Hurricane Season and Storm Damage for Oʻahu Rental Owners

Imagine the storm has moved on. It is the morning after, the sky over Oʻahu is clearing, and your tenant calls. Rain was driven in under the sliding door to the lanai overnight. The living room floor is wet, the carpet in the bedroom next to it is soaked, and the outlet by the door has stopped working.

You call your insurance company, report the damage and are told an adjuster will be assigned. The sensible next step seems to be to wait for the insurer, find out what is covered, and then fix things.

That plan treats the storm as one problem with one process. But the water under that door has already set several separate things in motion. Your duties as a landlord began with the call. Your insurer has its own procedure. Your tenant has rights over the rent for a bedroom nobody can sleep in, and in a condominium the association has a claim of its own. They all respond to the same damage, and none was designed to wait for the others.

Once you see how they fit, the order is fairly simple. The work that keeps the home livable and stops the damage spreading comes first, on the law's deadline, whatever your insurer is doing. If you are making a claim, permanent repairs wait until the adjuster has inspected or your insurer says to go ahead. And the rent for the part your tenant cannot use gets agreed in writing in between.

The deadline that started with the phone call

Start with the outlet. Your tenant is still living there, and a dead outlet beside a wet floor is not something to leave until the adjuster's visit. Under HRS 521-64, when the electrical system, the plumbing or anything else the home needs to be sanitary and livable stops working, you have three business days to begin repairs. The notice does not have to be in writing, so that morning's phone call started the count.

The rule asks you to start within that time and then finish as soon as possible, in good faith. It runs from your tenant's notice, and nothing in it pauses while your insurer gets organized.

If something beyond your control keeps you from starting in time, the statute requires you to tell your tenant the reasons for the delay and to set a reasonable tentative date for the work to begin. Miss the deadline and your tenant can have the work done and take it off the rent, with receipts, up to $1,000 or one month's rent, whichever is greater.

The same section has two other repair deadlines, for problems less common after a storm; our maintenance guide covers all three. On a property we manage, we work with your tenant and arrange the repairs.

What can happen before the adjuster arrives

That raises an obvious worry: if repairs start before the adjuster has seen anything, are you cleaning up the evidence the claim depends on?

The state Insurance Division's advice to people filing a claim answers this, because it treats the work as two different jobs. First, secure the property to prevent further damage and keep receipts for the materials you use, and set damaged items aside for the adjuster. Second, do not begin permanent repairs until the adjuster has inspected the damage or your insurer tells you to go ahead.

In that living room, the line is easy to see. Getting an electrician to the dead outlet, drying out the bedroom and stopping more water coming in under the door keeps the home livable and the damage from spreading, which is the work the three business days are about. Replacing the flooring or rebuilding the door frame is permanent repair, and if you are filing a claim, it waits for the adjuster or your insurer's go-ahead. Not every storm repair sorts this neatly, so if one sits close to the line, ask your insurer first.

Photograph everything before anyone cleans up. Then write down six things while they are fresh: the date, the time, where the damage is, whether anyone was living there, how it happened, and when it was found. That is what an insurer will ask for, and getting it down the same day is most of the work.

Somewhere in that first day it is worth asking whether this is a claim at all. If the damage is estimated to be less than your deductible, the Insurance Division notes, the insurer does not issue a check and the repair is yours to pay. When the likely cost sits near or under the deductible, a price negotiated directly with a vendor can be the better outcome, and on a property we manage that comparison is the first question we ask. Whether to file is your decision, made with your insurer or agent.

What a storm's name does not decide

Then there is the deductible, and after a hurricane the hurricane deductible looks like the obvious one. The Insurance Division says most companies use what it calls a 72-hour clause: damage in the 72 hours after a hurricane watch or warning is issued is covered under the hurricane policy. Timing is part of the answer.

Hurricane Lala, in August 2026, showed how much can depend on it. Its classification changed during the event, and watches and warnings went out at different times for different islands. Afterward the Insurance Commissioner told insurers in Memorandum 2026-7A that a hurricane watch, a warning or a named storm does not by itself decide which coverage or deductible applies. The policy language and the facts of the loss decide it: where it happened, when, and what actually caused it.

