How to file a mechanics lien in Hawaii

Step by step

13 steps for a subcontractor in Hawaii.

1. 1

   Step 1: Check every licence in the chain before you sign anything

   Before you sign the contract, and again if the job runs long. The licence has to be good for the whole time the work is performed.

   Hawaii kills lien rights over licensing, and it kills them for other people's failures. Two separate bars. First: if you were required to be licensed under HRS ch. 444 and were not licensed when the improvements were made, you have no lien. Second: if you are a sub or sub-sub, you have no lien if the general contractor or higher-tier sub who hired you was required to be licensed and was not - even if your own licence is spotless. Suppliers and equipment lessors get the same treatment on residential jobs: no lien for furnishing to a contractor who was required to be licensed and was not.

   Where it goes

   Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Professional and Vocational Licensing - Public License Search (mypvl.dcca.hawaii.gov/public-license-search/).

   How

   Run every name in the chain through the State's Public License Search before you sign - your own entity, the party who hired you, and the general contractor. Match the exact legal name on the contract, not the trade name on the truck. Save a dated screenshot or printout of each result. Re-run them if the job stretches past a renewal date.

   Proof to keep

   Dated printouts of each licence search. The signed contract showing the licensed entity's exact legal name. Your own renewal records covering every day you worked on the job.

   What the document must contain

   • Licence number for your entity, for the party who hired you, and for the general contractor
   • The licensee's exact legal name as it appears on the contract
   • Licence type and classification
   • Status (active / expired / suspended) and expiry date
   • The date you ran the check

   If you miss it: No lien at all - not a late lien, no lien right. The judge dismisses the Application at the hearing and you are left with an unsecured breach-of-contract claim against a company that is already not paying you.

   Haw. Rev. Stat. 507-49(a), (b)(opens the statute in a new tab)
2. 2

   Step 2: Log the job so you can prove it at a live hearing

   From the first day work is visible on site until your last day.

   Hawaii's lien relates back to the "visible commencement of operations," and that date decides whether you beat the bank's mortgage. Your amount, your dates and what you furnished all get tested in open court where the other side is allowed to put on evidence against you. Weak records equal a small lien or none.

   Where it goes

   Your own records. Keep them somewhere you can pull them in a week, because that is all the notice you will get before the hearing.

   How

   Photograph the site the first day work is visible, with a date. Keep daily logs, signed delivery tickets and change orders. If you rent equipment, log the days the machine was actually in use - not the days it sat on the rental invoice, and not hand tools.

   Proof to keep

   Dated site photos, daily logs, signed delivery tickets, change orders, invoices and the contract itself.

   What the document must contain

   • Date of visible commencement of operations
   • Your first and last day of labor or delivery
   • A description of the labor or material furnished
   • The amount owed and how it is calculated
   • For rented equipment: actual use dates and the reasonable rental value for those days only

   If you miss it: At the return-day hearing the court can allow the lien only in "the net amount which the court determines is the reasonable probable outcome" of the dispute. Thin records mean the judge cuts your number.

   Haw. Rev. Stat. 507-41; Haw. Rev. Stat. 507-43(a); Haw. Rev. Stat. 507-46(opens the statute in a new tab)
3. 3

   Step 3: Watch the court clerk's Notice of Completion record - nobody will call you

   Start the moment the job looks close to done, and keep going until you are paid. Check every week or two. Your 45 days can start and expire without one word to you.

   This is the single biggest way liens die in Hawaii. Your 45 days do not run from your last day. They run from the statutory "date of completion": the moment the owner or the general contractor finishes publishing a notice that the improvement is completed or abandoned - twice, seven days apart, in a newspaper of general circulation in that county - AND the newspaper files the affidavit of publication, with a copy of the notice, with the clerk of the Circuit Court. Nothing is served on subs or suppliers. The clerk keeps a book called the "Notice of completion record," arranged alphabetically by owner name. That book is your only reliable warning. (Private work only - on a public job there is no lien to protect.)

