Kalawao County Foreclosure Resources

Both paths exist in Hawaii. Non-judicial foreclosure under a power of sale is the common path, and it was significantly reformed in 2012 by Act 182. However, a borrower has the right to convert a non-judicial foreclosure to judicial foreclosure, which brings the matter under court oversight. Which path applies to your loan changes your timeline, the notices you receive, and where a defense is filed.

It is Hawaii's state-funded foreclosure mediation program, available to owner-occupants of residential property. You request it after the notice of default is served. It gives you a structured process to work out the default before a sale occurs, and it is one of the strongest protections available to a Hawaii homeowner facing foreclosure.

Generally not on residential property. Hawaii prohibits a deficiency judgment after a non-judicial foreclosure of residential property under Haw. Rev. Stat. § 667-105, and non-judicial is how most Hawaii residential foreclosures proceed. If the matter is foreclosed judicially, a deficiency is permitted but the court applies a fair-value offset, so the lender is limited to the gap between the debt and the property's fair market value.

You may cure the default by paying the full amount in default plus fees and costs up to 3 days before the sale. That is a comparatively generous cure window. Note that Hawaii has no post-sale right of redemption, so the cure period and MFDRP mediation are the principal pre-sale opportunities to keep the property.

Under the 2012 reform, the notice of default must be served personally or by certified mail — constructive notice is not sufficient — and it must inform you of your option to convert the matter to judicial foreclosure. The public sale notice must then be published three times, once a week for three weeks. Because these requirements are strict, a defect in service or publication can be the basis for challenging the foreclosure.

Kalawao County is the smallest county in the United States by population, a remote settlement on the Kalaupapa peninsula of Molokai. It is unlike any other county in the country: the peninsula historically served as a Hansen's disease isolation settlement, and today it is administered largely as a state and national historical park with very restricted public access, no conventional residential real-estate market, and no ordinary inventory of homes for sale. Because there is effectively no market in the usual sense, a standard foreclosure analysis does not map onto it in the way it does for Hawaii's other counties. Hawaii's foreclosure law still applies statewide — non-judicial power-of-sale foreclosure under Act 182, with a borrower's right to convert to judicial foreclosure and MFDRP mediation available to owner-occupants — but the practical circumstances here are genuinely unique.