Hawaii Property Records: How to Find Out Who Owns a Property (2026)

Hawaii runs a single, state-level recording office, the Bureau of Conveyances, instead of the county-by-county recorders used in most other states, and layers two parallel land title systems, the standard Regular System and the Torrens-style Land Court, side by side for the same properties.

Information last verified on 2026-07-16. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

How Property Records Work in Hawaii

Hawaii is structured differently from every other state in the country: there are no county recorders or registers of deeds anywhere in the state. All real property documents, deeds, mortgages, leases, and easements, for property on every island, Oahu, Maui, Hawaii Island, Kauai, and the smaller islands, are recorded in one place, the Bureau of Conveyances, a division of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources located in Honolulu (Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, Bureau of Conveyances). Hawaii's four counties still exist as local governments and still assess property for tax purposes, but property tax assessment is a completely separate function from recording; the counties have never recorded deeds since statehood, unlike almost every other state where the county is the primary or exclusive recording jurisdiction. For how this compares to the county-by-county model used almost everywhere else, see Property Records by State.

Because there is only one recording office, there is nothing to aggregate or consolidate the way Florida's Clerks or Georgia's GSCCCA had to build; the Bureau of Conveyances' own Land Title Records Online Search and Ordering System inherently covers the entire state in a single search. Searching the index is free after creating a required free account, but document images are not: search results display with a blurred, "not valid" watermark until purchased, at $1.00 per page for credit-card buyers, or through a monthly subscription, $50 per month plus $3 per document for the "Public" plan, or $1,000 per month for unlimited access, a pricing structure aimed mainly at title companies and other high-volume users rather than an occasional homeowner search.

Hawaii's Two Land Title Systems: Regular System and Land Court

Hawaii's single biggest structural difference from every other state is not the centralized recording office by itself, but that the Bureau of Conveyances actually operates two separate, parallel systems for establishing land title, and a given parcel is governed by only one of them, or in some cases a hybrid.

The Regular System works the way real property recording works in the other 49 states: a deed or other instrument is recorded, indexed, and archived, and an owner's title rests on examining the full chain of recorded documents back through prior owners. Title under the Regular System can still be affected by adverse possession, an undiscovered defect in the chain, or a forged instrument that was recorded but never should have been.

The Land Court system is different. Created by statute in 1903 and modeled on the Torrens system used in a handful of other jurisdictions worldwide, Land Court registration is optional, court-supervised, and produces a government-guaranteed Certificate of Title rather than relying on a private chain-of-title examination (Hawaii Bureau of Conveyances, FAQs). Once a parcel is registered in Land Court, every subsequent lien, mortgage, lease, or other interest must be formally noted directly on that parcel's Certificate of Title to be legally effective; a document that is merely recorded elsewhere without being noted on the Certificate does not bind the land. Land Court title cannot be lost to adverse possession. The land court is a Hawaii state court of record, and under Hawaii Revised Statutes section 501-1 it has exclusive original jurisdiction over applications to register title to land, power to decide all questions arising on those applications, and jurisdiction over the other questions chapter 501 sends to it. That exclusivity attaches to registration proceedings rather than to every dispute touching registered land, and Hawaii circuit courts can and do hear title disputes over Land Court property.

A property owner or buyer needs to know which system governs a specific parcel before relying on any document search, because searching the wrong system's records will not reveal the true state of title. Some parcels are also recorded as a hybrid "Dual System" property, appearing in both systems for historical reasons. The Bureau of Conveyances' own search system and staff can confirm which system governs a given parcel, and for any transaction involving Land Court property, a title company or attorney familiar with Land Court procedure, not just general real estate recording, is the appropriate resource.

How to Find Out Who Owns a Property in Hawaii

For a free, fast answer to who owns a specific parcel, start with the county real property tax office rather than the Bureau of Conveyances, since Hawaii's four counties still separately handle property tax assessment even though they do not record deeds. On Oahu, the City and County of Honolulu's Real Property Assessment Division runs a free public search by TMK, or tax map key, parcel number, owner name, or address, paired with a GIS parcel map (City and County of Honolulu, Real Property Assessment Division search). Maui, Hawaii, and Kauai counties each run comparable tools for their own islands.

