Important Information for Those Buying or Selling a Home or Condominium served by Hawaii American Water

Introduction

Hawai’i American Water (HAW), a part of American Water ‘ohana of companies, is a privately owned utility which provides wastewater service to the Hawai’i Kai Community on O’ahu, and the Waimea community and the Mauna Lani resort on the Big Island of Hawai’i.

Opening or closing a Hawai’i American account:

If you are either buying or selling a house or condominium in Hawai’i Kai or Waimea on the Big Island, transfer of responsibility for payment of our service charge is handled by the escrow process.  Your escrow company will prorate our fixed fee charge for service between the buyer and seller based upon the date of closing.  Since HAW bills in advance of service, the escrow process usually results in a transfer of funds from the buyer to the seller and a settlement check (if necessary) along with the escrow packet, should be sent to our local office in Hawai’i Kai.  Once we receive the escrow packet and check, our office will close the seller’s account and open a new account for the buyer.  Payment application information is provided by escrow on the settlement check and applied accordingly.  Accounts can only end and start with the corresponding billing periods.  We cannot end or start an account in the middle of a billing period.

Please note the following:

Responsible Party for Payment

Our service to the house or condominium is not interrupted during the property ownership transfer.

The owner of the house or condominium is responsible for payment for our service.  For rentals, a tenant’s name may be added as a “in care of” line, but this request must be made by the owner and the owner remains the responsible party. 

HAW Billing Cycles

Our Hawai’i Kai customers are billed on the first of each odd-numbered month for service provided in the following two months.  As such the escrow proration of the service charges is based on a 60-day billing cycle.

Our Waimea customers are billed monthly for service during the following month.  Proration of service charges by escrow use a 30-day billing cycle.

Exceptions to this process

Some Condominium and Homeowner Associations pay our service charge on behalf of their members.  In this case, when a sale occurs, the association is tasked to settle accounts.  But remember that the owner of the property remains the responsible party.

See Table 1 for a list of Condominiums and Homeowner’s Associations that are currently billed for and pay our service charge on behalf of their members. 

For Single Family and Condominiums within The Mauna Lani resort:

The service charge for single family homes and condominiums within the Mauna Lani (Hawai’i Island) Resort are billed to and paid for by the respective Homeowner’s Association.