A deed was recently recorded transferring our ʻohana property to someone we have never met, and nobody in our family signed it. How does that happen, and how do we protect ourselves?

By Liʻulā Christensen, NHLC ʻOhana Services Team Litigation Director What you are describing is deed fraud, also called title theft. Someone forges a signature on a deed for property they do not own, has it notarized or fakes the notarization, and records it. From that moment, the public record shows a stranger owning an interest in the property. A 2025 Hawaiʻi News Now investigation identified at least eight Oʻahu properties, from Waiʻanae to Hawaiʻi Kai, whose titles appear to have been taken this way between 2022 and 2025. It helps to understand why the recording system does not stop this. For lands not registered in Land Court, Hawaiʻi has a single statewide recording office, the Bureau of Conveyances (Bureau). Last year, the Bureau recorded over 278,000 documents or approximately 1,000 to 1,300 documents per day. The Bureau records documents in a ministerial capacity; it does not investigate whether a deed is valid or if the signatures on it are genuine.

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