   Where it goes

   Clerk of the Circuit Court where the property is situated: First Circuit (Oahu), Second (Maui, Molokai, Lanai), Third (Hawaii Island), Fifth (Kauai, Niihau).

   How

   Call or visit the Circuit Court clerk for the circuit where the property sits and ask them to check the Notice of Completion record under the owner's name. Do it on a calendar reminder, not when you remember. Also scan the legal notices in the county's general-circulation newspaper. If you have counsel, make monitoring an explicit part of their engagement.

   Proof to keep

   A dated note of every check you made and what the clerk told you. A file-stamped copy of the notice of completion and the affidavit of publication once one appears.

   What the document must contain

   • The owner's name exactly as it appears on title - the record is indexed alphabetically by owner
   • The tax map key or legal description so the clerk can confirm the right parcel

   If you miss it: The 45 days run out and the lien is gone. There is no relief for not knowing - the statute does not require anyone to tell you.

   Haw. Rev. Stat. 507-43(f); Haw. Rev. Stat. 507-44(opens the statute in a new tab)
4. 4

   Step 4: Make a written demand for payment

   As soon as it is clear the money is not coming - and in every case before you file the foreclosure action.

   Hawaii will not let you foreclose until you have demanded the amount due and been refused, or the other side has neglected to pay on demand. Courts treat that demand as a condition precedent: something you have to plead and prove. It is a paperwork step that quietly sinks otherwise good claims.

   Where it goes

   To the party who contracted with you - and, at filing, embedded in the Application and Notice.

   How

   Send a dated written demand stating the exact amount due, by a method that produces a delivery record. Then repeat it: HRS 507-47 expressly lets you include the demand inside the Application and Notice, and when you do, you do not need to make a separate demand on anyone else. Do both.

   Proof to keep

   The demand letter, the delivery receipt or tracking record, and any reply. Emails with full headers. A dated log of unanswered calls.

   What the document must contain

   • The exact amount due
   • The job and the property
   • The contract or account the debt arises under
   • A clear demand for payment
   • The date

   If you miss it: You can file on time, win the Order Directing Lien To Attach, and still lose the foreclosure action because you cannot prove demand and refusal.

   Haw. Rev. Stat. 507-47(opens the statute in a new tab)
5. 5

   Step 5: On a State or county job: there is no lien - send the bond notice within 90 days

   Within ninety days from the date you last performed labor or last furnished material. This is a hard condition precedent, not a best practice.

   You cannot lien State or county property in Hawaii. On a public construction contract over $25,000 the prime contractor posts a payment bond for the protection of everyone supplying labor and material, and that bond is your entire remedy. Written notice to the contractor AND the surety within 90 days of your last day is an express condition precedent to any suit on the bond. Two more things: you cannot sue until 90 days have passed unpaid since your last day, and federal projects are governed by the federal Miller Act, not this section. If you are the prime contractor on a public job, this is your bond to post, not to claim on.

   Where it goes

   The prime contractor and the surety named on the payment bond.

   How

   Serve by registered or certified mail to the contractor and to the surety, at any place they maintain an office or conduct their business - or in any manner authorised by law to serve a summons. Send two separate notices. Get the bond copy from the purchasing agency before you need it.

   Proof to keep

   Registered or certified mail receipts and return cards for BOTH the contractor and the surety. A copy of the notice. Your last-day records - delivery tickets, timesheets, daily logs.

   What the document must contain

   • The amount claimed, stated with substantial accuracy
   • The name of the party to whom the material was furnished or for whom the labor was performed
   • The project and contract identification
   • The date, and your last date of labor or material

   If you miss it: No bond suit, ever. And because public property cannot be liened, you have no fallback security at all - just an unsecured claim against whoever hired you.

