Hawaii HOA Records Inspection

Overview — How records inspection works in Hawaii

Hawaii sorts its records-inspection rules by the kind of community you live in. Condominium associations follow the Condominium Property Act, Haw. Rev. Stat. Chapter 514B. Planned communities follow a separate, lighter law, Haw. Rev. Stat. Chapter 421J. And an unusually active Real Estate Commission, housed in the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA), watches over the condominium side — something most states do not do. Condominiums dominate the islands. The University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization reports that 42 percent of Hawaii homeowners pay a monthly HOA or AOAO fee, compared with 25 percent of homeowners nationwide.¹ For condominiums, the records rules sit at Haw. Rev. Stat. sections 514B-152 through 514B-154.5, and section 514B-154.5 ("Association documents to be provided") carries the operative production rule.² For planned communities, the right stands on its own in Haw. Rev. Stat. section 421J-7 ("Documents of the association").³ Chapter 514B replaced the older Chapter 514A and now governs condominiums; the Legislature repealed Chapter 514A through Act 181, Session Laws of Hawaii 2017, re-enacted a few sections temporarily, and let them sunset on July 1, 2020.⁴ Chapter 421J handles planned communities, and it asks less of them than 514B asks of condominiums. Hawaii also regulates more actively than most states: the Real Estate Commission runs condominium registration, a condominium education trust fund, and a mediation-and-arbitration framework for condominium disputes.⁵ Unlike states that lean on a reasonableness standard, Hawaii's condominium statute sets a fixed clock — an association must produce the listed documents within 30 days of a written request.⁶ That puts Hawaii alongside hard-clock states like Florida and California rather than the reasonable-time states. The table and the detail that follow lay out how each community type works.

Quick-Reference: Hawaii HOA Records Inspection

The records-inspection framework in detail

Records subject to inspection

Hawaii's inspection rights run on two statutory tracks, and the tracks mirror how people live. Condominium associations, which dominate the islands' common-interest housing, operate under the Condominium Property Act, Haw. Rev. Stat. Chapter 514B.² Section 514B-153 tells the managing agent or board to keep the declaration, bylaws, house rules, master lease, a sample conveyance document, and the public reports, along with detailed, chronological records of receipts and expenditures that affect the common elements.³¹ Section 514B-154.5 then names what the association must hand over to any unit owner and the owner's authorized agents: financial records detailed enough to answer a resale-disclosure request, the governing documents, expenditure records, contracts, insurance policies, invoices, board minutes, delinquency records, and the proxies, tally sheets, and ballots that section 514B-154(c) covers.¹⁸ The most current financial statement and the approved board minutes for the current and prior year must be available at no cost or on 24-hour loan.¹⁵

Planned communities — the non-condominium common-interest communities — fall under Chapter 421J, which asks less than 514B and carries its own self-contained records right instead of borrowing the condominium standards.³ Section 421J-7 makes the association documents, the most current financial statement, and the most recent board minutes available to any member at no cost, on 24-hour loan, or during reasonable hours, and it separately addresses financial ledgers, insurance policies, contracts, invoices, delinquency records, and election materials.³ Where an association incorporates as a Hawaii nonprofit corporation, Chapter 414D adds a member-inspection backstop, though section 414D-311 lets Chapters 421J, 514A, 514B, and 514E control in a conflict.³² So the threshold question is the community type: a condominium "association of apartment owners" looks to 514B, a planned community looks to 421J, and either one can lean on 414D corporate-law rights as a supplement.

The request-and-response sequence

Standing to inspect is broad. Under Chapter 514B, any unit owner and the owner's authorized agents may get the listed records, and prospective purchasers and their agents may get certain resale-related records.¹⁰ Under Chapter 421J, any member and the member's authorized agents may examine the documents.³ Neither chapter makes a proper-purpose showing a universal precondition; instead, both let the board require a good-faith affidavit for the more sensitive financial categories, and Chapter 421J also allows an affidavit for use of the membership list.¹¹

