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HB464
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
H.B. NO.
464
THIRTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2025
STATE OF HAWAII
A BILL FOR AN ACT
relating
to housing
.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
����
SECTION
1.
�
The legislature acknowledges that
working families in Hawaii are facing increasing housing insecurity and
displacement.
�
Many renters in Hawaii
lose their housing through processes that never register as evictions because
they happen at the end of a lease term.
�
Landlords can decline to renew a lease, even for complying tenants,
without cause.
�
These arbitrary lease
nonrenewals are highly disruptive to the lives of tenants and are a cause of
poverty, financial insecurity, and emotional distress.
����
The
legislature finds that under the residential landlord-tenant code, fixed term
leases�-for example, a one-year lease�-have no notice requirement.
�
Instead, landlords are recommended to give
notice prior to the lease expiration.
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The
legislature further finds that short notice or lack of notice imposes serious
hardship on many tenants who struggle to locate adequate housing in Hawaii's
increasingly tight rental market and face serious economic burdens to cover the
costs of relocation, including application fees, safety deposits, rent, and
taking days off from work to inspect units and move their belongings.
�
Given the realities of Hawaii's current
rental market, the legislature finds that tenants need additional time to
secure adequate housing.
����
Therefore,
the purpose of this Act is to improve tenants' ability to secure adequate
housing by:
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(1)
�
Requiring,
for tenancies greater than ninety days, a landlord to notify a tenant of any
intent to raise the rent for any subsequent rental agreement or any termination
of a rental agreement sixty days before the expiration of the original rental
agreement;
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(2)
�
Requiring
ninety days' notice for a landlord or tenant to terminate tenancies of three
years or more and sixty days' notice to terminate tenancies of less than three
years, with certain exceptions
; and
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(3)
�
Increasing
the amount of notice required to terminate tenancies that are less than
month-to-month.
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SECTION
2
.
�
Section 521-21, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is
amended to read as follows:
����
"
�521-21
�
Rent.
�
(a)
�
The landlord and tenant may agree to any
consideration, not otherwise prohibited by law, as rent.
�
In the absence of [
such
]
an
agreement, and subject to section [
521-71(e)
]
521-71(f)
in the
case of holdover tenants, the tenant shall pay to the landlord the fair rental
value for the dwelling unit.
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(b)
�
Rents shall be payable at the time and place
agreed to by the parties.
�
Unless
otherwise agreed, the entire rent shall be payable at the beginning of any term
for one month or less, and for longer terms in equal monthly installments
payable at the beginning of each month.
�
When a rental agreement with a public assistance recipient requires that
the rent be paid on or before the third day after the day on which the public
assistance check is usually received, the tenant shall have the option of
establishing a new due date by making a one-time payment to cover the period
between the original due date and the newly established date.
�
The new date shall not exceed by more than
three days, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, the date on which
checks are mailed.
�
The one-time payment
shall be established by dividing the monthly rental by thirty and multiplying
the result by the number of days between the original and the new due dates.
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(c)
�
Except as otherwise provided in subsection
(b), rent shall be uniformly apportionable from day to day.
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(d)
�
When the tenancy is
established pursuant to a rental agreement with a term greater than ninety days
,
the amount of rent for an immediately subsequent tenancy, regardless of whether
the immediately subsequent tenancy is pursuant to a subsequent rental
agreement, including any renewal, or pursuant to a subsequent month-to-month
tenancy, between the same landlord and tenant shall not be increased by the
landlord without written notice given sixty consecutive days prior to the
expiration of the original rental agreement.
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[
(d)
]
(e)
�
When the tenancy is from [
month
to month,
]
month-to-month,
the amount of rent for [
such
]
the
tenancy shall not be increased by the landlord without written notice given
forty-five consecutive days prior to the effective date of the increase.
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[
(e)
]
(f)
�
When the tenancy is less than
[
month to month,
]
month-to-month,
the amount of rent for [
such
]
the
tenancy shall not be increased by the landlord without written
notice given fifteen consecutive days prior to the effective date of the
increase.
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[
(f)
]
(g)
�
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 eight per cent of the amount of rent
due."
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SECTION
3
.