   Haw. Rev. Stat. 103D-324(a)(2), (d); Att'y Gen. Op. 72-13 (annotated to Haw. Rev. Stat. 507-42)(opens the statute in a new tab)
6. 6

   Step 6: Count your 45 days from the earliest date that could be "completion"

   File not later than forty-five days after the date of completion of the improvement. Filing early is fine - the statute sets only the outside limit.

   There are three candidate anchors and you must use the earliest one that could apply. (1) If a notice of completion has been published and the affidavit of publication filed with the clerk: 45 days from that filing. (2) If not yet published: count from substantial completion or actual abandonment, not final completion. A notice of completion is only effective once there has been substantial completion - so the statutory date can arrive BEFORE your punch list is done, and an owner who publishes at substantial completion can have your window closed before you finish. (3) The one-year backstop in HRS 507-43(g) is not breathing room: it only applies while no valid notice has been published within one year of actual completion or abandonment, and the owner can collapse it to 45 days the day they publish. Never count from your own last day on the job - that is the most common wrong answer in Hawaii, and it is late whenever a notice of completion has already run.

   Where it goes

   Your calendar, with the real deadline and a working deadline at least seven days before it.

   How

   Exclude the first day, include the last (HRS 1-29). If day 45 lands on a Saturday, Sunday or state holiday, court rules probably push it to the next business day - HRCP Rule 6(a) excludes all three and by its terms covers periods prescribed "by any applicable statute" - but no Hawaii decision holds that a procedural rule can enlarge this perfection period. Treat day 45 as hard and set your internal deadline a week earlier.

   Proof to keep

   A file-stamped copy of the notice of completion and affidavit from the clerk. Dated photos, a certificate of occupancy, or owner correspondence fixing substantial completion. Your contemporaneous notes on how you fixed the date.

   What the document must contain

   • The affidavit-of-publication filing date, if a notice of completion has been filed
   • The substantial-completion or abandonment date
   • Your own last-furnishing date - needed for the public-works bond clock, NOT for the lien

   If you miss it: The lien is gone and cannot be revived. Hawaii case law holds that defects in the notice cannot be cured by amendment after the statutory period expires (21 H. 585, 588 (1913)).

   Haw. Rev. Stat. 507-43(b), (f), (g); Haw. Rev. Stat. 1-29; Haw. R. Civ. P. 6(a)(opens the statute in a new tab)
7. 7

   Step 7: File the Application For A Lien and the Notice Of Lien in Circuit Court

   On or before day 45. Earlier is better - service and the hearing all have to happen after this.

   You file two documents together as a special proceeding: an "Application For A Lien" and a written "Notice Of Lien" setting forth the alleged facts by virtue of which you claim a lien. This is a court case, not a recording. Say it out loud: filing these does not give you a lien.

   Where it goes

   Clerk of the Circuit Court where the property sits - First (Oahu), Second (Maui), Third (Hawaii Island), Fifth (Kauai). The Circuit Courts are the courts that hear mechanics' liens. Not the Bureau of Conveyances, and not a county recorder.

   How

   File with the Clerk of the Circuit Court of the circuit where the property is situated. Attorneys must e-file through the Judiciary Electronic Filing System (JEFS); a self-represented party MAY register for JEFS but is not required to, and a paper filing keeps the receipt date as its filing date. Bring the original plus enough copies for every person you have to serve. If the claimant is an LLC or a corporation, a Hawaii-licensed attorney must file - a corporation cannot represent itself in a Hawaii court. Fees: $30 for the initial paper under HRS 507-43 (RCCH Rule 2.2 item 12), in addition to the HRS 607-5 part I fee for bringing the HRS 507-47 action, which is $200 for a civil action or special proceeding. Ask the clerk which they collect at filing.

   Proof to keep

   File-stamped copies of BOTH documents, the fee receipt, and the case number. You will need the case number to watch the docket.