So even inside the insurance process, storm damage is more than one question. For the water under that sliding door, what counts is when it came in, what caused it and what your policy says. If an insurer denies or limits coverage, the memo says it should point to the provisions it relied on and explain why. If you are not told, ask.

The bedroom nobody can sleep in

All this time your tenant is living around a bedroom that cannot be used. The rent question has an answer in HRS 521-65, though not a number. When fire or another casualty makes part of the home unusable and your tenant did not cause it on purpose, they can stop using that part and then owe no more than the fair rental value of the part they still use.

That sets a ceiling but does not calculate the figure. If nobody works one out, you are left to argue about it later, so put the new rent in writing while the work is going on, in the same note that tells your tenant when the work starts and when you expect it to be done.

If the whole home is unusable, your tenant can move out, and under the same section the lease ends the day they leave, as long as they tell you within a week. If they do not, rent runs until you find out. HRS 521-63 adds a second route: when a home is not fit to live in, or there is an immediate threat to someone's health or safety, a tenant can leave without giving you the usual notice first. It is one more reason the repair deadline comes first.

The same storm in a condominium

Now move the same sliding door into a condominium, and much of the claim belongs to someone else. Under HRS 514B-143 your association insures the common elements, and in a building with attached units the units too, so far as that coverage is reasonably available. A loss under that policy is adjusted by and with the association, and the money goes to the association. The building claim is not yours to make.

What stays with you is different. The association's policy does not have to cover what owners installed themselves: fixtures, appliances, air conditioning, water heaters and built-in cabinets. And the association's deductible can find its way to you. If your unit is one of the ones damaged, the board can require you to pay it, with no hearing first and no cap in the law.

So two numbers are worth having before the season: the master policy deductible, which the board or managing agent can give you, and whether your own policy would pay your share. The state Real Estate Branch notes that, depending on the policy, an owner's policy can cover association deductible assessments. Our condo management page has more.

Four situations after a storm

Put together, the morning after comes down to four situations.

What you can only settle before June

All of that happens after a storm. Central Pacific hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30, so May is the time to get ready.

What your policy will pay after a storm is for your insurance agent to confirm, so start there. Ask whether you have hurricane coverage in place, since in Hawaii that usually means a separate policy on top of your homeowners policy, and what your deductible is in dollars. Hurricane deductibles here are usually a percentage, so ask what amount it is based on, and ask your agent to review the policy for gaps.

Give whoever manages the property a second name who can approve an emergency repair when you cannot be reached; if a storm takes your phone service out, the three business days keep running anyway. And get a record of the home's condition now, so a photograph taken after a storm has something to compare with. Our inspections produce that record, done by a team member or the tenant.

So, back to that phone call about the water under the door. The first thing to do is get the repair started, because your tenant's call began a deadline of three business days and your insurer's schedule does not change it. Take photos before anything is cleaned up, and if you are making a claim, hold off on replacing the flooring or the door frame until the adjuster has seen it or your insurer says to go ahead. While the work is going on, agree the rent for the bedroom in writing. If your deductible, a backup approver and a condition record are already sorted before June, most of that morning comes down to a few phone calls.

Talk to us before the season

If you own a long-term rental on Oʻahu, settle the practical side of storm season before June: who can approve an emergency repair when you cannot be reached, and a current record of the home's condition. Call (808) 427-7778 or contact us and we'll go through the property with you. Questions about coverage, your deductible or whether to file a claim belong with your insurance agent.

Request a rental analysis Call (808) 427-7778

Sources

• HRS 521-65, tenant's remedies for fire or casualty damage; HRS 521-64, repair timelines and the repair-and-deduct remedy; HRS 521-63, termination where the unit is uninhabitable.
• HRS 514B-143, condominium insurance and deductible allocation; DCCA Real Estate Branch, "Insurance Policies, Types" (May 2025).
• Hawaii Insurance Division, "Frequently Asked Questions on Hurricane Insurance" and the Division's 2025 homeowner premium comparison, for hurricane cover, the 72-hour clause, claim steps and percentage deductibles; Commissioner's Memorandum 2026-7A, Hurricane Lala claims.
• Central Pacific Hurricane Center, season dates.

This article is general information for rental property owners and is not legal or insurance advice. It describes Hawaii law as it stood on the date of writing. The terms of your own policy govern your coverage. For a specific situation, consult a Hawaii attorney or a licensed insurance professional.