Hawaii HOA Estoppel & Resale

Section 1: Overview — Estoppel and resale disclosure in Hawaii

Hawaii requires condominium resale disclosure, but not through a single named "resale certificate." The obligation splits between the association's statutory duty to make documents available under the Condominium Property Act and the seller's statutory duty to deliver those documents to the buyer.^1,2 The Condominium Property Act, HRS Chapter 514B, carries the association-side duty at HRS §514B-154.5, "Association documents to be provided."^1,7 The complementary seller-side duty sits in a separate chapter, HRS §508D-3.5, part of Hawaii's mandatory seller-disclosure law.²

Terminology matters here. Hawaii's instrument is a non-uniform statutory disclosure regime. It isn't a Florida-style estoppel certificate with an indexed fee cap, and it isn't a Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (UCIOA) resale certificate with a binding-effect provision.¹ Hawaii's regime covers condominiums, including older condominiums created under Chapter 514A, whose governing documents may still differ.^1,6 The mechanics run on document production — the declaration, bylaws, rules, financial records, and the status of assessments — within a fixed period and for a capped per-page fee, with the buyer holding a rescission right after delivery.^1,2

Nationally, Hawaii sits between the camps. It's a non-uniform statutory-disclosure state, distinct from UCIOA resale-certificate states such as Alaska, from hard-mandate Florida, and from pure CC&R-only states with no statutory disclosure mechanism.¹ The sections ahead set out exactly what Hawaii requires and where it's silent.

Section 2: The statutory requirements

2A. The Hawaii Condominium Property Act disclosure duty

The governing provision is HRS §514B-154.5, within Part VI (Management of Condominiums) of the Condominium Property Act, HRS Chapter 514B.^1,7 The document isn't a discrete "certificate." It's the package of documents, records, and information that the association must make available to support the resale of a unit. Subsection (a) requires the association to make available "all financial and other records sufficiently detailed in order to comply with requests for information and disclosures related to the resale of units," together with the declaration, bylaws, house rules, master lease, a sample conveyance document, and all public reports.¹

The duty triggers when a unit owner (other than the developer) or the owner's authorized agent submits a written request in connection with a resale.¹ The association produces the documents through its managing agent, resident manager, board (through a board member), or the association's representative.¹ The seller's separate obligation to deliver documents to the buyer arises under HRS §508D-3.5 and is addressed in Section 2B.²

The turnaround deadline is fixed. Under subsection (c), the documents "shall be provided no later than thirty days after receipt of a unit owner's or owner's authorized agent's written request," unless a shorter period applies.¹ The count runs in calendar days, and the deadline overrides any longer period in the declaration, bylaws, or house rules.¹

The fee rule is a per-page cap, not a per-certificate ceiling and not a Florida-style indexed cap. Subsection (f) provides that any fee "shall be reasonable; provided that a reasonable fee shall include administrative and duplicating costs and shall not exceed $1 per page," with a limited exception for oversized pages.¹ Subsection (e) further provides that an association "may comply . . . by making the required documents, records, and information available to unit owners or owners' authorized agents for download through an internet site, at the option of each unit owner . . . and at no cost to the unit owner or owner's authorized agent," a requirement the Hawaii Supreme Court enforced in 2025.^1,4

This regime stays distinct from the developer's public offering document. Initial sales by a declarant use the developer's public report under Parts IV and V of Chapter 514B, not the owner disclosure duty of §514B-154.5.⁸ The §514B-154.5 duty is condominium-only. Subsection (g) states plainly that "this section shall apply to all condominiums organized under this chapter or any predecessor thereto."¹ Planned community associations, governed by HRS Chapter 421J, have no statutory resale certificate; their disclosure is whatever the recorded declaration provides.^1,3