   What the document must contain

   • The amount of the claim
   • The labor or material furnished
   • A description of the property sufficient to identify it - the land, not just the structure, described well enough that a prospective purchaser or creditor could identify it
   • The name of the assignor, if the claim has been assigned
   • The names of the parties who contracted for the improvement
   • The name of the general contractor
   • The names of the owners of the property and of any person with an interest in it
   • Any other matter necessary to a clear understanding of the claim
   • A separate written Notice Of Lien setting forth the alleged facts
   • Optional: names of mortgagees or other encumbrancers, and the name of the general contractor's surety
   • Strongly recommended: the HRS 507-47 demand for the amount due, which the statute expressly permits you to include
   • No notarisation and no verification is required by statute - but a supporting declaration is customary, because you carry a probable-cause burden at the hearing

   If you miss it: Nothing is filed and the 45 days pass. A description that identifies only the building and not the land has been held insufficient, and cannot be fixed by amendment after the period runs.

   Haw. Rev. Stat. 507-43(a), (b); RCCH Rule 2.2 (items 12-13); Haw. Rev. Stat. 607-5(b)(1); Haw. Rev. Stat. 605-2(opens the statute in a new tab)
8. 8

   Step 8: Serve both documents like a lawsuit - certified mail does not count

   Immediately after filing. The hearing is set not less than three nor more than ten days after service, so the day you serve sets the whole schedule.

   A copy of BOTH the Application and the Notice must be served in the manner prescribed by law for service of summons. That means personal service. Mail does not do it. And the judge cannot enter the Order Directing Lien To Attach until the party who contracted for the improvement, the general contractor and the owner have all been served and given an opportunity to appear.

   Where it goes

   On the owner of the property; on any person with an interest in it; and on the party or parties who contracted for the improvements, if different.

   How

   Use the sheriff or a deputy, a person specially appointed by the court, or any person who is not a party and is at least 18 years old. Deliver personally to the individual - or, if they cannot be found, leave copies at their dwelling with a person of suitable age and discretion residing there. For a company, deliver to an officer or a managing or general agent. If a person entitled to notice genuinely cannot be served, the statute lets you give notice by posting it on the improvement. Serving one joint tenant, tenant in common or tenant by the entirety serves them all. Serving someone acting under an unrevoked power of attorney from the owner serves the owner.

   Proof to keep

   The process server's return of service for every single person, filed with the court before the return day. Photographs and a dated declaration if you had to post on the improvement.

   What the document must contain

   • A complete copy of both the Application and the Notice for each person served
   • A return of service filed with the court for every person
   • If you posted instead: a dated declaration of the attempts you made and photographs of the posting

   If you miss it: No Order, no lien. Certified mail will not perfect it, and without service on the contracting party, the general contractor and the owner the judge cannot enter the Order at all. Separately: if no service is made within six months after filing, the court can dismiss the case on its own - and by then your 45 days have closed, so you cannot re-file.

   Haw. Rev. Stat. 507-43(a), (c), (d); Haw. R. Civ. P. 4(c), (d); RCCH Rule 28(opens the statute in a new tab)
9. 9

   Step 9: Show up at the return-day hearing and prove your number

   The return day - not less than three nor more than ten days after service. The court can continue it, but the return date itself is mandatory (68 H. 228, 708 P.2d 140 (1985)).

   This is where the lien is won or lost. The judge decides whether probable cause exists to permit the lien to attach. Every person entitled to notice may offer testimony and documentary evidence against you. If the party who hired you claims a set-off, or anyone disputes the amount, the court hears all admissible evidence and may allow the lien only in the net amount it determines is the reasonable probable outcome of the dispute. On dwelling property the unreasonable-advancement-of-credit question is decided here too. The lien does not attach until the court finds probable cause and so orders.

   Where it goes

   The Circuit Court where you filed.

   How

   Appear in person or through your attorney, with your evidence organised and paginated: contract, invoices, delivery tickets, daily logs, dated photos, the demand letter, licence printouts for you and the party above you. Expect a set-off argument and have your answer ready. The person claiming a set-off carries the burden of establishing it (2 H. App. 90, 626 P.2d 204 (1981)).

