Hawaii County, HI Rental Property Rules: Repairs & Habitability (2026)

HCC § 5-9-2 declares a building substandard whenever any of a fixed list of conditions endangers life, health, safety, or welfare or violates applicable law, and the list is explicitly non-exhaustive. For habitability purposes the operative items are: lack of, or improper, water closet, lavatory, bathtub or shower in a dwelling unit; lack of, or improper, kitchen sink in a habitable building; lack of hot and cold water to basins, sinks, tubs, and showers in a dwelling unit or efficiency living unit; lack of, or improper operation of, required ventilating equipment; room area or space dimensions below the construction code minimum; general dilapidation or improper maintenance; and lack of connection to a required sewage disposal system.

Because Hawaii County has no separate municipal housing code and no incorporated cities beneath it, this construction-code standard is the operative habitability floor for every rental on the island, from Hilo to Kona. A tenant or inspector reporting one of these conditions triggers an inspection under § 5-9-5, and if confirmed, the authority having jurisdiction serves a notice and order under § 5-9-6 giving the owner forty-eight hours to begin repairs and up to ninety days to finish them, or requiring the unit vacated until the defect is fixed.

The building official, not a private housing court, makes the substandard determination, and dampness or infestation findings specifically route through the Department of Health under the same section.