Six-month redemption period
Six months is Minnesota's default redemption period, set by Minn. Stat. 580.23 subdivision 1. It is what applies unless something specific pushes the case into a different category.
When it runs from#
The sheriff's sale date in a foreclosure by advertisement.
The date the court confirms the sale in a foreclosure by action, which is a separate step occurring after the sale and dependent on the court's calendar.
Not the notice date. Not the publication date. Not the date the homeowner found out.
That distinction causes more missed deadlines than any other feature of the process, because the sale is a moment the homeowner may not have attended and may not have been told about.
Possession during the period#
The mortgagor keeps it.
Title does not pass until the period expires unredeemed. Until then the former owner may remain, a tenant's lease continues, and an eviction is premature.
This is the point at which purchasers most commonly overreach — someone who bought at a sheriff's sale turning up to ask the occupant to leave. They have bought a certificate and a waiting period, and possession is not part of it yet.
The deficiency link#
The feature that makes this figure matter beyond timing.
Under Minn. Stat. 582.30 subdivision 2, no deficiency judgment is allowed where a mortgage is foreclosed by advertisement and carries a six-month redemption period under 580.23 subd. 1.
So the six-month period and the absence of personal liability travel together in the ordinary residential case. A borrower in that position has both the longer window and no debt surviving the sale.
What it costs to redeem in that window#
The amount bid at the sale, plus interest from the sale date at the rate stated on the sheriff's certificate — or six percent per annum where the certificate states no rate — plus further sums allowed under Minn. Stat. 582.03 and 582.031, generally taxes, insurance and assessments the certificate holder has advanced.
Interest accrues daily, so a payoff figure is good only through the date it states.
Using the six months#
The period is not merely time to find money. It is time to sell.
A property with equity can be sold during the redemption period, with the redemption satisfied out of the proceeds and the balance going to the owner. That is a materially better outcome than letting the certificate ripen, and it is available to anyone with equity and six months.
The constraint is that it must complete inside the window, and a sale takes time. Starting in month one is a different proposition from starting in month five.