Sheriff's deed
A sheriff's deed conveys property sold under a court judgment, executed by the sheriff who conducted the sale.
In Minnesota it belongs to foreclosure by action under chapter 581 and to execution sales — not to the far more common foreclosure by advertisement.
Certificate or deed#
The distinction that organises Minnesota foreclosure.
Foreclosure by advertisement under chapter 580 produces a sheriff's certificate. It conveys nothing on delivery. Under Minn. Stat. 580.12 it operates as a conveyance only when the redemption period expires unredeemed, and it does so automatically, without any further document.
Foreclosure by action under chapter 581 runs through a court, requires the court to confirm the sale, and the redemption period runs from confirmation rather than from the sale date.
So most Minnesota foreclosure purchasers never receive a sheriff's deed. They receive a certificate and wait.
What it warrants#
Nothing.
The sheriff is not the owner and has no knowledge of the property. They are executing a court's order, and the deed reflects exactly that — a conveyance by authority with no representation about the title being conveyed.
What it conveys#
Whatever interest the judgment debtor or mortgagor held, subject to whatever the proceeding did not extinguish.
Junior liens are generally extinguished by a properly conducted foreclosure.
Senior liens survive. So do property tax and special assessment liens, which outrank everything regardless.
A buyer at a foreclosure or execution sale acquiring by sheriff's deed is acquiring subject to anything senior — which is why establishing lien priority before bidding is the whole of the due diligence.
The three authority-based conveyances#
Minnesota distressed property runs on deeds signed by people who do not own the property.
Sheriff's certificate or sheriff's deed — foreclosure and execution.
Personal representative's deed — an estate.
State deed — tax-forfeited land.
Each conveys by authority rather than by ownership. Each warrants nothing about title. Each depends for its effect on the authority behind it being valid.
That shared characteristic is why title examination matters more on distressed purchases than on ordinary ones, and why an owner's title policy is doing more work on them than it does anywhere else.
After the deed, possession is still separate#
A point that catches purchasers at execution and judicial foreclosure sales as much as at sheriff's sales generally.
Receiving a deed conveys title. It does not deliver the keys.
Where somebody is living in the property — a former owner, a tenant, an occupant nobody expected — obtaining possession runs through an eviction action and a writ of recovery executed by the sheriff. Weeks, and no self-help at any stage.
Where the occupant is a bona fide tenant, federal law adds at least ninety days' notice on top and may require the existing lease to be honoured through its term.
Those costs belong in the bid rather than in the surprise afterwards, and they are knowable before the sale by establishing who is actually in the building.