How to find who owns a property in Oahu, HI
The City and County of Honolulu Real Property Assessment Division lists the owner on the tax roll for every parcel in Oahu (Honolulu County); the last deed recorded with the State of Hawaii Bureau of Conveyances is what makes someone the owner of record. A HeritageDeed report does this for one address in Oahu: $49, usually within minutes, with the source of every finding.
Step by step in Oahu
- 1
Look up the parcel
Search the City and County of Honolulu Real Property Assessment Division by address for the parcel number and the owner on the tax roll.
- 2
Confirm with the recorded deed
The tax roll can lag a sale: the last deed recorded with the State of Hawaii Bureau of Conveyances is what makes the new owner the owner of record.
- 3
Note how title is held
The deed names the grantee exactly (an individual, a couple, a trust or a company), which is whose name to search for liens.
- 4
Or order the report
A HeritageDeed report runs these searches for one Oahu address and lists every finding with its source, $49, usually within minutes.
What Oahu records show
Hawaii records land documents statewide at the Bureau of Conveyances, a division of the Department of Land and Natural Resources, rather than in each county. Every parcel is identified by its tax map key (TMK): the island division, zone, section, plat and parcel.
Hawaii has two recording systems. In the Regular System a document is recorded and indexed by the parties' names and the TMK. In the Land Court system (registered land) title is held by a certificate of title and documents are registered against it; the Bureau keeps both and a parcel's report says which applies.
What the report checks in Oahu
- The parcel's tax map key and location from the statewide parcel records, and the owner of record from the latest title-transferring document in the Bureau's index
- Deeds, mortgages, releases, assignments and other documents the Bureau has indexed to the parcel, in both recording systems
- Documents indexed under the owner's name as grantor, for loans and liens not indexed to the parcel
- Federal court records matched to the owner
- Flood zone and federal environmental sites near the parcel
Not covered here
- A condominium unit is searched by its fee parcel's tax map key and the owner's name; documents registered only under the unit's own key are not read.
- Loans of earlier owners are not searched under the seller's name, and delinquent property taxes are not searched.
Questions
What does a HeritageDeed search in Oahu not cover?
The Bureau's online index covers documents recorded from 1976; earlier instruments are not searched.
Is this title insurance?
No. It is a search of the public record for one Oahu property. A lender closing a loan will still require a title insurance commitment from a licensed insurer.
More about Oahu property records
Check the title of a Oahu property
AI title search, $49 per report. Usually ready in about a minute. Full refund if we can't deliver.