed effectivity note; the five-business-day text is marked as effective only until 4 February 2026.

Under the current section, the landlord may at any time after rent is due demand payment and notify the tenant in writing that unless payment is made within a time stated in the notice, not less than ten calendar days after receipt, the rental agreement will be terminated. Notice posted conspicuously on the unit is deemed received on the date of posting. Notice mailed, properly addressed with appropriate postage, is deemed received two business days after the postmark unless returned undeliverable.

The notice is now a prescribed document. HRS 521-68(b) requires eight items: the landlord’s or agent’s name and contact details; the address of the unit; the name and contact information of all tenants on the agreement; 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 for summary possession if rent is unpaid and mediation is not scheduled within ten calendar days; a bold-typeface warning in substantially the statutory form; and notice that the landlord will engage in mediation if it is scheduled. The judiciary publishes a compliant form.

Then the mediation layer. The landlord must send the notice to a state-funded mediation center offering free residential landlord-tenant mediation. If the center schedules mediation within the ten-day window and the tenant participates, the landlord may only file summary possession after twenty calendar days from the tenant’s receipt of the notice — unless the tenant fails to appear or cancels. Mediation must take place within thirty days of the center contacting both sides, and may be remote, in person, or both. Each side bears its own costs, except that a tenant who defaults on a mediated agreement or fails to attend lets the landlord request costs including reasonable attorney’s fees. A defect in the notice that the court finds unintentional or immaterial may be cured without dismissal. Our Hawaii pay-rent-or-quit notice and Hawaii late rent notice sit at the front of that sequence.

For other breaches, two separate ten-day tracks. HRS 521-69 covers material noncompliance with the tenant’s maintenance duties in HRS 521-51: written notice allowing not less than ten days to remedy, after which the landlord may terminate and bring summary possession for a material noncompliance with HRS 521-51(1), or may remedy the failure and bill the actual and reasonable cost as rent due on the next collection date. HRS 521-72 covers breach of a rule authorized under HRS 521-52: a written notice in substantially the statutory form allowing not less than ten days, and if the breach continues or recurs the landlord may bring summary possession within thirty days of the continued or recurring breach. Neither track requires time to remedy where the breach causes or threatens damage to a person, or violates HRS 521-51(1) or (6), or threatens irremediable damage. Use our Hawaii notice to cure or quit or, for conduct with no cure right, the Hawaii unconditional quit notice, and see Hawaii eviction notice laws.

Forty-five days from the landlord, twenty-eight days from the tenant. The asymmetry is set by two separate subsections of HRS 521-71 and it is the Hawaii figure competing templates most often flatten into a single number.

HRS 521-71(a): where the tenancy is month to month, the landlord may terminate by notifying the tenant, in writing, at least forty-five days in advance of the anticipated termination. There is a tenant-side consequence built into the same subsection: once the landlord gives that notice, the tenant may vacate at any time within the last forty-five days of the period between notification and the termination date, provided the tenant notifies the landlord of the vacating date and pays prorated rent for that period of occupation. A tenant given a forty-five-day notice is not obliged to sit out the full period.

HRS 521-71(b): where the tenancy is month to month, the tenant may terminate by notifying the landlord, in writing, at least twenty-eight days in advance, and is responsible for the payment of rent through the twenty-eighth day. Twenty-eight, not thirty, and not forty-five. Use the Hawaii tenant notice to vacate for the tenant side and the Hawaii notice of non-renewal for the landlord side.

HRS 521-71(c) adds a much longer period for three specific purposes. Before a landlord terminates a month-to-month tenancy where the landlord contemplates voluntary demolition of the dwelling units, conversion to a condominium property regime under chapter 514B, or changing the use of the building to transient vacation rentals, the landlord shall provide notice at least one hundred twenty days in advance. If the notice is revoked, or amended and reissued, the notice period begins again from the date of reissue or amendment — a rule the Hawaii Supreme Court addressed as early as 1980. The transient-vacation-rental limb is a Hawaii-specific answer to a Hawaii-specific pressure, and HRS 521-38 imposes the same one hundred twenty days for a contemplated condominium conversion.

HRS 521-71(d): where the tenancy is less than month to month, either party may terminate on at least ten days notice. And HRS 521-71(f) voids any notice of termination initiated for the purpose of evading the landlord’s obligations under HRS 521-21(d) or (e) — that is, a landlord cannot use a termination notice to sidestep the rent-increase notice periods. See Hawaii lease termination laws and, for the tenant’s side, Hawaii breaking-lease laws.

