Land · Hawaii tax sale guide

Kauai County tax sales, Hawaii

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Kauai holds its sale in May at the same Lihue venue in the county announcements found for this record, on May 23, 2024 and on May 22, 2025, each time starting at 9 a.m. The Collections Section sits in the Lihue Civic Center area at 4444 Rice Street, Suite 463, and its normal hours in the county announcements are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. The one sale related item the Collections page itself publishes is about money left over after a sale, with a Notice of Surplus Funds form and a Claim for Surplus Funds form listed among its forms and information.

Selling office: County of Kauai, Department of Finance, Real Property Collections Section, 4444 Rice Street, Suite 463, Lihue, HI 96766, Phone: 808-241-4272

Next sale: The most recent sale in the county announcements is the 2025 Real Property foreclosure sale on May 22, 2025, beginning at 9 a.m. at the Kauai War Memorial Convention Hall. The county does not publish a 2026 sale date on its Collections page, and no 2026 sale announcement was found among the county releases.. The May 22, 2025 date, time and venue appear in the county news release of May 15, 2025, which announced that the Real Property Collections office would close from 9 to 11 a.m. that day to accommodate the sale. The 2024 release gives the same venue and start time for May 23, 2024 and points readers to the foreclosure sale information on the county property tax site.

Contact the Real Property Collections Section at 808-241-4272 or rpc@kauai.gov before planning around a Kauai sale, and ask for the sale date, the list, and the payment and registration rules, because the county page does not publish them and the announcements found for this record end with the May 2025 sale.

Dates and deadlines

Sources: Billing and Collections Section, County of Kauai. Real Property Collections office to close May 22 from 9 to 11 a.m., County of Kauai news release, May 15, 2025. Real Property Assessments, Collections Office will close at 9 a.m. on May 23, County of Kauai news release, May 17, 2024. Confirm with the selling office before relying on any date on this page: sales move, terms change, and parcels are pulled up to sale day.

Research Kauai County parcels before you bid

A sale list gives you the parcels, the date, and the opening terms. It does not give you the owner, the value, or the rest of the picture: liens, foreclosure status, and parcel history. PropertyRadar is the data platform for that layer. It carries owner records, assessed and market values, foreclosure and tax data, and property history for parcels across Kauai County, searchable by address, owner, or county, including parcels that never reach a sale list.

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How Hawaii tax sales work

• The lien ages three years. Hawaii real property tax is a county tax collected under county ordinance in the pattern of the state tax lien law: property on which a tax lien has existed for three years is sold to satisfy it (HRS 231-63).
• Notice runs for a month. The sale is advertised once a week for at least four successive weeks immediately before it, a notice goes to each owner by registered mail at least 45 days ahead, and notice is posted in the taxation district, on the land itself where it is improved (HRS 231-63).
• The sale is a public auction. The property is sold to the highest bidder, for cash, at the county published venue, opening at an upset price of the whole amount of taxes, penalties, interest and costs due on the parcel, as each county published list states it (HRS 231-63).
• The deed follows payment. On payment of the purchase price the county delivers the tax deed, which vests title in the purchaser, and the deed is recorded within 60 days after the sale (HRS 231-67).
• Redemption runs one year. The taxpayer may redeem within one year from the date of sale by paying the purchaser the amount paid, all costs and expenses including the deed recording fee, and interest at 12 percent a year. If the deed was recorded late, the year runs from the recording instead, and no interest is added for the extension (HRS 231-67).
• Surplus goes to the person entitled. A price above the lien, penalties, interest and costs is surplus, rendered to the person entitled to it; where entitlement is in doubt the claim is settled in circuit court, and the state statute sets no claim deadline (HRS 231-63 and 231-70).

How buying works in Kauai County

The county does not publish bidder registration or qualification rules for this sale on its Collections page or in its sale announcements.

• Where buying happens At the county sale, in person, at the venue and hour in the county published notice. Each county page names the selling office, the venue, and the list for the current sale from that county own publications.
• Registration is light, payment is not County notices generally register bidders at the sale and require payment the same day under the notice payment rules. The operative terms are set sale by sale in the current notice, so read the notice for the sale you plan to attend rather than a prior year terms.
• The upset price is the strategy Every parcel opens at everything owed. A parcel whose upset price already exceeds its value draws no bids and stays with the county; the parcels worth the trip are the ones where the upset price leaves room after the redemption year is priced in.

Terms: what a bid actually costs

Parcels that receive no bids

The county does not publish what happens to a parcel that receives no bid at or above the upset price on its Collections page or in its sale announcements. The Collections page also does not publish an upset price rule for this sale.

Before you bid

• Budget the redemption year The owner can redeem for a full year at the price paid plus costs and 12 percent interest. A Hawaii purchase is a year of carrying the position before the property is fully the buyer to use, finance or resell.
• Read the county list, not the state pattern Dates, venues, payment forms and leftover handling are set county by county and sale by sale in Hawaii. The published list for the sale in front of you is the operative document, and it supersedes anything a prior sale did.
• Title takes work A Hawaii tax deed is routinely followed by a quiet title action before the property can be financed or resold at full value. Put the legal work in the bid before sale day, not after it.

Every Hawaii county in this set

One page per county, each verified against the county's own sale notices and the current text of HRS sections 231-63, 231-67 and 231-70. Hawaii has four counties that levy real property tax; this set is all four.

• City and County of Honolulu tax sales
• Maui County tax sales
• Hawaii County tax sales
• Kauai County (this page)

Keep going

Once a deadline puts you in a sale, the Land Investor Due Diligence Toolkit is the checklist and bid worksheet to run on each parcel before you bid. The same desk runs Florida tax deed sales, Texas tax sales, Pennsylvania tax sales, Georgia tax sales, North Carolina tax foreclosure sales, Ohio tax foreclosure sales, Illinois tax lien sales, Michigan tax foreclosure sales, Arizona tax lien sales, California tax defaulted property sales, Colorado tax lien sales, South Carolina tax sales, Indiana tax lien sales, Tennessee delinquent tax sales, Wisconsin tax deed sales, Missouri tax sales, New Jersey tax lien sales, Maryland tax lien sales, West Virginia tax sales, Virginia tax sales, Oklahoma tax resale, Kansas tax foreclosure sales, Arkansas tax-delinquent land sales, Alabama tax sales, Kentucky certificate of delinquency sales, Mississippi tax land sales, Nevada tax deed sales, New Mexico delinquent property tax sales, Iowa tax lien sales, Nebraska tax certificate sales, Minnesota tax-forfeited land sales, Utah final tax sales, Washington tax foreclosure sales, Oregon tax foreclosure sales, Connecticut tax sales, Massachusetts tax title sales, Rhode Island tax sales, Vermont tax sales, New Hampshire tax lien sales, Maine tax lien sales, Delaware tax sales, Louisiana tax sales, Idaho tax deed sales, Montana tax lien assignments, Wyoming tax lien sales, South Dakota tax certificate sales, North Dakota tax deed sales, Alaska tax foreclosure sales and Hawaii tax sales, and the proven New York season, with the live membership, sits in the NY tax sale hub.