   Proof to keep

   The signed Order Directing Lien To Attach, and the DATE IT WAS ENTERED. That date - not your filing date - starts the three-month enforcement clock. Also keep the hearing minutes or transcript.

   What the document must contain

   • Evidence supporting the amount claimed and how it was calculated
   • Proof the labor or material was furnished and incorporated
   • Licence proof for you and for the party who hired you
   • On residential work: the signed HRS 444-25.5 contract, dated before your first day
   • If you are a supplier on a home: the current signed credit application or your credit-inquiry file

   If you miss it: No Order means no lien. The return date is mandatory. Miss the hearing and you have a court file that secures nothing, with your 45 days already spent.

   Haw. Rev. Stat. 507-43(a); Haw. Rev. Stat. 507-49(a)(opens the statute in a new tab)
10. 10

    Step 10: Land Court property: file the certified Order within 7 days

    Within seven days after entry of the Order Directing Lien To Attach. One week. Start the day it is signed.

    If title to the property, or any portion of it, is registered in the Land Court, you must file a certified copy of the Order Directing Lien To Attach with the assistant registrar of the Land Court in order to preserve your rights against subsequent encumbrancers and purchasers. (It does not apply where the lien is claimed solely against lessees' interests in leasehold time share interests under HRS 501-20.) This is a one-week window buried inside the subsection about filing deadlines, and it is easy to read past.

    Where it goes

    Office of the Assistant Registrar of the Land Court, Bureau of Conveyances, Honolulu. Confirm with your title company or the Circuit Court whether the parcel is Land Court registered or Regular System.

    How

    Ask the Circuit Court clerk for a certified copy of the Order the day it is entered, then file it with the Office of the Assistant Registrar of the Land Court at the Bureau of Conveyances. Budget a recording fee - the Bureau's fees are set by Department of Land and Natural Resources rules under HRS 502-25(a), not by statute, and we could not verify a current figure. Telephone the Bureau before you go.

    Proof to keep

    The Bureau's recording stamp showing the date and document number. Your certified copy. A note of the date the Order was entered, so you can show you were inside the seven days.

    What the document must contain

    • A certified copy of the Order Directing Lien To Attach
    • The Land Court certificate of title number for the parcel

    If you miss it: The lien survives but loses priority against anyone who buys the property or records an encumbrance afterwards. On a leveraged property that can make your lien worth nothing.

    Haw. Rev. Stat. 507-43(b); Haw. Rev. Stat. 502-25(a)(opens the statute in a new tab)
11. 11

    Step 11: Watch the moves the other side can make

    From before you file until the case is over. Some of these can be fired at any moment, without warning to you.

    Hawaii has no notice of contest and no demand-to-commence-suit that shortens your time. What it has instead is worse, because it is quieter. (1) Notice of completion - the owner or the general contractor can publish one at any time and start your 45 days; a general contractor can even force the issue by making written demand on the owner to publish and, if the owner fails to publish within five days of the demand, publishing it themselves. (2) Cash or bond discharge - the owner, lessee, principal contractor or an intermediate subcontractor can file cash or a bond for twice your claim with the Circuit Court clerk or the Land Court assistant registrar, and your lien comes off the land; your claim then runs against that security. (3) Owner retainage - the owner may hold back from the contractor enough to cover your lien, which can turn the party who hired you against you. (4) Late credit defence - a person who did not appear at the return day can still raise unreasonable advancement of credit at any time before the final or interlocutory foreclosure decree. (5) On a residential job the owner can bring a third-party action against a licensed contractor it has already paid, under HRS 444-28(g).

    Where it goes

    The Circuit Court docket; the clerk's Notice of Completion record; the Land Court assistant registrar.

    How

    Keep checking the clerk's Notice of Completion record under the owner's name, and pull the court docket by your case number. If the lien is bonded off, confirm the amount of the security and keep prosecuting the claim against it - a discharge is not a dismissal.

