DEEDS

HAWAII DEEDS

Trust your transfer to Hawaii Document Service

GERALD A. GARCIA, ATTORNEY-AT-LAW
BARBARA A. ANDERSEN, SENIOR PARALEGAL

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WE PREPARE:

  • Quitclaim Deeds
  • Assignment of Leases
  • Apartment Deeds
  • Warranty Deeds
  • Timeshare Deeds
  • Hawaii Real Property Transfer On Death Deeds (Not recommended for timeshares)
  • Mortgages, Mortgage Loan Notes, Release of Mortgages
  • Land Court Petitions and Orders

our attorney and staff can handle your hawaii real estate document needs. we have extensive experience in conveying title for real property throughout the hawaiian islands.

For over 20 years Hawaii Document Service has been providing service to owners of Hawaii real estate and assisting them with successfully transferring their Hawaii real estate, whether you need to put your property into a Trust (to avoid probate), add a new co-owner, remove an existing owner, or otherwise change the status of title to your Hawaii real estate.

Hawaii Property is Unique

Hawaii has two state-wide land recording systems – Regular system and Land Court. Individual counties do not record Deeds or other conveyance documents. Certain Hawaii properties are registered in our Land Court system, while others are recorded in the Regular System. Some properties are recorded in both systems.

Not all property in Hawaii is fee simple. Hawaii property can also be long-term leasehold property; or a combination of fee simple and leasehold.

It is therefore extremely important to utilize the services of a licenced Hawaii attorney to prepare and record Hawaii real estate documents.

Whether you have a home, a vacant lot, a Condominium or Timeshare, we can prepare and record the appropriate document customized to your particular situation.

Hawaii’s Two Systems for Recording Documents

All conveyance documents are recorded by the Bureau of Conveyances of the State of Hawaii, including regular system property or Land Court property. Individual Counties DO NOT record conveyance documents.

The Bureau of Conveyances will record documents that meet the recording requirements of the State of Hawaii. If a document does not meet their requirements, it will be rejected.

However, successfully recording a document does not mean that title has been properly transferred, or that the document recorded was drafted correctly. The Bureau of Conveyances does not make any determination as to the current status of title and whether or not the document they record is valid. Future title problems can surface because of errors contained in the recorded document (or prior document) which may not be discovered until some future time. If title problems are discovered later, they may not be able to be corrected, so it’s very important that the document be prepared by a licensed Hawaii attorney, experienced in conveyancing.

hawaii's two systems are:

Regular system:
Currently all timeshares are recorded in our regular system, even if they were initially recorded in the Land Court system.

Any property not registered with Land Court gets recorded in the regular system.

Land Court system:
Land Court was established in 1903 to administer the Torrens System of land registration. Once a property has been submitted to the Land Court system, all subsequent documents (other than Timeshare documents) must be recorded in the Land Court system and must comply with all Land Court requirements, which are very stringent. A new Transfer Certificate of Title is issued (or a note inserted on the certificate) every time a title transfer is made and accepted by the Bureau of Conveyances for recording and then finalized by the Land Court.

The requirements for Land Court registered property are very stringent and Deeds must comply. Sometimes, it’s necessary to Petition the Land Court Judiciary and obtain a Land Court Order before a new transfer can be recorded. Examples of the necessity for a Land Court Petition and Order would be a divorce, a marriage, a death of a Trustee or co-owner or a mistake in a prior document that can be corrected by a Petition.

Double system:
Some properties must be recorded in both our Land Court system and our regular system; called “double system” recording. Problems sometimes arise in the future if it’s discovered that a document only got recorded in one of the systems.