�
Section 521-71, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is
amended to read as follows:
����
"
�521-71
�
Termination of tenancy; landlord's remedies for holdover tenants.
�
(a)
�
When the tenancy is [
month-to-month,
]
three years or more,
the landlord
or tenant
may terminate the rental agreement by notifying
the [
tenant,
]
other,
in writing, at least [
forty-five
]
ninety
days in advance of the anticipated termination.
�
When the landlord
or tenant
provides notification of termination,
the tenant may vacate at any time within the last [
forty-five
]
ninety
days of the period between the notification and the termination date, but the
tenant shall notify the landlord of the date the tenant will vacate the
dwelling unit and shall pay a prorated rent for that period of occupation.
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(b)
�
When the tenancy is less than three years:
����
(1)
�
Except as
provided in subsections (d) and (e), the landlord may terminate the rental
agreement by notifying the tenant; and
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(2)
�
Except as
provided in subsections (c) and (e), the tenant may terminate the rental
agreement by notifying the landlord,
in
writing, at least sixty days in advance of the anticipated termination.
�
When the landlord provides notification of
termination, the tenant may vacate at any time within the last sixty days of
the period between the notification and the termination date, but the tenant
shall notify the landlord of the date the tenant will vacate the dwelling unit
and shall pay a prorated rent for that period of occupation.
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[
(b)
]
(c)
�
When the tenancy is
month-to-month
,
the tenant may terminate the rental agreement by
notifying the landlord, in writing, at least twenty-eight days in advance of
the anticipated termination.
�
When the
tenant provides notice of termination, the tenant shall be responsible for the
payment of rent through the twenty-eighth day.
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[
(c)
]
(d)
�
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 to the tenant at least one hundred
twenty days in advance of the anticipated demolition or anticipated
termination.
�
If notice is revoked or
amended and reissued, the notice period shall begin from the date it was
reissued or amended.
�
Any notice
provided, revoked, or amended and reissued shall be in writing.
�
When the landlord provides notification of
termination pursuant to this subsection, the tenant may vacate at any time
within the one-hundred-twenty-day period between the notification and the
termination date, but the tenant shall notify the landlord of the date the
tenant will vacate the dwelling unit and shall pay a prorated rent for that
period of occupation.
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[
(d)
]
(e)
�
When the tenancy is less than
month-to-month, the landlord or the tenant may terminate the rental agreement
by notifying the other at least [
ten
]
fifteen
days before the
anticipated termination.
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[
(e)
]
(f)
�
Whenever the term of the
rental agreement expires, whether [
by passage of time,
] by mutual
agreement, by the giving of notice as provided in subsection (a), (b), (c), or
(d) or by the exercise by the landlord of a right to terminate given under this
chapter, if the tenant continues in possession after the date of termination
without the landlord's consent, the tenant may be liable to the landlord 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.
�
The landlord may bring a
summary proceeding for recovery of the possession of the dwelling unit 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.
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[
(f)
]
(g)
�
Any notice of termination
initiated for the purposes of evading the obligations of the landlord under [
subsections
521-21(d) or (e)
]
section 521-21(e) or (f)
shall be void."
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SECTION
4.
�
Statutory material to be repealed is
bracketed and stricken.
�
New statutory
material is underscored.
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SECTION 5.
�
This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2025;
provided that section 2 of this Act shall apply to all rental agreements
entered into on or after the effective date of this Act and all rental
agreement renewals entered into on or after the effective date of this Act.
INTRODUCED BY:
_____________________________
Report Title:
Housing;
Residential Landlord-tenant Code; Notices; Intent to Raise Rent; Intent to
Terminate
Description:
Requires,
for tenancies greater than 90 days, a landlord to notify a tenant of any intent
to raise the rent for any subsequent rental agreement or any intent to
terminate a rental agreement 60 days before the expiration of the original
rental agreement.
�
Requires 90 day's
notice for a landlord or tenant to terminate tenancies of three years or more and
60 days' notice to terminate tenancies of less than three years, with certain
exceptions.
�
Increases the amount
of notice required to terminate tenancies that are less than month-to-month.
The summary description
of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is
not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.