Is Your Home in Regular System or Land Court? Here’s How to Check:

Hawaiʻi's two property systems, in plain English

Hawaiʻi is one of the few places in the country that runs two separate systems for tracking who owns land. Both are handled through the Bureau of Conveyances, but they work differently.

The Regular System is a recording system. Deeds, mortgages, and other documents are recorded in order, creating a public paper trail. To figure out who owns a property, you trace that chain of documents.

Land Court is a registration system (known as a Torrens system), dating back to 1903. Instead of relying on a chain of documents, the court registers title and issues a Certificate of Title. That certificate is the official record of who owns the property and what affects it.

Land Court was designed to give owners extra certainty about title. The trade-off is that it's more formal: documents have stricter requirements, and filings can take longer to process.

The system has been shrinking over the years. Hawaiʻi moved timeshare interests out of Land Court entirely, owners can voluntarily deregister their property, and lawmakers have even introduced bills to phase Land Court out altogether. But a large number of Hawaiʻi homes, especially on Oʻahu, are still in Land Court today.

Wait, my property can be in both?

Yes. Some properties have a foot in each system. This is common with condominiums and with parcels that were pieced together over time. Part of the property, or certain documents affecting it, may be in Land Court while others are in the Regular System. In those cases, documents sometimes need to be recorded in both places.

If that sounds confusing, it is. That's exactly why it's worth knowing which situation you're in before it matters.

How to tell which system your home is in

Pull out your deed or your title report from when you bought the property and look for:

Find your deed on the Bureau of Conveyances website portal:

• A Transfer Certificate of Title (TCT) number or Land Court Document number: your property is registered in Land Court.

• A Regular System document number (sometimes called a Bureau of Conveyances document number): your property is in the Regular System.

• Both: your property, or documents affecting it, may be in both systems.

If you can't find your paperwork or can't tell, a title company or an estate planning attorney can check for you. Call us at (808) 400-3888