Hawaii · Law checked October 19, 2026

Hawaii tax sale: your deadline, your office, your money

Behind on property taxes in Hawaii? Your house can be sold at a tax sale — here's how much time you have to stop it. Your house was sold at a tax sale in Hawaii? The extra money from the sale may be yours to claim — and there's a deadline. Both answers are on this page, from the statute.

Count my Hawaii deadline

How Hawaii sells

The machine, in four lines

Door one: getting the house back (redemption)

Your window: 1 year from the sale (if the deed is not recorded within 60 days after the sale, 1 year from the deed's recording instead), counted from the sale date. Statute-verified

What it costs to redeem: The amount the buyer paid + the costs and expenses the buyer had to pay (including the deed recording fee) + interest at 12% per year.

Source: Haw. Rev. Stat. §231-67

Before any sale: your quieter doors

Payment plans: No state payment-plan right found — county discretion.

Deferrals (senior / veteran / disability): None found.

Door two: the extra money (surplus)

Who holds the money: the County Director of Finance.

Your claim window: The state statute (§231-70) sets no claim window — surplus is paid after state taxes, and disputed claims go to circuit court. County ordinance fills the gap in at least Hawaii County: lienholders must claim within 1 year of the sale and the taxpayer within 2 years. Confirm the window with your county, in writing. Statute-verified

If nobody claims it: Under the Hawaii County ordinance, surplus left after lienholders, taxes, and a timely taxpayer claim goes into the county general fund.

Source: Haw. Rev. Stat. §231-70; Hawaii County Code ch. 19

The county figure rule. This page gives you the law — the window, the formula, the office. The exact payoff or surplus figure lives in the County Director of Finance / county tax collector's books and changes as interest runs. Ask that office for the figure, in writing, and keep the letter.

Included in the $49 TaxSaleDecoded Kit

  • The surplus claim pack: how to prove the house was yours (deed records, address history, ID), the claim-form path in your state, and what to do when the county says it has no record of your money
  • The redemption playbook: your state's window and cost formula worked step by step, who to pay, how to prove you paid, and the traps in the payoff figure (added fees and interest)
  • The heirs page: the house was a parent's — what changes, which papers prove you are an heir, and the point where it stops being simple
  • The scam shield: how surplus-recovery companies work, the fee caps your state sets for them, and the assignment papers you should never sign
  • The lookback module: what Tyler won, what Pung limited (the extra money is the sale price minus the debt — not your home's value), and the dated state lookbacks, including Illinois claims that die in July 2028

Get the TaxSaleDecoded Kit — $49

One payment of $49. No subscription. The kit is a web page you can return to and print — the claim pack, the redemption playbook, the heirs page, and the scam shield.

All 50 states · The surplus, explained · Redemption, explained