Form and timing split by community type, and this is the most important distinction on the page. For condominiums, Chapter 514B sets a fixed clock instead of a reasonableness standard: section 514B-154.5(c) requires the association to provide the documents, records, and information that section lists no later than 30 days after it receives a written request, no matter what a contrary period in the governing documents says.⁶ For "other documents" the section does not list, the board must give written authorization or a written refusal with an explanation within 30 calendar days.¹⁹ For planned communities, Chapter 421J demands less: the association must transmit member-requested minutes "within a reasonable period of time," and for "other documents" the board must give written authorization or refusal with an explanation within 60 calendar days.¹⁴ Owners examine core condominium records at convenient hours at a board-designated place, and planned-community records at reasonable hours at a board-designated location.¹⁵

On charges, Chapter 514B caps copy fees: any fee must be reasonable, must include administrative and duplicating costs, and cannot exceed $1 per page (with an exception for oversized pages), and owners cover administrative costs beyond eight hours a year.¹⁶ Chapter 421J sets no per-page cap; the requesting member pays reasonable duplication, postage, stationery, and administrative costs.¹⁷ Both chapters handle electronic delivery: a condominium may provide records electronically on a written request, and it may meet its obligation by posting records for download at no cost.²⁴

Withholding, confidentiality, and the membership or owner list

The two chapters part ways on enumerated exemptions, and the difference matters for compliance. Chapter 421J spells out a withholding list: section 421J-7(e) lets an association keep from inspection and copying the personnel records, an individual's medical records, records tied to business transactions currently in negotiation, communications protected by attorney-client or another applicable privilege, complaints against an individual member, records whose release would break any law, ordinance, rule, or regulation, and "similar records."²⁰ Chapter 514B offers no comparable catalog; it routes non-listed materials through the "other documents" process, where the board may refuse a request with a written explanation within 30 calendar days.¹⁹ So an association that withholds condominium records on privilege or pending-litigation grounds leans on that refusal mechanism and on general privilege law, not on a statutory exemption schedule.

The membership or owner list gets specific protection. Under Chapter 514B, the managing agent or resident manager may not use or distribute any membership list — including for commercial or political purposes — without prior written board consent, and every membership list is association property that no one may repurpose to dodge the statute.²¹ Chapter 421J tells the association to make good-faith efforts to keep an accurate list and lets the board require a good-faith-use affidavit; if the association does not hand over the list directly, it must build a reasonable procedure for members to solicit votes or proxies.¹² Where an association incorporates, Chapter 414D adds further limits on use of the membership list.³³

Remedies and enforcement for noncompliance

Hawaii's records statutes name no per-day penalty and no fixed statutory-damages figure for a refusal to produce records. An owner's main path is a civil action for injunctive or declaratory relief, backed by the alternative-dispute-resolution channels each chapter supplies. For condominiums, Chapter 514B routes management disputes through mediation under section 514B-161 and arbitration under section 514B-162, and a court may weigh a party's refusal to mediate when it awards fees and costs.²⁷ For planned communities, section 421J-13 requires most disputes over interpretation, application, or enforcement of the chapter or the association documents to go to mediation first at a party's request, and section 421J-10 awards reasonable expenses, costs, and attorneys' fees to a prevailing member who sues to enforce the chapter.²⁸ Where the association is a nonprofit corporation, section 414D-304 lets a member ask for a summary court order compelling inspection, and the court must order the corporation to pay the member's costs, including reasonable counsel fees, unless the refusal was in good faith on a reasonable basis.²⁹

Trial-level enforcement runs through the Hawaii Circuit Courts, with smaller matters in the District Courts, appeals to the Intermediate Court of Appeals, and discretionary review by the Hawaii Supreme Court.³⁰ Separately, the Real Estate Commission inside DCCA runs condominium registration, the condominium education trust fund, and a subsidized mediation-and-arbitration program for condominium disputes.⁵ That program is a dispute-resolution and education touchpoint, not a records-enforcement agency: it does not adjudicate records demands or impose records penalties.

Recent legislative and judicial activity

Recent bills

Recent rulings

Active legislative debates

Lately, Hawaii lawmakers have spent their attention on creating a homeowner-association ombudsman and on expanding owner education and dispute-resolution infrastructure. They have not moved to add a new fixed response deadline, a copy-fee cap, or a penalty to the records provisions themselves. Those proposals stayed pending and had not changed the Chapter 514B or Chapter 421J records framework as of the last verified date.