2B. Required contents and the seller's resale disclosure

The statutory content list is the enumeration in §514B-154.5(a), not a UCIOA content list. It includes financial and other records detailed enough for resale disclosure; the declaration, bylaws, house rules, master lease, sample conveyance document, and public reports; chronological records of receipts and expenditures affecting the common elements; the owner list; the association's most current financial statement; and association and board meeting minutes.¹ The financial records are the heart of the disclosure, because they let a buyer and closing agent see the assessment status and any pending obligations before conveyance.¹

The selling owner's delivery duty runs through HRS §508D-3.5. Where the property is subject to a recorded declaration, the seller must provide the articles or other formation document, the bylaws, the declaration and exhibits, and any rules relating to common-area use, architectural control, maintenance, or assessments.² These are the documents the association makes available under §514B-154.5. In practice, the title or escrow company obtains the current assessment figure and any pending special assessment through the association's Statement of Account and Project Information Form RR105c, the industry disclosure forms used at closing.^1,4 For a planned community association under Chapter 421J, the equivalent comes from a declaration-based statement of account rather than a statutory certificate.³

2C. Binding effect, remedies, and scope

Hawaii has no statutory estoppel or binding-effect provision tied to its condominium disclosure. Chapter 514B contains no provision making the assessment balance stated in a disclosure or Statement of Account conclusive against the association, and none protecting a good-faith purchaser (or shielding the unit from a lien) for common-expense amounts in excess of those stated.¹ This is the sharpest contrast with UCIOA resale-certificate states. Any protection a Hawaii purchaser has against understated figures rests on common-law estoppel and contract, not on a statutory binding rule.¹ Separately, HRS §514B-146 makes all unpaid assessments a lien on the unit, and it caps a foreclosure-purchaser's exposure for prior unpaid assessments, but this lien-priority scheme isn't a resale-disclosure estoppel.⁹

The purchaser's remedy for nondelivery is contractual rescission under the seller-disclosure chapter, not a Chapter 514B remedy. Under §508D-3.5(c), the seller isn't required to provide the declaration documents until 10 calendar days after both parties have received a current title report, and upon receipt "the buyer shall have fifteen calendar days to examine the documents and decide whether to rescind the real estate purchase contract"; failure to deliver postpones the start of that period, and the right to rescind for inaccurate or omitted material facts continues, before closing, under §508D-6.^2,5 On scope, condominiums fall under Chapter 514B (older condominiums possibly retaining Chapter 514A provisions), and planned community associations fall under Chapter 421J with no statutory certificate.^1,3,6

Section 3: The resale transaction in practice

A. Requesting the disclosure

For condominiums (Chapter 514B), the request may come from the selling unit owner or the owner's authorized agent, which in practice is the title or escrow company or the closing attorney.¹ The request must be in writing, and it's the written request that starts the statutory clock.¹ Planned community associations aren't subject to §514B-154.5; for those, the recorded declaration governs what's provided and how.³

B. The statutory clock and delivery

For condominiums, the 30-day clock runs from the association's receipt of the written request, and the count runs in calendar days.¹ The documents go to the requesting owner or agent, and the statute allows electronic delivery when requested in writing.¹ Chapter 514B doesn't attach a specific penalty or automatic sale consequence to a late production; the transaction consequence flows instead from the seller-disclosure and rescission mechanics of Chapter 508D, under which a buyer who hasn't received the required documents retains the right to rescind before closing.^1,2,5

C. Fees and refunds

For condominiums, the fee must be reasonable and may not exceed $1 per page, and documents made available for electronic download must be provided at no cost.^1,4 Hawaii has no hard per-certificate dollar cap and no Florida-style indexed cap.¹ The statute doesn't address an expedited or rush fee, or a refund if the sale doesn't close; on both points the Hawaii text stays silent.¹

