Hawaii HOA Lien Priority and Recording Rules

Hawaii HOA Lien Priority and Recording Rules

Hawaii has no single consolidated statute governing HOA lien priority for all community associations. Instead, condominium associations operate under Hawaii Revised Statutes Chapter 514B, and planned community associations follow Chapter 421J. Both statutes grant assessment liens a form of super priority over first mortgages for a limited amount, but your association must follow strict recording and notice procedures to preserve that priority.

How Hawaii Defines Lien Priority

Under Hawaii Revised Statutes Chapter 514B, a condominium association's lien for unpaid assessments takes priority over all other liens except property tax liens and prior recorded mortgages. However, the statute creates a critical exception. Your association's lien has super priority over even a first mortgage for up to six months of regular assessments that came due before the mortgagee took title through foreclosure or gave notice of intent to foreclose.

This six month cap means your lien sits ahead of a $500,000 mortgage only for the portion of assessments that accrued in the six months before the lender initiated foreclosure. If your monthly assessment is $400, your super priority claim would be $2,400. The remaining balance of unpaid assessments sits behind the mortgage in priority.

Planned community associations under Chapter 421J have a similar super priority structure, though the exact language differs. The six month window applies in both contexts, and both statutes require that your association record the lien in the Bureau of Conveyances to perfect its priority.

Where You Record Your Lien

You must record your assessment lien with the Hawaii Bureau of Conveyances, which is part of the Department of Land and Natural Resources. The Bureau maintains two recording systems. The Regular System covers most properties in Hawaii, while the Land Court System covers properties with registered Torrens titles. You need to determine which system applies to the unit or lot before you file.

Recording fees in Hawaii are $26 for the first page and $5 for each additional page in the Regular System as of 2025. Land Court recording fees are $36 for the first page and $5 for each additional page. These fees do not include any county surcharges or service charges that may apply in specific counties.

Your lien statement must include the name of the owner, a legal description of the property, the total amount due, and the period covered by the unpaid assessments. You must attach a copy of your governing documents or cite the recorded document number of your declaration. If you omit required information, the Bureau may reject your filing, and your priority date will be the date you successfully record a corrected lien.

Hawaii's Foreclosure Landscape

Hawaii uses a nonjudicial foreclosure process for most mortgages, which means lenders can foreclose without filing a lawsuit if the deed of trust contains a power of sale clause. This process moves faster than judicial foreclosure in many states, and it affects how quickly your association must act to protect its lien.

When a first mortgage lender forecloses, your association loses its lien priority for all amounts beyond the six month super priority cap. The foreclosure sale wipes out junior liens, including the portion of your assessment lien that sits behind the mortgage. You will not recover those amounts unless you intervene in the foreclosure or negotiate with the lender before the sale.

A real example from Oahu illustrates the stakes. In 2022, the Makaha Valley Towers Association recorded a lien for $18,000 in unpaid assessments against a unit owner. The first mortgage lender initiated nonjudicial foreclosure three months later. Because only three months of assessments accrued before the lender's notice, the association's super priority claim was limited to $1,200 at $400 per month. The foreclosure sale brought $310,000, enough to satisfy the mortgage balance of $285,000 and property taxes of $3,200. The association received its $1,200 super priority portion, but the remaining $16,800 was extinguished. The association spent two years attempting collection from the former owner with limited success.

What You Must Do to Preserve Priority

Start with your declaration and bylaws. Confirm that your documents grant the association a lien for unpaid assessments and specify the procedures for recording and foreclosing on that lien. If your documents are silent, you may still have lien rights under the applicable chapter of Hawaii Revised Statutes, but ambiguity creates risk.

Record your lien as soon as assessments become delinquent. Many associations wait 60 or 90 days, but early recording locks in your priority date and signals to other creditors that your claim exists. Check with your attorney about whether your governing documents require you to send a pre lien notice to the owner before recording.

Monitor foreclosure filings in your area. You can search public records through the Bureau of Conveyances or subscribe to a service that tracks foreclosure notices. When you learn that a lender has initiated foreclosure on a unit in your association, calculate your super priority amount immediately. If the six month cap will leave a significant balance unpaid, consider whether to intervene in the foreclosure or negotiate with the lender for payment of the full lien.

Document every assessment due date, payment received, and late fee assessed. If a foreclosure sale occurs and the lender disputes your super priority claim, you will need detailed records to prove which assessments came due in the six month window. A spreadsheet showing monthly charges, payments, and balances by date will support your claim.

Consult your attorney for your specific situation before you record a lien or respond to a foreclosure notice. Hawaii law allows associations to foreclose on their liens, but the process requires strict compliance with notice and procedural rules. An error in your lien statement or foreclosure notice can cost your association its priority or expose the board to liability.

How Recording Fees and Timing Affect Your Recovery

Recording fees and legal costs are typically recoverable as part of your lien claim, but only if your governing documents or the statute allow it. Review your declaration to confirm that you can add recording fees, attorney fees, and foreclosure costs to the amount due. If your documents are silent, you may need to amend them to include cost recovery language.

Timing matters because your priority date is the date you record the lien, not the date assessments came due. If you wait six months to record a lien and a lender records a second mortgage one month before your recording, that second mortgage may take priority over your lien except for the super priority portion. Early recording prevents this outcome.

Hawaii's super priority rule creates a narrow window of maximum protection, but it does not guarantee full recovery. If your association carries a large delinquency and the unit's market value is close to the mortgage balance, you will lose most of your claim in a foreclosure sale. The best protection is aggressive collection before foreclosure, including demand letters, payment plans, and early lien recording.

Using Manorway to Track Liens and Deadlines

Manorway's AI assisted platform helps you track assessment due dates, delinquent accounts, and lien recording deadlines in one system. You can generate lien statements with the required legal description and owner information, calculate your super priority amount, and set reminders for key dates in the foreclosure timeline. When your board documents every step of the collection and lien process, you create an audit trail that protects you in disputes with owners or lenders. The platform does not replace your attorney, but it gives you the data and timeline you need to make informed decisions about when to record, when to foreclose, and when to negotiate.