Hawaii Real Estate Broker Exam — All Questions

Under HRS section 521-44, the most a Hawaii landlord may require at the start of a residential tenancy is one month's rent plus:

• a.a further two months' rent as a deposit
• b.a pet deposit of up to one month's rent✓
• c.the last month's rent, in every tenancy
• d.a cleaning fee set by the property manager

Section 521-44(b) caps the security deposit at "an amount not in excess of a sum equal to one month's rent, plus an amount agreed upon by the landlord and tenant to compensate the landlord for any damages caused by any pet animal allowed to reside in the premises," and caps that pet amount at one month's rent as well. Two limits ride along with it. The pet deposit may not be required from a tenant with no pet, or "for an assistance animal that is a reasonable accommodation for a tenant with a disability pursuant to section 515-3." And the section closes the door on anything else: "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," which rules out a separate cleaning fee. No part of the deposit counts as the last month's rent "unless mutually agreed upon, in writing, by the landlord and tenant if the tenant gives forty-five days' notice of vacating the premises."

A Hawaii tenancy ends and the property manager wants to keep part of the security deposit for cleaning. Section 521-44 requires written notice and the balance to be returned within:

• a.thirty days, after which interest begins to run on the balance
• b.fourteen days, after which the entire deposit must be returned✓
• c.forty-five days, after which the tenant may sue for double rent
• d.sixty days, unless the tenant supplies a forwarding address

Section 521-44(c) gives the manager one deadline for two things. The remaining deposit "shall be returned to the tenant not later than fourteen days after the termination of the rental agreement," and the written notice of any retention, 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," is due in the same fourteen days. Missing it is not a technicality: "If the landlord does not furnish the tenant with the written notice and other information required by this subsection, within fourteen days after the termination of the rental agreement, the landlord shall not be entitled to retain the security deposit or any part of it, and the landlord shall return the entire amount." Compliance is presumptively proven if mailed to an address supplied by the tenant. No interest accrual, forwarding-address condition or double-rent remedy appears in the section.

Rent is overdue on a Honolulu rental the brokerage manages. Under HRS section 521-68 as it now reads, the landlord's notice must give the tenant at least:

• a.five business days to pay, with no further step required of the landlord
• b.thirty calendar days to pay, and the notice must be served by a sheriff
• c.ten calendar days to pay, and a copy must go to a mediation center✓
• d.three business days to pay, and the notice must be posted at the unit

This section changed under the practitioner's feet. Act 278 of 2025 rewrote HRS section 521-68 effective 5 February 2026, and the current text requires notice "that unless payment is made within a time mentioned in the notice, not less than ten calendar days after receipt thereof, the rental agreement will be terminated." Section 521-68(b) prescribes eight contents for that notice, including the current amount of rent due after applying all payments and a bold-type warning about mediation. Section 521-68(c) adds the second step: the landlord "shall provide the ten-calendar-day notice to a state-funded mediation center that offers free mediation for residential landlord-tenant matters," and if mediation is scheduled and the tenant participates, summary possession may be filed only after twenty calendar days from the tenant's receipt of the notice. Posting is still allowed, and receipt is then deemed to be the date of posting; a mailed notice is deemed received two business days after the postmark. Five business days was the rule until 4 February 2026 and is the figure a pre-2026 study guide still gives.

For a month-to-month residential tenancy in Hawaii, written notice to terminate must be given at least:

• a.forty-five days by the landlord and twenty-eight days by the tenant✓
• b.twenty-eight days by the landlord and forty-five days by the tenant
• c.thirty days by the landlord and thirty days by the tenant alike
• d.sixty days by the landlord and thirty days by the tenant alike

The two figures are asymmetric and the exam tests which way round they go. HRS section 521-71(a): "When the tenancy is month-to-month, the landlord may terminate the rental agreement by notifying the tenant, in writing, at least forty-five days in advance of the anticipated termination." Section 521-71(b): "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." A tenant who receives the landlord's notice may leave any time in the last forty-five days on notice of the date and prorated rent. Longer notice is required in one case: section 521-71(c) demands at least one hundred twenty days where the landlord contemplates voluntary demolition, conversion to a condominium property regime under chapter 514B, or a change of use to transient vacation rentals. Section 521-71(d) drops the period to ten days for tenancies shorter than month-to-month, and section 521-71(e) exposes a holdover tenant to up to twice the monthly rent prorated daily, with a month-to-month tenancy reviving if the landlord does not commence summary possession within the first sixty days of holdover.

A Maui rental is owned by a Nevada investor. HRS section 521-43 requires the written rental agreement to designate:

• a.an agent who resides on the same island as the rental unit✓
• b.a financial institution in the State to hold the deposit
• c.a Hawaii-licensed attorney to receive service of process
• d.a property manager separately approved by the Real Estate Commission

Section 521-43(f) is specific about geography: "Any owner or landlord who resides without 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 where the unit is located to act in the owner's or landlord's behalf." With an oral rental agreement the information is supplied on demand in a written statement. The requirement runs alongside section 521-43(a), which obliges the landlord to disclose in writing at or before the commencement of the tenancy the name and address of each person authorized to manage the premises and each owner or person authorized to accept service of process and receive rents. Failing to comply has a defined consequence rather than a penalty: section 521-43(b) makes the non-complying person the landlord's agent for service of process, for receiving rents, and for performing the landlord's obligations out of the rent collected. Section 521-43(h) separately requires the landlord to give tenants the general excise tax number so they can claim the low-income tax credit.