    Proof to keep

    Dated copies of everything the other side files. The bond or cash-deposit paperwork if your lien is discharged, and the receipt showing what was deposited.

    What the document must contain

    • Your case number, so you can pull the docket
    • The owner's name exactly as on title, for the completion record

    If you miss it: A notice of completion you never saw ends your filing window with nothing you can do. A discharge you do not follow leaves money sitting with the court while your claim ages out.

    Haw. Rev. Stat. 507-43(f); Haw. Rev. Stat. 507-45; Haw. Rev. Stat. 507-48; Haw. Rev. Stat. 507-49(a)(opens the statute in a new tab)
12. 12

    Step 12: Sue to foreclose within three calendar months of the Order

    Within three CALENDAR months after entry of the Order Directing Lien To Attach. Not 90 days. A "month" in Hawaii means a calendar month, so three months can be as short as 89 days - 1 February to 1 May, or 31 January to 30 April in a non-leap year. And it runs from the Order, not from the day you filed.

    The lien expires three months after entry of the Order unless proceedings are commenced within that time to collect the amount due by enforcing it. There is no extension mechanism in the statute. The lien simply dies.

    Where it goes

    Circuit Court of the circuit in which the property is situated.

    How

    File a foreclosure action in the Circuit Court of the circuit where the property is situated. The complaint sets out a claim in the nature of assumpsit and prays for foreclosure of the lien. Plead and prove the demand and the refusal or neglect to pay. Hawaii treats proceedings as commenced when the declaration is filed and process issued with intent that service be made promptly (14 H. 448 (1902); 52 H. 298, 475 P.2d 362 (1970)) - so file AND get the summons out, do not just file.

    Proof to keep

    The file-stamped complaint with its date. The summons and the return of service. The Order with its entry date, so you can show you were inside the three months.

    What the document must contain

    • A claim in the nature of assumpsit
    • A prayer for foreclosure of the lien as to which notice has been filed
    • The demand and the refusal or neglect to pay
    • The Order Directing Lien To Attach and its entry date
    • Parties with interests in the property - other claimants, lienors, encumbrancers, sureties and indemnitors may be joined, interpleaded or permitted to intervene

    If you miss it: The lien expires. You keep whatever contract claim you have, but the security is gone - and if the property has sold or been refinanced in the meantime, you are simply an unsecured creditor.

    Haw. Rev. Stat. 507-43(e); Haw. Rev. Stat. 1-20; Haw. Rev. Stat. 507-47(opens the statute in a new tab)
13. 13

    Step 13: On a public job: sue on the bond after 90 days and within one year

    You may sue once ninety days have passed since your last day and you are still unpaid. You must sue no later than one year after the day you last performed labor or supplied material.

    The payment bond suit is your whole remedy on a State or county job - there is no lien to fall back on. If the sureties' liability is not enough to cover all the claims, the State is paid first and the remainder is distributed pro rata among the claimants.

    Where it goes

    Circuit Court of the circuit where the project is located.

    How

    File against the contractor and its sureties in the Circuit Court of the circuit in which the project is located. You do not need to join the obligee named in the bond.

    Proof to keep

    The 90-day notice and its registered or certified mail receipts for both recipients. The bond. Your last-day records.

    What the document must contain

    • Proof you gave the 90-day written notice to BOTH the contractor and the surety
    • The amount unpaid
    • Your last date of labor or material
    • The payment bond

    If you miss it: The one-year bar is absolute - no such suit shall be commenced after the expiration of one year after the day on which the last of the labor was performed or material supplied.

    Haw. Rev. Stat. 103D-324(d), (e)(opens the statute in a new tab)

Who can claim a lien in Hawaii

Where you file

Office

Clerk of the Circuit Court of the judicial circuit where the property is situated (State of Hawai'i Judiciary - 1st/O'ahu, 2nd/Maui, 3rd/Hawai'i Island, 5th/Kaua'i). NOT a recorder's office; nothing is recorded to create the lien. Secondary, conditional step: if title to the property or any portion of it is registered in the Land Court, a certified copy of the Order Directing Lien To Attach must additionally be filed in the office of the assistant registrar of the land court within 7 days after entry of the Order, to preserve the lienor's rights against subsequent encumbrancers and purchasers.

