Right of redemption
The right of redemption is the entitlement to reclaim foreclosed property after the sheriff's sale by paying what it sold for, plus interest and allowable costs.
Minnesota is a redemption state, which means the sale does not end the owner's interest — it converts it into a right with a deadline.
Who holds it#
Minn. Stat. 580.23 grants it to "the mortgagor, the mortgagor's personal representatives or assigns."
Each of those does work.
The mortgagor — the original borrower.
Personal representatives — meaning an estate can redeem where the owner has died, which matters because a foreclosure does not pause for a probate to be opened.
Assigns — and this is the one that surprises certificate holders. The right of redemption is itself an asset and can be transferred. A redemption can lawfully arrive from someone who never signed the mortgage, having acquired the right from someone who did.
That is why a certificate holder cannot treat a quiet redemption period as a clear path to title. Nothing prevents the right changing hands on the last day.
It cannot be waived away#
A lender might prefer a mortgage in which the borrower simply gives up the right of redemption.
Minnesota courts have declined to allow it. The reasoning is that the statute sets out specific circumstances in which the six-month period is altered — twelve months in defined cases, five weeks on abandonment or postponement, two months on voluntary foreclosure — and lists no provision for waiving it altogether. Listing exceptions and omitting waiver implies waiver is excluded.
There is a narrow written waiver provision relating to the agricultural-use basis for a twelve-month period, with strict formalities, but that shortens the period rather than eliminating the right.
What redeeming actually does#
It restores the property to the redeeming party free of the foreclosed mortgage.
It does not eliminate junior liens automatically, and it does not undo anything the certificate holder lawfully advanced for taxes or insurance — those amounts form part of what must be paid.
The practical problem#
The right is real and the money usually is not.
Redemption requires the full sale price plus interest, in a lump sum, within a fixed period, by a household that could not make the mortgage payments. That is why observed redemption rates are low — not because the right is illusory, but because it demands the one thing the situation has already established is missing.
Where redemptions do happen, the money generally comes from a sale of the property to someone else during the period, a refinance, family, or an insurance or legal settlement — not from savings.