Hawaii HOA & condo associations in court: the numbers

Hawaii on the map

9 of the 387 communities with court records (rings, coloured by their most common case type) have an address or ZIP in the record and are drawn here; the rest have no location in any record and are not on the map, but stay searchable. Click a pin for the community's report, or open the full-screen map.

HOA Spy indexes 2,299 Hawaii homeowner and condominium associations. 387 of them appear in 728 court records — 0 from county and state trial courts, 559 from appellate courts and 169 from federal dockets. Hawaii ranks 15th of the 15 states with the most court records on HOA Spy. Every number on this page is computed from official court and county records; data as of 2026-10-02.

The facts

• Ten associations account for 14% of all Hawaii court records on file. At the other end, 259 of the 387 communities with any record appear in exactly one case.
• It cuts both ways: associations were the plaintiff in 241 records and the defendant in 299.
• The busiest year on file was 2019, with 49 records.
• Appellate cases make up 77% of the records (559): decisions of the state's appellate courts. Next come Other cases (72).
• HOA Spy indexes no Hawaii trial court yet, so these are appellate decisions (559) and federal dockets (169) only — the county-court suits where most HOA litigation happens are not counted here.
• 38 records are fair-housing, disability-accommodation or other civil-rights suits — the kind of case a buyer with a service animal or an accessibility request should know about.

What the cases are about

Each court record is labelled by its nature of suit the way the map colours it. Hawaii's 728 records break down as:

• Appellate559 · 77%
• Other72 · 10%
• Civil Rights38 · 5%
• Foreclosure21 · 3%
• Insurance18 · 2%
• Collections9 · 1%
• Property9 · 1%
• Labor1 · 0%
• Tax1 · 0%

Appellate: decisions of the state's appellate courts · Other: dockets that carry no nature of suit or one outside these groups (county civil dockets often say only "civil") · Civil Rights: fair-housing, disability-accommodation and other civil-rights claims · Foreclosure: the association foreclosing its lien, or named in a lender's foreclosure · Insurance: coverage disputes with an insurer · Collections: assessment, debt and contract claims · Property: property and condominium disputes · Labor: employment and labor claims · Tax: tax matters

Who is suing whom

The side comes from the role the court recorded for the association where the docket gives one, otherwise from which side of the “v.” the association's name sits. Appeals, petitions and association-versus-association captions stay undetermined.

Filings by year

court records · 2026 is partial

The oldest records on file date from 1980. Years reflect the filing date on the docket (the decision date for appellate opinions); records with no date are left out. Coverage grows as courts are added, so part of any rise is HOA Spy reaching more dockets — see the sources below.

Where the cases are

The county is the community's own (from its registration or ZIP), not the court's. Courts with the most Hawaii records: Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals (383); Hawaii Supreme Court (176); District Court, D. Hawaii (168); Supreme Court of the United States (1).

Associations with the most court records

A long record is not by itself a verdict on a community: a large association collecting assessments through the courts can have hundreds of small-claims entries. Open the profile to see what the cases are and who brought them.

How Hawaii compares

The states with the most court records on HOA Spy. The share column is the part of each state's indexed communities that appear in at least one case; it depends on which courts are indexed there as much as on the communities themselves.

Where this data comes from

• Federal dockets and state appellate opinions: CourtListener (RECAP archive and bulk data, snapshot 2026-09-30)
• Association roster: DCCA Real Estate Branch AOUO contact list (PDF) (1,869 records)
• IRS roster: IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File (71 records)
• Not collected: eHawaii business data list builder — paid
• Not collected: Bureau of Conveyances (statewide recorder) — fee/subscription

Most HOA litigation happens in state trial courts, which have no national index; HOA Spy reads the portals it can. A Hawaii community outside the indexed courts can have cases this page does not count. Names are matched conservatively, so an ambiguous match is left out rather than guessed. Sources & methodology.

Questions people ask

How many HOA lawsuits are filed in Hawaii each year?

In 2025, the last full year, 7 court records naming a Hawaii community association were filed in the courts HOA Spy indexes; the five-year average is 11 a year. The busiest year on file is 2019 with 49.

Which Hawaii associations have the most court cases?

By records on file: TROPICS AT WAIKELE THE (18); Discovery Harbour Community Association (12); The Bluffs at Mauna Kea Community Association (12).

Do Hawaii HOAs sue homeowners more than they get sued?

In the records with a known side, the association was the plaintiff 241 times and the defendant 299 times. Suits brought by associations are typically assessment collection and lien enforcement; suits against them typically come from owners, insurers or lenders.

How do I check a specific Hawaii HOA?

Search it by name on HOA Spy: the report lists every lien, case and complaint on file with a link to the official record, and says which sources were checked. Communities with records also have a profile page under the Hawaii directory. Data as of 2026-10-02.