To see the actual recorded deed or trace a chain of title, search the Bureau of Conveyances' Land Title Records Online Search and Ordering System. Searching the index by name or document reference is free once you create an account; viewing or downloading the actual document image requires paying the $1.00-per-page purchase fee, unless you only need the indexing information, grantor, grantee, document type, date, and book and page, rather than the document image itself. For a certified copy of a recorded document, the Bureau charges $10.00 plus $1.00 per page plus a $10.00 processing fee. A certified copy of a Land Court Certificate of Title is a separate line item on the Bureau's fee schedule, at a flat $10.00 (Hawaii Bureau of Conveyances, Recording Fees).

Deed Scam Mailers and Hawaii's Property Watch Alert

Hawaii homeowners are targeted by the same deed-solicitation mailer scam documented nationwide: a company sends an official-looking notice offering to sell a "certified copy of your deed" or a property profile, with fees documented elsewhere in the country typically running $82 to $95, styled with words like "official" and a manufactured response deadline (Minnesota Attorney General, "Real Estate Deed Solicitation"). A genuine certified copy from the Bureau of Conveyances costs $10.00 plus $1.00 per page plus a $10.00 processing fee, still a fraction of what these mailers charge, and most homeowners already received their original deed for free from their closing attorney or escrow company.

The Bureau of Conveyances runs a free service called Property Watch, which emails a registrant whenever a name they have registered, their own name, a relative's, or an entity's, appears as a party on a newly recorded document anywhere in the state (Hawaii Bureau of Conveyances, Property Watch). Because Hawaii has only one recording office, a single Property Watch registration covers the entire state, unlike multi-county states where an owner may need to register separately in each county where they hold property. The Bureau itself cautions that the service can miss variant spellings of a registered name and does not prevent a fraudulent document from being recorded in the first place; it only flags one after the fact.

A Property Records Search Is Not a Title Search

This is especially true in Hawaii, where determining whether a parcel is governed by the Regular System or Land Court, and confirming every interest is properly noted on a Land Court Certificate of Title, requires specialized knowledge a general public search cannot substitute for. A licensed title company or closing attorney evaluates the recorded chain, the assessment records, and, where relevant, the Land Court file together, a materially more thorough process than a self-directed lookup. Anyone buying, selling, or refinancing Hawaii real property should engage a licensed title company or real estate attorney experienced with Hawaii's dual system rather than relying on a DIY search alone.

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about how property records, recording, and land title work in Hawaii as of the verification date above. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. It is not a substitute for a licensed title company's title search or title insurance before a real estate purchase, and it is not a substitute for advice from counsel familiar with Hawaii's Land Court system. Fees and program details change; verify current details directly with the Bureau of Conveyances before relying on any figure here.

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Last updated: 2026-07-16. Figures and program details reflect their in-force version as of 2026-07-16.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why doesn't Hawaii have county recorders?

Hawaii has always centralized real property recording at the state level, at the Bureau of Conveyances in Honolulu, rather than assigning it to each county the way most other states do. The four counties handle property tax assessment separately, but never deed recording.

What is the difference between the Regular System and Land Court in Hawaii?

The Regular System establishes title by examining the chain of recorded documents, like most states. Land Court is an optional, court-supervised registration system that issues a government-guaranteed Certificate of Title, which cannot be defeated by adverse possession.

How do I find out who owns a property in Hawaii for free?

Search the county real property tax office for the island where the property is located, such as the City and County of Honolulu's Real Property Assessment Division search, by TMK parcel number, owner name, or address.

Is it free to search the Bureau of Conveyances' online records?

Searching the index is free after creating a free account. Viewing or purchasing an actual document image costs $1.00 per page, or requires a monthly subscription starting at $50.

What does a certified copy of a Hawaii deed cost?

A certified copy of a recorded deed costs $10.00 plus $1.00 per page plus a $10.00 processing fee. A certified copy of a Land Court Certificate of Title is a separate line on the Bureau of Conveyances fee schedule, at a flat $10.00.

What is Hawaii's Property Watch service?

It is a free alert service run by the Bureau of Conveyances that emails a registrant whenever their registered name appears as a party on a newly recorded document anywhere in the state.

Can adverse possession affect Land Court registered property in Hawaii?

No. Once land is registered in Land Court and a Certificate of Title is issued, that title cannot be lost to adverse possession, unlike property recorded only under the Regular System.