Tenancy in common by default, everywhere
Under HRS § 509-1, all grants, conveyances, and devises of land to two or more people create a tenancy in common by default, unless it manifestly appears from the tenor of the instrument that joint tenancy or tenancy by the entirety was intended. This presumption doesn't apply to conveyances made to personal representatives or trustees, who get joint tenancy treatment by default instead.
The case that shows this principle reaching bank accounts
A real Hawaii appellate case, Traders Travel Intern., Inc. v. Howser, shows exactly how strictly this "manifest" language standard gets applied — and it did so in a bank-account garnishment dispute rather than a real estate case. A judgment creditor sought to garnish a family's joint bank account. The debtor argued the account was actually a tenancy by the entirety with his spouse — a form of ownership that, under Hawaii law, generally shields property from a creditor pursuing only one spouse individually.
The court disagreed. It held that the plain, ordinary language on the account's signature card — which set up what was essentially an ordinary joint account, analogous to a joint tenancy — was dispositive. No real question of the parties' intent existed once that language was clear. Had the family genuinely wanted to create a tenancy by the entirety, the court noted, they should have specifically indicated that on the documents the bank provided. Because they hadn't, no such protected estate existed, and the creditor's garnishment was allowed to proceed.
Why the case matters beyond one family's dispute
The Howser case is a genuinely useful illustration of how Hawaii's "manifestly appears" standard from § 509-1 operates in real, practical terms — not just for real estate deeds, but for any instrument, including a bank's own signature card. Simply assuming an account or property is protected because of who owns it, or how the family understands their own arrangement, isn't enough. The actual document's wording is what courts look to, and vague or default account language tends to resolve against the more protective classification.
Reciprocal beneficiaries get the same treatment as spouses
Hawaii's self-conveyance statute, HRS § 509-2, specifically authorizes reciprocal beneficiaries — alongside married spouses — to hold property as tenants by the entirety, and to convey property to themselves this way. This reflects Hawaii's own reciprocal beneficiary relationship status, giving those couples access to the same tenancy-by-the-entirety protections spouses can use.
An extensive, modern self-conveyance statute
Hawaii's self-conveyance statute is genuinely comprehensive. It directly authorizes a person conveying to themselves and others as joint tenants; a person conveying to themselves and their spouse or reciprocal beneficiary as tenants by the entirety; joint tenants converting to include additional joint tenants; tenants in common converting themselves into joint tenants; tenants by the entirety converting to joint tenants or tenants in common; and even one tenant by the entirety conveying their entire interest directly to their spouse or reciprocal beneficiary — all without needing to route any of these transactions through an intermediary third party.
Divorce ends tenancy by the entirety
A tenancy by the entirety must be held exclusively by married spouses who alone possess the mutual right of survivorship. Should the spouses divorce, the property becomes a tenancy in common instead — a straightforward, predictable rule, unlike the more surprising divorce-related outcomes some other states apply to ordinary joint tenancy.
A separate, more modern tool for real estate
None of this changes the fact that Hawaii also offers a completely separate route for keeping real estate out of probate. See our guide to the Hawaii transfer-on-death deed for how that tool works alongside these ownership rules.