Minnesota · Law checked October 19, 2026

Minnesota tax sale: your deadline, your office, your money

Behind on property taxes in Minnesota? Your house can be sold at a tax sale — here's how much time you have to stop it. Your house was sold at a tax sale in Minnesota? The extra money from the sale may be yours to claim — and there's a deadline. Both answers are on this page, from the statute.

Count my Minnesota deadline

How Minnesota sells

The machine, in four lines

A dated second chance in Minnesota: Minnesota appropriated $109M to settle Tyler claims for forfeitures before the 2024 law, run through participating counties and a claims administrator. Eligibility windows are administered county by county — if your forfeiture predates 2024, ask your county auditor about the settlement before assuming the money is gone.

Door one: getting the house back (redemption)

Redemption in Minnesota runs until the deed is issued — 3 years from the judgment sale to the State (1 year for certain targeted-community non-homestead parcels) — then the land is forfeited. Redemption in Minnesota is entirely a before-forfeiture right Statute-verified

What it costs to redeem: All delinquent taxes, penalties, interest and costs due at redemption. (The interest rate under Minn. Stat. §279.03 was not pinned in the sources read — the auditor's statement has your figure.)

Source: Minn. Stat. §281.17

Before any sale: your quieter doors

Payment plans: After forfeiture, a former owner may apply to repurchase the land (county board approval; installment repurchase is possible) under Minn. Stat. §282.241 — a second door, not a payment plan for the original tax.

Deferrals (senior / veteran / disability): The Minnesota Senior Citizens Property Tax Deferral (ch. 290B) exists as a separate state program — terms not verified from statute text in this research.

Door two: the extra money (surplus)

Who holds the money: the County auditor.

Your claim window: When tax-forfeited land is sold, the auditor must mail you a surplus notice and claim form within 60 days of the sale; your claim must be filed within 6 months from the date that notice is first mailed. Enter the mailing date in the checker — the clock runs from the mailing, not the sale. Statute-verified

If nobody claims it: If a court determines no claimant is entitled, the surplus goes back to the county's forfeited tax sale fund.

Source: Minn. Stat. §282.005, subd. 6

The county figure rule. This page gives you the law — the window, the formula, the office. The exact payoff or surplus figure lives in the County auditor's books and changes as interest runs. Ask that office for the figure, in writing, and keep the letter.

Included in the $49 TaxSaleDecoded Kit

  • The surplus claim pack: how to prove the house was yours (deed records, address history, ID), the claim-form path in your state, and what to do when the county says it has no record of your money
  • The redemption playbook: your state's window and cost formula worked step by step, who to pay, how to prove you paid, and the traps in the payoff figure (added fees and interest)
  • The heirs page: the house was a parent's — what changes, which papers prove you are an heir, and the point where it stops being simple
  • The scam shield: how surplus-recovery companies work, the fee caps your state sets for them, and the assignment papers you should never sign
  • The lookback module: what Tyler won, what Pung limited (the extra money is the sale price minus the debt — not your home's value), and the dated state lookbacks, including Illinois claims that die in July 2028

Get the TaxSaleDecoded Kit — $49

One payment of $49. No subscription. The kit is a web page you can return to and print — the claim pack, the redemption playbook, the heirs page, and the scam shield.

All 50 states · The surplus, explained · Redemption, explained