Recording fee

$30–$230

Notarization

Not required

How it is served

Served like a court summons

Copies

1

Fees and office procedures change; confirm them with the recording office before you file.

What trips people up in Hawaii

• Counting the 45 days from your last day on the job. It runs from the statutory "date of completion" in HRS 507-43(f), not from your last furnishing. Even the best-known commercial lien guide gets this wrong on its own page: Levelset's Hawaii page says in its "5 Things to Know" that the deadline is "45 days from the last date labor or materials were furnished" while its FAQ on the same page correctly says completion. Both statements were live when we checked on 2026-09-17. Any answer built from summary bullets rather than HRS 507-43(b) inherits that error, and the error is in the late direction.
• Waiting for someone to tell you the job is finished. The owner or GC publishes a notice twice in a county newspaper, seven days apart, and the newspaper files the affidavit with the Circuit Court clerk. Nothing is mailed to subs or suppliers. The clerk's "Notice of completion record" (HRS 507-44) is your only warning, and you have to go look at it.
• Treating the one-year backstop as your deadline. HRS 507-43(g) deems completion at one year ONLY where no valid notice was published within a year of actual completion or abandonment. The owner can collapse that horizon to 45 days the day they publish. Never plan around it.
• Anchoring on final completion instead of substantial completion. A notice of completion is effective once there has been substantial completion - so the statutory date of completion can arrive before your punch list is done. Count from the earlier of substantial completion and the affidavit filing, never from your final day.
• Thinking that filing creates the lien. It does not. The lien attaches only when the judge finds probable cause and enters the Order Directing Lien To Attach after a contested hearing (HRS 507-43(a)). A claimant who files, serves, and then assumes they are secured has secured nothing.
• Serving by certified mail. HRS 507-43(a) requires service in the manner prescribed by law for service of summons - personal service under HRCP Rule 4. Mail does not perfect it, and the court cannot enter the Order until the contracting party, the general contractor and the owner have been properly served and given a chance to appear.
• Skipping the return day. The return date is mandatory (68 H. 228, 708 P.2d 140 (1985)). The hearing is where set-offs are heard and where the court can allow the lien only in the net amount it thinks you would probably win.
• Reading "three months" as 90 days. HRS 1-20 makes a month a calendar month, so three months can be 89 days. And the three months runs from entry of the Order Directing Lien To Attach, not from your filing date. Both halves of that mistake run in the late direction.
• Suing without having made demand. HRS 507-47 makes demand and refusal a condition precedent that has to be pleaded and proved. Put the demand inside the Application and Notice - the statute expressly allows it and says you then need no separate demand on anyone else.
• Assuming your own clean licence is enough. HRS 507-49(b) destroys a properly licensed sub's lien if the general contractor or higher-tier sub that hired it was required to be licensed and was not. Check the licence of the party above you, not just your own.
• Believing the residential disclosure rule does not reach an owner-builder client. It does. HRS 444-25.5(c) was amended in 2013 (L 2013, c 176, sec. 4) to define "homeowner" as the owner or lessee of residential real property, including condominium and cooperative units, "notwithstanding owner-builder status." A 2005 appellate decision held otherwise under the pre-2013 text and is STILL printed in the official annotations - it no longer controls. Relying on the old exemption forfeits the lien at contract signing.
• Extending credit to a residential contractor on a handshake. HRS 507-49(a) lets the judge find the advancement of credit unreasonable and refuse the lien, and a party who skipped the return day can raise it any time before the final decree. Credit is only prima facie reasonable if you hold a current credit application with the enumerated items or made a reasonable credit inquiry.
• Filing a lien on a public job. There is none - Hawaii public works are not subject to a mechanic's lien (Att'y Gen. Op. 72-13, in the official annotations to HRS 507-42). Worse, the days you spend on it burn the 90-day HRS 103D-324(d) bond notice, which is a condition precedent you cannot cure afterwards. This is the single most expensive wrong answer available in Hawaii.
• Describing only the building. The property description must let a prospective purchaser or creditor identify the LAND. Descriptions of structures alone have been held insufficient, and defects in the notice cannot be cured by amendment after the statutory period expires.
• Over-claiming rented equipment. HRS 507-41 covers tools, appliances and machinery used during construction but expressly excludes hand tools, and caps the claim at the reasonable rental value for the period of ACTUAL use. Padding invites the judge to cut the lien at the probable-cause hearing.
• Assuming a weekend rollover. HRS 1-29 excludes the last day only if it is a Sunday or a holiday, and leaves Saturday to the rules of court. HRCP Rule 6(a) does exclude Saturdays and does apply to periods prescribed "by any applicable statute," so rollover is probably available - but no Hawaii decision holds that a procedural rule can enlarge a lien-perfection period. Do not be the test case. File early.
• Filing as a company without a lawyer. HRS 605-2 lets an individual appear and prosecute their own cause, but the official annotation to that section records that "generally a corporation cannot represent itself in litigation, but can do so only by an attorney" (60 H. 372, 590 P.2d 570 (1979)). An LLC or corporation needs Hawaii counsel to file the Application.
• Doing association work on a condo and expecting a lien. If the association contracted for work on the common elements after the association's first meeting, there is no lien on the common elements at all - contractual remedies only (HRS 514B-43(d)). A building-wide re-pipe for an AOAO gets you no lien against the units or the common elements.

