City and County of Honolulu

How to Search Property and Court Records

A Real Property Assessment and a Bureau of Conveyances hold different pieces of the same property's history, and knowing which one to search saves time. The Real Property Assessment's office assesses each parcel's value for tax purposes and publishes a searchable record — owner name, assessed value, lot size, building details, and the parcel's legal description — usually searchable by owner name, address, or parcel ID.

The Bureau of Conveyances's official records index is where deeds, mortgages, liens, satisfactions, and other recorded documents actually live. If you need to confirm who holds title to a property, trace a chain of ownership, or check for an outstanding lien, that's a Bureau of Conveyances search, not a Real Property Assessment search. Court dockets — civil, probate, family — are typically a separate search within the same office.

Why this matters for insurance and title work: confirming the named insured matches the recorded owner, checking for liens before binding a policy, and verifying a legal description all start with these two offices. Search tools and coverage vary by county — some counties use one shared portal for both, others keep them fully separate.