Hawaii Rental Application

What information should landlords collect?

A rental application is your first opportunity to collect key details, assess the applicant properly, and do so in a compliant and fair manner. TurboTenant provides landlords with free rental application templates that allow you to quickly and easily send and receive digital forms in just a few steps.

Pro tip: TurboTenant also lets landlords collect rent online, manage maintenance requests, and create legally reviewed lease agreements.

No matter the template you use, it should collect:

• Personal information: Applicant names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, contact details, emergency contacts, vehicle information, and other identifying details.
• Rental history: Provides insight into an applicant’s past tenancies and how they’ve managed their responsibilities.
• Financial details: Includes employment status, income, and earnings history to help assess rent affordability.
• Personal and professional references: Landlords may verify employment and rental history through written or phone references.
• Pets: If you allow pets, this section typically covers the pet’s type, size, and current status.

Pre-Screener

To save time when processing a standard residential rental application, you should first send a pre-screener to any interested parties. This simple step can be a quick way to assess a candidate before going through the entire tenant screening process.

A pre-screener should ask for:

• Contact information,
• Current employment status and income,
• Self-reported credit score,
• Desired move-in date,
• Number of occupants,
• Smoking status, and
• Pet information.

Pre-screeners are a great way to assess an applicant’s essential data, and TurboTenant allows landlords to customize them for each application.

Federal Application Laws

To ensure a level playing field for all U.S. residents applying for housing, several federal laws protect renters nationwide, including the:

Fair Housing Act (FHA): This landmark federal law prohibits landlords from discriminating against applicants based on protected characteristics, including:

• Race,
• Color,
• Sex,
• Religion,
• National Origin,
• Disability, and
• Familial status.

It’s illegal to deny an applicant based on a protected class, meaning landlords can’t even ask about them. For instance, asking a question like, “What is your race?” or “What is your religion?” is against the law. The FHA applies to landlords, property managers, and anyone employed by the owner(42 U.S.C. §§ 3601–3619).

Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA): The Equal Credit Opportunity Act prohibits landlords from discriminating against an applicant based on the same criteria as the FHA, including those who have received public assistance or lived in public housing. These regulations also dictate how a landlord may assess a credit report, providing reporting guidelines for applicants (15 U.S.C. §§ 1691–1691f).

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): The ADA forbids landlords from denying an application based on a disability. It also requires landlords to provide reasonable accommodations for a renter’s disability after they move in (42 U.S.C. §§ 12101–12213).

Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA): Under the FCRA, landlords must get written consent from the applicant before running a credit check. If a landlord denies an applicant due to their credit history, they must also notify them (15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq.).

Civil Rights Act of 1866: Landlords cannot deny an applicant based on race or color and must treat all applicants equally (42 U.S.C. § 1981).

Hawaii Application Laws

Just as the federal government has enacted regulations to ensure fair housing decisions nationwide, Hawaii’s landlord-tenant laws address nuances specific to the state. These statutes include laws addressing discrimination in real property transactions.

Source of income: Landlords in Hawaii are not allowed to discriminate against an applicant based on their previous participation in public housing or Section 8 initiatives (Haw. Rev. Stat. § 368F-2)

Criminal history: Landlords in Hawaii cannot enforce “blanket bans” on applicants solely because of a criminal history. However, no other restrictions apply to landlords in the state when considering criminal history.

Eviction history: Hawaii does not limit a landlord’s ability to consider an applicant’s eviction history when making a rental decision.

Sexual orientation & gender identity: Hawaii has added sexual orientation, gender expression, age, and HIV-infection status as protected characteristics. These protections prevent landlords from discriminating against applicants based on these details (Haw. Rev. Stat. § 515-3)

Portable tenant screening reports: Some states allow the use of a previous tenant screening document (also known as a portable tenant screening report) when applying for housing. Hawaii currently has no laws addressing the use of these reports.

Pets, ESAs, and Service Animals

Pet information: If a landlord accepts pets, collecting information about the applicant’s pets is a good idea when the applicant is applying for the rental unit. The pet section should include questions about the type, breed, number, and size.

Fair Housing Act: The FHA prohibits landlords from denying applicants because they have a service or emotional support animal (ESA). Even though a landlord can’t deny an application on this basis, the tenant may still be liable for any damages an animal causes to the unit.

Denial Process

Landlords should assess all applicants consistently to avoid discrimination claims or illegal tenant screening. When selecting tenants, landlords can legally deny an application based on poor credit history, insufficient income, adverse rental history, criminal history, or incomplete or false information.

Denial notice: Hawaii does not require landlords to issue a denial notice when rejecting an application.

Credit/Background denials: The FCRA requires landlords to issue an adverse action notice if denying an application based on a credit check. The notice must contain:

• The name of the firm that performed the tenant screening,
• Language explaining that applicants have the right to refute the report, and
• Contact details for the firm that ran the check (15 U.S.C. § 1681m).

Document storage: If a Hawaii landlord owns four or more units in the same building (or three or more units in total), they must store all relevant documents for at least 1 year. This includes rental applications, lease agreements, advertising materials, and anything related to leasing the property (Haw. Rev. Stat. § 12-46-304). Landlords can use TurboTenant to store this information for free.