Judgment liens in Hawaii
In Hawaii a judgment becomes a lien on land when a certified copy is recorded in one statewide office, not when the court signs it. This page covers that recording and the clock that follows it. It does not cover registered land, which runs on a separate track this page will not describe.
What to file, and where
One act, one office. A money judgment, order, or decree of a Hawaii state court or of the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii becomes a on real property when a copy certified as correct by a clerk of the court that entered it is recorded in the bureau of conveyances. HRS 636-31.
The judgment carries one more piece. Under HRS 636-3, it must contain or have endorsed on it the debtor's Hawaii tax identification number, federal employer identification number, or the last four digits only of the social security number. Four digits, not nine, which is the rare case where the record wants less of a person rather than more.
And the identifier is not a trap. Failing to disclose one of those numbers, or disclosing a wrong one, does not adversely affect or impair the lien created on recording, says HRS 636-3, in the same section that demands the number. A lien stands on the recording, not on the accuracy of the digits.
One kind of land does not follow any of this. For registered land, HRS 636-3 sends you to sections 501-241 to 501-248 and part II of chapter 501 instead. Those sections are not described here, so if the is registered, this page stops being the right map.
A map of the United States with Hawaii highlighted and labeled as the recording-a-certified-copy family. Every other state is drawn as not shown, because no filing act was classified for it here.
What it reaches
The exemption has holes in it, and HRS 651-92(b)2 names them.
No exemption under the section applies to process arising from a lien under section 507-42, a lien or security interest created by a or other security instrument, a federal or state tax lien, a county improvement district lien, or a lien or recorded against the real property before the owner acquired an interest in it and began living there. HRS 651-92(b). A mortgage on the parcel and a tax lien against it do not bend to the homestead.
What the section settles and what it leaves alone are two different things. The list in HRS 651-92(b) names the process the exemption does not stop. Whether a judgment lien recorded under HRS 636-3 attaches to exempt real property in the first place is a question the statute does not answer, and this page will not guess at it.
How long it lasts, and renewing it
The lien borrows its life from the judgment. No such lien continues beyond the length of time the underlying judgment, order, or decree is in force, under HRS 636-3. So the real clock is the judgment's clock.
That clock runs ten years. Unless an extension is granted, every Hawaii state court judgment and decree is presumed paid and discharged ten years after it was rendered. HRS 657-53. A lien cannot outlive a judgment the law treats as paid.
The extension has two deadlines, and they are not the same deadline. Under HRS 657-5, no extension may be sought more than ten years after the original judgment was rendered, and no court may extend any judgment beyond twenty years from the original. Ten years to ask, twenty years as the ceiling. Miss the first window and the second never opens.
An extension is a motion, not a formality. Notice and the filing of either a non-hearing motion or a hearing motion to extend the life of the judgment are required under HRS 657-5. For how these clocks compare across states, see how long a judgment lien lasts.
Land in another county
Hawaii does not send you county to county for this. A judgment is recorded to become a lien on real property in the bureau of conveyances. HRS 636-3.
That section names one office and no county recorder. Whether the bureau of conveyances is a single statewide office is not something HRS 636-3 states in those words, so confirm the office before you assume one recording reaches land on every island.
Homestead here, in one paragraph
Two numbers and who gets which. An interest in one parcel of Hawaii real property is exempt from attachment or execution under HRS 651-92.
That ceiling is a fair market value not exceeding $30,000 for a defendant who is the head of a family or sixty-five years of age or older, and not exceeding $20,000 for a defendant who is a person. HRS 651-92. Protection attaches to one parcel, not to a portfolio. For the same numbers set against other states, see homestead protection, state by state.
Where the records live
The record that creates the lien lives in the bureau of conveyances, and that is where to look for it. HRS 636-3.
A search there turns up the that was recorded, the identifier the section required, and the that starts the count. Remember that a missing or wrong identifier does not adversely affect or impair the lien, under HRS 636-3.
And a clean search of the bureau is not the whole picture when the land is registered. For registered land, HRS 636-3 routes you to the chapter 501 sections, which are a different set of records this page does not open. Start by asking which track the parcel is on.
Sources
Every section named above, with how current the text we read was. Read any of them yourself.
- HRS 636-3, Courts and Judicial Proceedings § 636-3. Read the section, opens in a new tab Back
- HRS 651-92, Courts and Judicial Proceedings § 651-92. Read the section, opens in a new tab Back
- HRS 657-5, Courts and Judicial Proceedings § 657-5. Read the section, opens in a new tab Back