D. Consequences and the binding effect

For condominiums, there's no statutory estoppel: the association isn't statutorily bound to a disclosed figure, and it isn't statutorily barred from later collecting amounts above those disclosed.¹ Chapter 514B sets no specific statutory liability standard for an erroneous or late disclosure; the association operates instead under the chapter's general good-faith obligation and ordinary common-law exposure.^1,7 The purchaser's operative remedy for nondelivery is the contractual rescission right under §508D-3.5 and §508D-6.^2,5

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

B. Recent Hawaii appellate rulings

C. Active legislative debates

The Legislature has an active comparative review of condominium regulation: Act 43 (SLH 2024, SB2726) commissioned the Legislative Reference Bureau study "Five States' Approaches to Aspects of Condominium Law," examining California, Delaware, Florida, Massachusetts, and Nevada, following recommendations of the Condominium Property Regime Task Force established by Act 189 (SLH 2023).¹¹ No pending Hawaii proposal identified in this review would add a statutory resale-disclosure fee cap beyond the existing $1-per-page rule or import a UCIOA-style binding-effect provision.^1,11

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Across the states, resale disclosure falls into four broad camps. Hard-mandate states use statutory estoppel certificates with short business-day clocks and indexed fee caps, as in Florida (Fla. Stat. §718.116(8) for condominiums and §720.30851 for HOAs). Detailed-disclosure states use a statutory resale package, as in California under the Davis-Stirling Act (Civ. Code §4525 et seq.). UCIOA resale-certificate states, such as Alaska, Colorado, and Washington, use a certificate the association issues with a statutory binding effect. CC&R-only states have no statutory resale-disclosure mechanism at all. Hawaii sits between these camps: its Condominium Property Act carries a statutory disclosure duty (HRS §514B-154.5), but that duty is a document-production and per-page-fee regime with a 30 calendar-day deadline, and it lacks the binding-effect provision that defines a UCIOA resale certificate.¹ For a multi-state operator expanding into Hawaii, the practical implication is that the disclosure workflow is document delivery plus a seller rescission right, not issuance of a binding certificate, and fees are capped per page rather than per transaction.^1,2 Hawaii amended the adjacent document-access rules in 2025 (Act 161), but it left the core §514B-154.5 disclosure duty and its 30-day, $1-per-page structure substantively in place.^1,10 Hawaii has no agency that enforces the resale-disclosure duty itself; general condominium oversight falls to the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs' Real Estate Branch and Real Estate Commission.¹²

HOA Weekly's Hawaii Estoppel and Resale coverage updates quarterly as the Legislature and the Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals and Supreme Court of Hawaii act. Federal frameworks also apply to Hawaii associations regardless of the state framework, notably the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act where a disclosed balance is being collected, plus the Fair Housing Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and the FCC's OTARD rule.

Footnotes

1. HRS §514B-154.5, Association documents to be provided (Hawaii Revised Statutes) ↩
2. HRS §508D-3.5, Disclosure of documents; required documentation (Hawaii Revised Statutes, 2025) ↩
3. HRS Chapter 421J, Planned Community Associations (Hawaii Revised Statutes) ↩
4. Caven v. Certified Management, Inc., No. SCWC-19-0000047 (Haw. Sept. 5, 2025) (summary disposition order) ↩
5. HRS §508D-6, Later discovered inaccurate information (Hawaii Revised Statutes) ↩
6. HRS Chapter 514B transition and safe-harbor provisions (repeal of Chapter 514A), DCCA compilation ↩
7. HRS Chapter 514B, Condominium Property Act (Hawaii Revised Statutes) ↩
8. HRS Chapter 514B, Parts IV and V, developer's public report (DCCA compilation) ↩
9. HRS §514B-146, Association fiscal matters; lien for assessments (Hawaii Revised Statutes) ↩
10. SB385 (Act 161), 2025 Regular Session, Relating to Condominiums (Hawaii State Legislature) ↩
11. Bills Passed by the Hawaii State Legislature, Regular Session of 2025 (Legislative Reference Bureau) ↩
12. Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Real Estate Branch / Real Estate Commission ↩