Hawaii mechanics’ lien and bond deadlines
Work on Private Property
Hawaii lien deadline
Filing deadline
Hawaii is court-based: the claimant files an Application for Mechanic's and Materialman's Lien plus a Notice of Lien and Demand with the circuit court where the property lies, within 45 days after the project-wide Date of Completion (not the claimant's own last work). Date of Completion means the filing of an Affidavit of Publication of a Notice of Completion (published twice, 7 days apart, in a local newspaper) with the circuit court clerk; if no valid notice is published, completion is deemed 1 year after actual substantial completion or abandonment, giving effectively 1 year + 45 days. The court then holds a return hearing and, if contested, a probable cause hearing before ordering the lien to attach; the attachment order must be filed within 7 days with the Land Court Assistant Registrar (Land Court property) or recorded at the Bureau of Conveyances (Regular System).
Notice prerequisites
No preliminary lien notice is required from any claimant. On home construction or improvement work, the licensed contractor must, before or when the homeowner signs, explain in detail all lien rights and the homeowner's option to require a bond, and both parties must sign a written contract with the required disclosures before any work begins (H.R.S. § 444-25.5). Hawaii courts have held that a contractor who skips these steps has a void contract and cannot obtain a mechanic's lien on the home. Recovery is then limited to the reasonable value of the work, capped by the contract price.
Service on the owner
The Application and Notice must be served on the owner, every person with an interest in the property, and the contracting party if different; posting on the improvement substitutes when a party cannot be served; service on one co-owner binds all. The papers are returnable in court not less than 3 nor more than 10 days after service, so a 7-day service window must be hit.
Enforcement
Foreclosure suit must be commenced within 3 months (construed as 90 days) after entry of the order directing the lien to attach, in the circuit court where the property sits; if timely filed the lien survives until discharged. Probable-cause findings do not bind the foreclosure court, so the claimant proves the whole case again.
H.R.S. §§ 507-41 through 507-49, esp. §§ 507-42, 507-43; H.R.S. § 444-25.5
Hawaii Revised Statutes ch. 507, pt. II — published by the Hawaii State Legislature.
Work on Public Property
No mechanics lien attaches to public property in any state. On a government job the remedy is the prime contractor’s payment bond, and it runs on its own act with its own deadlines — not the lien deadlines above.
- Who — BOTH the contractor AND the surety. Hawaii requires the surety. § 103D-324.
- When — 90 days from your last furnishing. § 103D-324.
- How — See below — the section states the method.
- If late — The whole claim, for a claimant not in privity.
- Sue by — 1 year. § 103D-324.
Is there a bond at all?
HRS Sec. 103D-324(a): bonds are required 'if the contract which is awarded exceeds $25,000 and is for construction, or the purchasing agency secures the approval of the chief procurement officer,' and only 'Unless the policy board determines otherwise by rules.' The payment bond 'shall be in an amount equal to one hundred per cent of the price specified in the contract.' Sec. 103D-324(b): 'The policy board may adopt rules that authorize the head of a purchasing agency to reduce the amount of performance and payment bonds.' Both the requirement and the amount are therefore subject to administrative override, so the statutory $25,000 is a starting point rather than a certainty. AND IF THE BOND RUNS OUT, THE STATE IS PAID BEFORE YOU ARE. Sec. 103D-324(d): where 'the amount realized on the payment bond is insufficient to pay the full amount of the claims, then, AFTER PAYING THE FULL AMOUNT DUE THE STATE, the remainder shall be distributed pro rata among the claimants.' Two consequences: the fund available to claimants is the bond minus whatever the State is owed, not the bond; and among claimants there is no priority for being first, so filing early buys you nothing but a share. On a project where the State has its own claim against the contractor, a bond written at one hundred per cent of the contract price can still leave a claimant short.