HRS 521-71(e) prices a holdover daily, not monthly. Where the term expires by passage of time, mutual agreement, notice under subsection (a), (b), (c) or (d), or the landlord’s exercise of a right to terminate, and the tenant continues in possession after the termination date without the landlord’s consent, the tenant may be liable for a sum not to exceed twice the monthly rent under the previous rental agreement, computed and prorated on a daily basis, for each day the tenant remains in possession. Three days of holdover costs three days at the doubled daily rate, not two months’ rent.

The landlord’s window is finite, and this is the half landlords miss. The landlord may bring a summary proceeding for recovery of possession at any time during the first sixty days of holdover. “Should the landlord fail to commence summary possession proceedings within the first sixty days of the holdover, in the absence of a rental agreement, a month-to-month tenancy at the monthly rent stipulated in the previous rental agreement shall prevail beginning at the end of the first sixty days of holdover.” Sit on a holdover for two months and Hawaii hands the occupant a fresh periodic tenancy at the old rent — after which ending it takes a forty-five-day notice all over again.

Hawaii sets no cap on the amount of a rent increase, but it sets firm notice periods. HRS 521-21(d): where the tenancy is from month to month, rent shall not be increased without written notice given forty-five consecutive days prior to the effective date of the increase. HRS 521-21(e): where the tenancy is less than month to month, fifteen consecutive days. “Consecutive” is the statute’s word, and the notice must be written. Serve it with our Hawaii rent increase notice; the surrounding rules are in Hawaii rent increase laws.

The late-charge rule is one of the few hard percentage caps in American landlord-tenant law. HRS 521-21(f): “Where the rental agreement provides for a late charge payable to the landlord for rent not paid when due, the late charge shall not exceed 8% of the amount of rent due.” Two conditions, both load-bearing: the rental agreement must provide for the charge at all, and the charge may not exceed eight per cent of the rent due. There is no statutory grace period, so a lease that wants one must create it. See Hawaii late fee laws.

HRS 521-21 also carries a public-assistance provision most summaries omit. Where a rental agreement with a public assistance recipient requires rent to be paid on or before the third day after the day the assistance check is usually received, the tenant has the option of establishing a new due date by making a one-time bridging payment, calculated by dividing the monthly rental by thirty and multiplying by the number of days between the original and new due dates. The new date may not exceed by more than three days, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, the date on which checks are mailed.

Finally, HRS 521-74 constrains increases in a way that has nothing to do with amount. While a tenant continues to tender the usual rent, a landlord may not demand a rent increase after the tenant complained in good faith to the department of health, the landlord, a building department, the office of consumer protection or another agency; after such an agency filed a notice or complaint; or after the tenant requested repairs in good faith under HRS 521-63 or 521-64. HRS 521-74(d) then lists five express escapes — among them a health-department certification of compliance, a substantial increase in property taxes or operating costs incurred at least four months before the demand, a completed capital improvement priced at straight-line depreciation, and evidence that the new rent does not exceed what comparable tenants pay.

HRS 521-42(a) puts six duties on the landlord at all times during the tenancy: comply with all applicable building and housing laws materially affecting health and safety; keep common areas of a multi-dwelling unit premises clean and safe; make all repairs and arrangements necessary to put and keep the premises in a habitable condition; maintain all electrical, plumbing and other facilities and appliances supplied by the landlord in good working order, subject to reasonable wear and tear; and — except in the case of a single family residence — provide and maintain receptacles for rubbish and garbage with frequent removal, and provide for the supplying of running water as reasonably required by the tenant. Those last two carve-outs are why the form asks for property type. See Hawaii habitability laws.

Duty-shifting is permitted but fenced. HRS 521-42(b) allows the parties to agree that the tenant performs specified repairs, maintenance tasks and minor remodeling only if the agreement is entered into in good faith and not for the purpose of evading the landlord’s obligations, the work is not necessary to cure a noncompliance with HRS 521-42(a)(1), and the agreement does not diminish the landlord’s obligations to other tenants.

