Free Hawaii Lease Termination Letter Template

A Hawaii lease termination letter is the written notice Hawaii Revised Statutes Section 521-71 requires to end a month-to-month rental agreement. Landlords and tenants do not owe the same amount of warning. The letter also fixes the date the tenancy ends.

Start with who is sending the notice, because that decides the length.

Landlord Notice

Section 521-71(a) requires a landlord ending a month-to-month tenancy to notify the tenant in writing at least 45 days in advance of the anticipated termination. Notice periods are amended from time to time, so check the current statute before you count.

Tenant Notice

Subsection (b) sets a shorter figure. A tenant may end the same tenancy by notifying the landlord in writing at least 28 days in advance, and the tenant stays responsible for the payment of rent through the twenty-eighth day.

Demolition and Change of Use

Subsection (c) adds a far longer period for three situations: 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. There the landlord gives at least 120 days’ notice in advance of the anticipated demolition or termination. Where a notice is revoked or amended and reissued, the period runs again from the date of reissue.

Notices That Do Not Count

Subsection (f) voids any notice of termination initiated for the purpose of evading the landlord’s obligations under Section 521-21(d) or (e).

Yes, and the statute says so directly. Under Section 521-71(a), once a landlord has given the 45-day notice, the tenant may vacate at any time within the last 45 days of the period between the notification and the termination date.

Two conditions attach to that right. The tenant has to notify the landlord of the date they will vacate, and the tenant pays a prorated rent for that period of occupation. A tenant who finds somewhere new partway through the notice is therefore not locked into paying out the whole window.

Who sends a Hawaii lease termination letter decides the length, so settle that first.

1. Identify whether the landlord or the tenant is giving notice.
2. Count 45 days as the landlord, or 28 days as the tenant.
3. Write the anticipated termination date into the notice.
4. Deliver it in writing and keep a record of the date.
5. Pay or collect rent through the day the statute sets.

Section 521-71 prescribes no form, so cover the essentials clearly.

• The rental unit address
• Every party to the rental agreement
• The anticipated termination date
• Whether the landlord or the tenant is giving notice
• A forwarding address
• Signature and date

Staying past the date gets expensive. Under subsection (e), a tenant who continues in possession without the landlord’s consent may be liable for a sum not exceeding twice the monthly rent under the previous rental agreement, computed and prorated on a daily basis for each day of holdover. The landlord may bring a summary proceeding for possession during the first 60 days of that holdover. Should the landlord not commence proceedings within those 60 days, a month-to-month tenancy at the previous rent prevails from the end of the first 60 days. Send your Hawaii lease termination letter ahead of the date and none of that arises.