Hawaii Official Landlord Tenant Complaint (5th Circuit Court)

This is the official Landlord/Tenant Complaint required to start the eviction process in the Fifth Judicial Circuit, which is comprised of the islands of Kauai and Niihau. Note that this form MUST be filed to begin the eviction process legally.

Please Note: There is no fourth judicial circuit – it was eliminated in 1943. Hawaii is served by the First, Second, Third and Fifth Judicial Circuits today.

Who: You (the landlord) will need to complete and file this form with the Clerk of Court. The tenant will not be part of this process. Once you’ve served them with the appropriate notice (5 Day Notice to Pay Rent or 10 Day Notice to Cure, for instance), and the waiting period expires, the official eviction process can begin.

What: This form officially begins the eviction process. Note that you must have served your tenant with the appropriate form of notice before you can file the complaint. If the eviction is due to nonpayment of rent, you should have served him or her with a 5 Day Notice to Pay Rent. If the eviction is due to lease violations, he or she should have been served with a 10 Day Notice to Cure (and they either continued the violation or violated the lease again).

In terms of format and required information, the form for the Fifth Circuit Court is very similar to those used in the First, Second and Third Circuit Courts.

You’ll need to provide the following information:
• Your name
• The tenant’s name
• The address of the rental property in question
• The type of lease agreement in force (written, oral or expired written), along with a copy of the lease if applicable
• The type of violation in question. If it is nonpayment of rent, you need to include the amount due. If it is a lease violation, you’ll need to specify the violation.
• When you served the tenant with notice, along with a copy of that notice.

When: You’ll need to complete and file this form with the District Court, and pay any required fees to get the eviction process started. Note that you CANNOT file this form until the waiting period for the initial notice has expired (5 or 10 business days depending on the type of notice issued to the tenant).

Resources:
• Hawaii State Judiciary
• Sample Hawaii Lease Agreement
• Hawaii’s Law Summary
• Further Reading: Move Out and Eviction Articles