After you file

• Get the return-day date from the clerk and put it in your calendar the same day. It is three to ten days after service and it is mandatory.
• File a return of service for every person served, before the return day. No service on the contracting party, the general contractor AND the owner means the judge cannot enter the Order at all.
• Appear at the hearing with your evidence. Expect a set-off argument. The person claiming the set-off carries the burden of establishing it, but you still have to answer it.
• The minute the Order Directing Lien To Attach is entered, write down the entry date and circle it. That date - not your filing date - starts the three-calendar-month enforcement clock.
• Land Court parcel? Certified copy of the Order to the assistant registrar within seven days, or you lose priority against later purchasers and encumbrancers.
• Keep service moving even after the hearing. RCCH Rule 28 lets the court dismiss the action on its own, with written notice, if no service is made within six months after filing - reinstatement only on a motion filed within ten days of the dismissal order, and RCCH Rule 2.2 item 14 charges $30 for that motion. RCCH Rule 12(q) adds an eight-month want-of-prosecution dismissal if no pretrial statement is filed. A dismissal here is uncurable: your 45 days closed long ago and you cannot re-file.
• Watch for a HRS 507-45 cash or bond discharge. If the owner, lessee, principal contractor or an intermediate sub deposits twice your claim, the lien leaves the land and your claim follows the security. Keep prosecuting it - the money is with the court, not with you.
• Confirm your demand is pleaded and provable before you file the foreclosure complaint. Demand and refusal is a condition precedent to enforcement under HRS 507-47.
• File the HRS 507-47 foreclosure action inside the three calendar months AND get process issued with intent to serve promptly. Hawaii treats proceedings as commenced at that point, not at the moment of filing alone.
• Understand how the money gets split before you plan around it. Wage claims up to $300 per claimant are paid first as a class; the remaining mechanics' liens share pro rata according to the principal amounts, without regard to who filed first or who sued first (HRS 507-46, 507-47). Filing first buys you the deadline, not priority over other claimants.
• When the claim is satisfied, a written notice of satisfaction is filed with the Circuit Court clerk at the lienee's expense and noted in the mechanics' lien record - and, on Land Court property, also with the assistant registrar (HRS 507-46).