HRS § 231-61 — Tax liens; co-owners' rights


LIENS, FORECLOSURE
LIENS,
FORECLOSURE
[§231-61] Tax liens; co-owners' rights.
(a) If a cotenancy exists and within the period of a tax lien, all of the
taxes, interest, penalties, and other additions to the tax, due and delinquent
at the time of payment, are paid by a cotenant, the cotenant shall have a lien
in an amount equal to the amount paid by the cotenant on the interest of any
noncontributing cotenant upon recording in the bureau of conveyances, within
ninety days after the cotenant's payment, a sworn notice setting forth the
amount claimed, a brief description of the land affected by tax key or
otherwise, sufficient to identify the land, the taxes paid and the name of the
cotenant upon whose interest the lien is asserted. When a notice of the tax
lien is recorded by a cotenant, the registrar shall cause the tax lien to be
indexed in the general indexes of the bureau of conveyances. If the land
affected is registered in the land court the notice shall also contain a
reference to the number of the certificate of title of the land and shall be
filed and registered in the office of the assistant registrar of the land
court, and the registrar, in the registrar's capacity as assistant registrar of
the land court, shall make a notation of the filing thereof on each land court
certificate of title so specified.
The cotenant's lien shall have the same
priority as the lien or liens of the State for the taxes paid by the cotenant,
and may be enforced by an action in the nature of a suit in equity. The lien
shall continue for three years after recording or registering, or until
termination of the proceedings for enforcement thereof if such proceedings are
begun and notice of the pendency thereof is recorded or filed and registered as
provided by law, within the period.
(b) The director or the director's
subordinate, in case of a state tax lien, and the creditor cotenant, in case of
a cotenant's lien, at the expense of the debtor, upon payment of the amount of
the lien, shall execute and deliver to the debtor a sworn satisfaction thereof,
including a reference to the name of the person assessed or cotenant affected
as shown in the original notice, the date of filing of the original notice, a
description of the land involved, and the number of the certificate of title of
the land if registered in the land court. When recorded in the bureau of
conveyances or filed and registered in the office of the assistant registrar of
the land court, in the case of a cotenant's lien, which contains the reference
to the book and page of the original lien, the sworn satisfaction shall be
entered in the general indexes of the bureau of conveyances, and if a notation
of the original notice was made on any land court certificate of title the
filing of the satisfaction shall also be noted on the certificate.
This section as to cotenancy shall apply, as
well, in any case of ownership by more than one assessable person.