HRS 521-51 sets the tenant’s eight duties: comply with building and housing laws materially affecting health and safety; keep the occupied part as clean and safe as its condition permits; dispose of rubbish, garbage and other organic or flammable waste cleanly and safely; keep plumbing fixtures as clean as their condition permits; properly use and operate electrical and plumbing fixtures and appliances; not wilfully destroy, deface, damage, impair or remove any part of the premises nor permit anyone else to; keep the unit and everything the landlord supplied in fit condition, reasonable wear and tear excepted; and comply with lawful obligations and restrictions under HRS 521-52. HRS 521-55 adds a reporting duty: any defective condition the tenant believes is unknown to the landlord and is the landlord’s duty to repair must be reported as soon as practicable.

Repair and deduct — HRS 521-64 — runs on three different clocks. On written notification from the department of health or another state or county agency of a health or safety violation, the landlord must commence repairs within seven calendar days. On the tenant’s written notification of a defective condition in material noncompliance with HRS 521-42(a) or the agreement, within twelve business days. But for repairs to electrical, plumbing or other facilities, including major appliances the landlord supplied, that are necessary to provide sanitary and habitable living conditions, the landlord must commence within three business days of oral or written notification. Where the landlord cannot start in time for reasons beyond the landlord’s control, the landlord must tell the tenant why and set a reasonable tentative start date.

If the landlord misses those deadlines, the tenant may have the work done competently and, on submitting receipts amounting to at least the sum deducted, deduct from rent not more than one thousand dollars or one month’s rent, whichever is greater. Two limits apply. The tenant must list every known or reasonably knowable noncompliance in the initial notification, or be estopped from having omitted conditions corrected at the landlord’s expense for six months. And total correction costs chargeable to the landlord in any six-month period may not exceed three months’ rent. The remedy is unavailable where the condition was caused by want of due care by the tenant, the tenant’s family, or someone on the premises with the tenant’s consent, and a tenant fixing a shared facility must first notify the other tenants who share it.

Two escape hatches sit alongside. HRS 521-63(a) lets a tenant whose enjoyment of the bargain is substantially deprived notify the landlord in writing and terminate if the situation is not remedied within one week — and no notice at all is needed where the condition renders the unit uninhabitable or poses an imminent threat to health or safety. HRS 521-62 lets a tenant terminate and vacate at any time during the first week of occupancy where the landlord failed to conform to the agreement or is in material noncompliance with HRS 521-42(a), and that right survives beyond the first week while the tenant stays in reliance on a promise to fix the condition.

Hawaii does not gather its prohibitions into a single section. They are spread across Part III of the Code, which is why imported templates so often carry one:

• Waiver of Code rights — HRS 521-31. Except as the Code otherwise provides, neither party may waive or agree to forego rights or remedies under the chapter. A settlement in which either waives Code rights is invalid if the court finds it was unconscionable when made.
• Landlord exculpation and indemnity — HRS 521-33. A provision exempting or limiting the landlord, or requiring the tenant to indemnify the landlord, from liability for damage to persons or property caused by the landlord’s or the landlord’s agents’ acts or omissions is void.
• Confession of judgment — HRS 521-34. A tenant may not authorize anyone to confess judgment on a claim arising out of a rental agreement. Such an authorization is void.
• Excessive attorney fee clauses — HRS 521-35(c). A fee provision exceeding what subsections (a) and (b) permit is unenforceable.
• Medical cannabis eviction — HRS 521-39. A provision allowing eviction of a tenant holding a valid certificate for the medical use of cannabis under HRS 329-123, in any form, is void — unless the agreement also allows eviction for smoking tobacco and the cannabis is used by smoking, and unless a condominium or planned community association’s governing documents prohibit medical cannabis use.
• Waiver of access liability — HRS 521-73(d). Every agreement purporting to exempt the landlord from liability under the access section is void, except a tenant’s consent to a particular entry.
• Unconscionable provisions — HRS 521-75. A court finding any provision unconscionable at the time it was made may refuse to enforce the agreement, enforce the remainder without that provision, or limit its application.

The attorney-fee rule is Hawaii’s own and it is neither a ban nor an open door. HRS 521-35(a) permits a rental agreement to provide for the tenant’s payment of the costs of a suit for unpaid rent and reasonable attorney’s fees not in excess of twenty-five per cent of the unpaid rent, after default and after referral to an attorney who is not a salaried employee of the landlord or the landlord’s assignee. HRS 521-35(b) then permits a clause awarding reasonable fees and costs to the prevailing party in all other matters arising under the chapter. Some states ban tenant-pays fee clauses outright, others make prevailing-party fees automatic and non-waivable, and others permit only a reciprocal clause; Hawaii caps the rent-default clause by percentage and makes everything else reciprocal. The optional fee clause in the form above generates exactly that, and nothing wider.