National positioning and related coverage

Hawaii is a condominium-dominated state with a moderately prescriptive condominium statute (Chapter 514B), a lighter planned-community statute (Chapter 421J), and an unusually active condominium regulator. Its condominium records provision sets a hard 30-day production clock and a $1-per-page copy cap, which lands it nearer the hard-clock end that Florida and California occupy than the reasonableness-standard end that states like Alaska occupy; its planned-community statute sits closer to the reasonableness model.^6,14 The state's signature feature, though, is regulatory presence: the Real Estate Commission's condominium registration, education trust fund, and subsidized mediation program form a layer that operators in most other states never meet.⁵ For a multistate operator, the practical upshot is simple — most Hawaii communities are condominiums under 514B, with the tighter clock and the fee cap, and the Commission's program is one more touchpoint. Recent legislation strengthened electronic access to governing documents and eliminated administrative-cost handling fees (Act 161, 2025), but it left the core 30-day records clock and the regulatory framework in place.²⁵

HOA Weekly's Hawaii Records Inspection coverage updates quarterly as the Legislature and the Hawaii courts act. Federal frameworks also reach Hawaii associations no matter what the state requires — the Fair Housing Act, the ADA, the FDCPA, the SCRA, and the FCC's OTARD rule all apply across their broader operations.

Footnotes

1. University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization (UHERO), Hawai'i Housing Factbook 2026 (citing 2024 U.S. Census Bureau data on HOA/AOAO fees) ↩
2. Haw. Rev. Stat. §§ 514B-152 to 514B-154.5, Condominium Property Act (association records) ↩
3. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 421J-7, Documents of the association ↩
4. Haw. Rev. Stat. ch. 514A (Repealed, L 2017, c 181; select sections sunset July 1, 2020) ↩
5. Hawaii DCCA Real Estate Branch / Real Estate Commission, condominium program ↩
6. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 514B-154.5(c) ↩
7. Haw. Rev. Stat. §§ 414D-302 to 414D-305, Hawaii Nonprofit Corporations Act (inspection of records by members) ↩
8. Haw. Rev. Stat. §§ 514B-21, 514B-154.5(g); Chapter 514A transition provisions ↩
9. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 421J-1, Scope ↩
10. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 514B-154.5(a) ↩
11. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 514B-154.5(a)(10)(A) ↩
12. Haw. Rev. Stat. §§ 421J-7(c), 421J-8, Membership list ↩
13. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 421J-7(e) ↩
14. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 421J-7(b)(2), (e) ↩
15. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 514B-154(a), (b) ↩
16. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 514B-154.5(f) ↩
17. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 421J-7(c) ↩
18. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 514B-154.5(a)(1)-(13) ↩
19. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 514B-154(f); § 514B-154.5(a)(14) ↩
20. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 421J-7(e)(1)-(7) ↩
21. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 514B-153(f), (g) ↩
22. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 514B-154(b), (c) ↩
23. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 421J-7(b)(3) ↩
24. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 514B-154.5(d), (e) ↩
25. S.B. 385, 2025 Regular Session, Relating to Condominiums (enacted as Act 161, SLH 2025) ↩
26. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 421J-7(b)(2)(A) ↩
27. Haw. Rev. Stat. §§ 514B-161, 514B-162, Alternative Dispute Resolution ↩
28. Haw. Rev. Stat. §§ 421J-10, 421J-13 ↩
29. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 414D-304, Court-ordered inspection ↩
30. Hawaii State Judiciary, The Intermediate Court of Appeals (court structure) ↩
31. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 514B-153(a), (b), (c) ↩
32. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 414D-311, Superseding chapters ↩
33. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 414D-305, Limitations on use of membership list ↩
34. Hawaii DCCA Real Estate Branch, October 2025 Condominium Education Bulletin (Act 161, SLH 2025; amendment to HRS § 514B-154.5(b)) ↩
35. H.B. 837, 2025 Regular Session, Relating to Homeowner Associations ↩
36. Caven v. Certified Management, Inc., No. SCWC-19-0000047 (Haw. Sept. 5, 2025) ↩