Who can claim on it
HRS Sec. 103D-324(d): 'Every person who has furnished labor or material to the contractor for the work provided in the contract, in respect of which a payment bond or a performance and payment bond is furnished under this section.' Read literally the class is those who furnished TO THE CONTRACTOR, which is narrower than the federal Miller Act formula and would leave a supplier to a subcontractor outside the words - yet the bond itself is required 'for the protection of all persons supplying labor and material to the contractor for the performance of the work' (Sec. 103D-324(a)(2)), which is the same narrow phrase. The section contains NO privity proviso of the Miller Act kind, so it never expressly extends to or cuts off a second-tier claimant. 'The terms "labor" and "material" have the same meanings in this section as the terms are used in section 507-41.' How Hawaii courts treat second-tier and remote claimants is not answered by the text.
What notice you owe
EVERY CLAIMANT, in privity or not. This is Hawaii's departure from the federal model and from most states. HRS Sec. 103D-324(d): 'As a condition precedent to any such suit, written notice shall be given to contractor and surety, within ninety days from the date on which the person did or performed the last labor or furnished or supplied the last of the material for which claim is made.' There is no proviso limiting the requirement to claimants lacking privity with the prime - so a first-tier subcontractor who contracted directly with the general contractor, and who would owe no notice under the Miller Act, owes this one.
Who it goes to
BOTH the contractor AND the surety. Hawaii is one of the few states that requires the surety to be noticed as a condition of suit. The purchasing agency receives nothing.
By when
90 days, running from the claimant's own last day - 'within ninety days from the date on which the person did or performed the last labor or furnished or supplied the last of the material for which claim is made.' Separately, Sec. 103D-324(d) creates a 90-day waiting period before the right of action matures: the claimant must be one 'who has not been paid amounts due therefor before the expiration of a period of ninety days after the day on which the last of the labor was done or performed or material was furnished or supplied.'
How it must be served
HRS Sec. 103D-324(d): 'The written notice shall be served by registered or certified mailing of the notice, to the contractor and surety, at any place they maintain an office or conduct their business, or in any manner authorized by law to serve summons.'
What it has to say
'stating with substantial accuracy the amount claimed and the name of the party to whom the material was furnished or supplied or for whom the labor was done or performed.' Nothing further is enumerated.
If the notice is late, or never given
The whole claim, and in the strongest terms the statute could use: the notice is 'a condition precedent to any such suit.' Not a limitation on recovery, not a defense - a precondition to the action existing at all. There is no saving clause for defective or unprejudicial notice.
When the suit clock starts
HRS Sec. 103D-324(e): '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 was supplied for the work provided in the contract.' Read that phrase carefully and compare it with the notice clock in (d), which is expressly 'the date on which THE PERSON did or performed the last labor.' Subsection (e) omits 'the person' and says 'for the work provided in the contract,' which on its face points at the last labor or material on the CONTRACT rather than the claimant's own last day - so a claimant who finished early cannot count from its own last day.
How long you have to sue
1 year.
Where suit is brought
HRS Sec. 103D-324(e): 'Every suit instituted under subsection (d) shall be brought in the circuit court of the circuit in which the project is located... The obligee named in the bond need not be joined as a party in any such suit.'
The trap
Hawaii makes the 90-day written notice to BOTH the contractor and the surety an express condition precedent for EVERY claimant, so the first-tier subcontractor who dealt directly with the prime - and who would owe no notice under the Miller Act or in most states - loses the whole claim by assuming privity excuses it.
The act itself
No separate Little Miller Act. The payment bond lives inside the Hawaii Public Procurement Code, HRS ch. 103D.
Where this comes from
Haw. Rev. Stat. Sec. 103D-324, 'Contract performance and payment bonds.' The whole regime - bond requirement, right of action, notice, and limitation - is in this one section. It borrows definitions from HRS Sec. 507-41.
Hawaii Revised Statutes ch. 507, pt. II — published by the Hawaii State Legislature.
Statutory summary as of 31 July 2026. Not legal advice; confirm with a lawyer licensed in Hawaii.