Two more provisions belong here even though they are remedies rather than prohibitions. HRS 521-63(c): a landlord who removes or excludes a tenant overnight without cause or a court order owes the tenant an amount equal to two months rent or two months free occupancy, plus the cost of suit including reasonable attorney’s fees, and may face injunctive relief. HRS 521-74.5: a landlord who wilfully interrupts or diminishes running water, hot water, or electric, gas or other essential service to recover possession commits an unfair or deceptive act under HRS 480-2, with minimum damages of three times the monthly rent or one thousand dollars, whichever is greater, on top of the penalties under HRS 480-3.1. Self-help is expensive in Hawaii.

By default, yes — and this is the Hawaii default most likely to surprise a landlord using a mainland template. HRS 521-37(a): “Unless otherwise agreed to in a written rental agreement and except as otherwise provided in this section, the tenant may sublet the tenant’s dwelling unit or assign the rental agreement to another without the landlord’s consent.”

The default flips only if the written agreement says so. HRS 521-37(c) expressly allows a written rental agreement to provide that the tenant’s right to sublet or assign is subject to the landlord’s consent, and HRS 521-37(b) disapplies the free-sublet default to units administered, owned or subsidized by the United States, the State, a county or any agency. A landlord who wants control over subletting must therefore write it in; silence gives the tenant the right. The form above carries that option, ticked by default, precisely because the statutory default is the opposite of what most landlords assume.

Related: HRS 521-52 governs house rules, and a rule is unenforceable against the tenant unless it promotes tenant convenience, safety or welfare, preserves the property from abusive use, or fairly distributes services; is reasonably related to that purpose; applies to all tenants fairly; and is explicit enough to fairly inform the tenant what to do. A rule imposed after signing that substantially modifies the tenant’s bargain must be consented to in writing. HRS 521-52(c) also bars a landlord of a single family residence from prohibiting an otherwise legal political sign urging voters to vote for or against a person or issue.

Beyond the twenty-eight-day periodic notice and the habitability routes in HRS 521-62, 521-63 and 521-65, Hawaii gives two statutory early-termination rights a lease cannot remove.

Victims of domestic violence — HRS 521-80. A tenant on a rental agreement of one year or less may terminate without penalty, fee or liability for future rent where the tenant, or an immediate family member residing in the unit, was a victim of domestic violence during the ninety days preceding the notice. Notice must be given at least fourteen days before the early termination date, which must be no more than one hundred four days from the most recent act, and must be accompanied by qualifying documentation: certified restraining orders, injunctions or criminal-case documents; documentation from a victim services organization or domestic violence program; or documentation from a medical professional, mental health care provider, attorney, advocate, social worker or member of the clergy. The tenant also supplies a written statement that the person who committed the violence knows the address, unless that person lives in the same unit. Where several tenants are on the agreement, releasing one does not end it for the others provided they can demonstrate ability to pay. The landlord may not assess any fee or penalty and may not disclose the information reported. HRS 521-81 covers changing the locks and HRS 521-82 a court order to vacate.

Servicemember tenants — HRS 521-83. Given Hawaii’s military presence this matters more here than almost anywhere. A servicemember tenant who receives military orders requiring them to vacate civilian housing and move into on-post government quarters may terminate a lease of one year or less on thirty days written notice, or a month-to-month tenancy on fifteen days written notice — provided that failure to move would forfeit the basic allowance for housing, and that the servicemember asked their commanding officer for permission to keep the allowance and was refused. Orders or a commanding officer’s written verification must accompany the notice, together with written proof of the denial. Where a servicemember tenant dies on active duty, an adult family member may terminate on fifteen days written notice with the death certificate and orders attached.

Death of a tenant — HRS 521-85, added by Act 33 of the 2024 session laws, is newer than anything on the competing pages. A tenant may designate, in the rental agreement or separately, a representative authorized to collect or dispose of personal property on death. On the death of all tenants the landlord contacts that representative by registered mail, or the estate at the unit address, with five prescribed items of content. The tenancy terminates fifteen calendar days from mailing or personal delivery, or the date through which rent has been paid, whichever is later. If the representative makes contact within those fifteen days the landlord must give access to remove the property. The landlord must account for the security deposit under HRS 521-44 within fourteen calendar days of termination or of the property being removed.

