Hawaii Eviction Process: Notice Periods, Timeline, and Costs

HRS § 521-68, as amended by Act 278 (2025), now requires a written notice giving the tenant 10 calendar days to pay or vacate — permanently up from the old 5-business-day period. The notice must demand the rent due and a copy must also be sent to the community mediation center serving the island where the rental sits. If the tenant properly requests mediation within that 10-day window, you cannot file for eviction until 20 days after the tenant received the notice, and you must participate in the mediation.

Under HRS § 521-72 the landlord gives written notice specifying the breach and allowing not less than 10 days to remedy it, and may terminate and sue for possession if the breach continues or recurs after that date. No cure period is required where the breach causes or threatens damage to a person or falls under HRS § 521-51(1) or (6). If the breach continues or recurs, the landlord must bring the summary possession action within 30 days.

HRS § 521-71 requires the landlord to give at least 45 days' written notice to end a month-to-month tenancy, while a tenant needs only 28 days. A tenant who receives a 45-day notice may vacate at any point within that window on notice to the landlord, paying prorated rent. Hawaii has no statewide just-cause eviction requirement.

Summary possession is filed in the District Court of the circuit where the property is located. The Judiciary's complaint filing fee is roughly $155 including the indigent legal services surcharge and administrative fee, with service costs on top.

Hawaii summary possession cases use a return day rather than a fixed answer deadline. The tenant must appear or answer on the next court session no less than 5 days after service if served in the circuit where the case was filed, or no less than 7 days if served in another circuit.

Expect roughly six to ten weeks from notice to lockout on an uncontested nonpayment case, which is longer than most states because of the 10-day notice and the Act 278 mediation step. A tenant who requests mediation pushes filing out to at least 20 days and the session itself can be scheduled up to 30 days after the mediation center makes contact; court calendars add more.

Hawaii bars all self-help removal: lockouts, removing a tenant's belongings, and shutting off essential services to force a move-out are illegal, and only a court judgment and a writ of possession executed by a court officer can remove a tenant. The state's Office of Consumer Protection states that a tenant illegally locked out may recover two months' rent or two months' free occupancy plus costs and reasonable attorney's fees, with injunctive relief available. For an illegal utility shutoff under HRS § 521-63, damages run to three times the monthly rent or $1,000, whichever is greater.

Act 278 (2025), signed July 2, 2025, permanently extended the HRS § 521-68 nonpayment notice from 5 business days to 10 calendar days and created a two-year pre-eviction mediation pilot running February 5, 2026 through February 4, 2028. Under the pilot the landlord must copy the island's community mediation center on the notice, and a tenant who requests mediation within 10 days blocks filing for 20 days from receipt and obligates the landlord to participate.

Almost every eviction guide online still describes Hawaii's nonpayment notice as 5 business days and says nothing about mediation. Both are out of date: Act 278 made the period 10 calendar days and, from February 5, 2026 through February 4, 2028, added a pre-eviction mediation program that requires you to copy the island's community mediation center on the notice and to participate if the tenant requests mediation in time. Serving the old 5-day form, or filing without the mediation center copy, is the most likely way to lose a 2026 Hawaii case. There is also no longer a Maui exception: the separate 15-day Maui mediation regime under HRS § 521-84 lapsed on February 4, 2026, one day before the statewide Act 278 program began, so the 10-day rule now applies on every island. Because § 521-84 is still printed in the HRS with a repeal note rather than struck from the text, expect to keep seeing it quoted as live law. The 45-day landlord notice for month-to-month tenancies is likewise unusually long and is frequently misreported as 30 days.

• HRS § 521-68
• HRS § 521-71
• HRS § 521-72