Security Deposit Alternative in Hawaii
Hawaii caps a security deposit at one month's rent, with up to one more month for a pet, and gives you 14 days after the rental agreement ends to return it. If you are keeping any of it, the resident has to receive written notice inside those 14 days with the grounds for the retention and written evidence of cost, such as estimates, invoices, or receipts. Miss the notice and you lose the right to keep any of the deposit. A wrongful and willful retention can be tripled in small claims court.
What Hawaii law says about security deposits
Read from the Hawaii statute on 2026-09-14. Deposit rules change, and this is general information rather than legal advice. Confirm the current text with your own counsel before you change a lease.
Can you require it of every Hawaii resident?
Hawaii's constraint is not about whether a fee is optional. It is about what a landlord may collect when a tenancy begins. Section 521-44 says 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 first month's rent and a security deposit as the section provides. The deposit itself is capped at one month's rent, with up to one more month allowed for a pet that is not an assistance animal, and it may be used only for the purposes the section lists: damage, unpaid rent, unreturned keys and fobs, cleaning, a resident who wrongfully leaves, pet damage, and unpaid utilities. A monthly fee charged instead of a deposit is not named anywhere in the section, and a fee due at signing is money at the beginning of the agreement. Whether an ongoing charge that starts with the first month fits inside that sentence is a question for a Hawaii attorney before you charge one at all.
Rules differ by state and by city, and subsidized housing is its own question. This is general information for property managers, not legal advice. Get a written opinion before you make the fee a condition of tenancy anywhere.
How the program works in Hawaii
The mechanics are the same in every state Beagle operates in. The program is designed to comply with applicable state and local regulations, and the rate is set by the deposit amount rather than by geography, so a Hawaii property and one two states over are quoted the same way.
The resident chooses at signing
Instead of producing the full deposit, the resident pays a smaller non-refundable monthly fee that is billed with rent. Nothing is held, so nothing has to be returned.
The property keeps its protection
Damage beyond normal wear is reimbursed up to the deposit amount the unit would otherwise have required, so what you can recover does not shrink.
Move-out stops being a negotiation
A claim is filed against the program rather than deducted from money you are holding, which takes the itemised-deduction letter and the dispute that follows it off your team's desk.
You earn on every resident who takes it
You set an administrative fee on top of the premium, up to $5 per unit per month, and keep it.
Hawaii security deposit alternative FAQs
Hawaii's statute does not address a monthly fee, so a mandatory version is a question for your own attorney. The narrower question comes first: section 521-44 says a landlord may not collect anything at the beginning of a rental agreement other than the first month's rent and a deposit, so a Hawaii attorney should confirm how a fee that starts at signing sits with that rule before it goes on any lease.
See it on your Hawaii units
Run the program against your own unit count, or walk through it with our team. No upfront fees, no onboarding charges, no long-term contracts.