HRS 521-56 governs disposition, and it applies where the tenant wrongfully quit within the meaning of HRS 521-70(d) or HRS 521-44(d), quit on a notice to quit, or quit at the natural expiration of the term, leaving personalty the landlord in good faith determines to be of value.

The landlord may sell that property in a commercially reasonable manner, store it at the tenant’s expense, or donate it to a charitable organization — but only after taking three steps. First, make reasonable efforts to apprise the tenant of the identity and location of the property and the landlord’s intent, by mailing notice to the tenant’s forwarding address, an address the tenant designated for notification, or failing both the tenant’s previous known address. Second, if selling, advertise the sale in a daily paper of general circulation within the circuit for at least three consecutive days. Third, wait: no sale or donation may take place until fifteen days after notice is mailed, after which the tenant is deemed to have received notice.

Proceeds of a sale, after deduction of accrued rent and the costs of storage, sale and advertising, are held in trust for the tenant for thirty days and then forfeited to the landlord. Property left unsold after that process, or determined to be of no value, may be disposed of at the landlord’s discretion without liability.

The liability side is HRS 521-70(d): a tenant who wrongfully quits and unequivocally indicates an intention not to resume the tenancy is liable for the lesser of the entire rent due for the remainder of the term, or the rent accrued during the period reasonably necessary to re-rent at fair rental plus the difference between that fair rent and the agreed rent plus a reasonable re-letting commission — and the lesser figure applies whether or not the landlord actually re-rents. HRS 521-70(e) caps a pre-occupancy walk-away at the lesser of the money deposited, one month’s rent, or the accrued-rent-plus-costs calculation.

• Serving a five-day nonpayment notice. HRS 521-68 has required ten calendar days plus a copy to a state-funded mediation center since 5 February 2026. A five-day notice is a defective notice.
• Collecting last month’s rent up front. HRS 521-44(b) permits nothing at the start of a tenancy except the first month’s rent and the security deposit.
• Treating the pet deposit as part of the one-month cap. It is a separate agreed amount with its own one-month ceiling, and it may not be charged for an assistance animal.
• Missing the fourteen-day written notice. Under HRS 521-44(c) the right to retain any part of the deposit is lost entirely, not merely reduced.
• Sending a deposit itemization without cost evidence. The statute asks for estimates, invoices or receipts, not a list of assertions.
• Skipping the written move-in inventory. HRS 521-42 makes the end-of-tenancy condition rebuttably presumed identical to move-in condition.
• Leaving the general excise tax number off the lease. HRS 521-43(h) requires it, and HRS 521-67 prices a failure at one hundred dollars plus fees.
• Omitting the on-island agent. An off-island or out-of-state owner must designate one on the written agreement itself under HRS 521-43(f).
• Giving twenty-eight days notice as the landlord, or expecting forty-five from the tenant. HRS 521-71(a) and (b) run in opposite directions.
• Serving a forty-five-day notice before a demolition or condominium conversion. HRS 521-71(c) requires one hundred twenty days, and amending the notice restarts the clock.
• Sitting on a holdover. Miss the sixty-day summary-possession window in HRS 521-71(e) and a fresh month-to-month tenancy at the old rent takes over.
• Charging a late fee above the cap. HRS 521-21(f) limits it to 8% of the rent due, and only where the agreement provides for one.
• Assuming subletting needs consent. HRS 521-37(a) gives the tenant the right unless the written agreement removes it.
• Carrying an exculpation, indemnity or confession-of-judgment clause. Void under HRS 521-33 and HRS 521-34 respectively.
• Shutting off water or electricity to force a move-out. An unfair practice under HRS 521-74.5 with minimum damages of three times the monthly rent or one thousand dollars.
• Requiring postdated checks. Expressly barred by HRS 521-44(e).

A well-drafted lease decides who wins a dispute; screening decides whether there is one. Hawaii’s rules put the landlord’s own compliance under scrutiny long before the tenant’s conduct is reached — the fourteen-day forfeiture, the treble-damages exposure, the statutory inventory, the ten-day mediation track. Verifiable income, a clean payment history, and no prior eviction filings remain the strongest predictors of a quiet tenancy. HRS 521-46 also regulates the screening fee itself: charge it only to an applicant eighteen or older or an emancipated minor, give a receipt and a cost breakdown on request, and return any unused portion within thirty days of submitting the screening requests. Our tenant screening report covers credit, eviction filings, criminal background, and employment verification, and Hawaii tenant screening laws covers what you may and may not ask. Screen first, then paper the tenancy with this lease.

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