How to avoid foreclosure in Minnesota

How foreclosure works in Minnesota, step by step

1. Missed payments and the counseling notice

   Your servicer generally cannot start a foreclosure until you are more than 120 days behind. Before it records the foreclosure, the lender must send you a notice that free foreclosure prevention counseling is available, and it passes your contact details to a counseling agency within a week.

   Minn. Stat. § 580.021; 12 C.F.R. § 1024.41(f)

2. Loss mitigation review

   Before sending your loan to a foreclosure attorney, the servicer must tell you in writing what options exist and review you for all of them if you apply on time. It generally cannot move toward a sale while a complete application is pending.

   Minn. Stat. § 582.043

3. Notice of sale is published and served

   The notice of mortgage foreclosure sale is published for six weeks. If someone lives in the home, a copy must be served on them, the same way a summons is served, at least four weeks before the sale. A foreclosure advice notice comes with it and tells you the amount needed to reinstate.

   Minn. Stat. §§ 580.03, 580.041

4. Your options before the sale

   You can reinstate the loan by paying the past due amount and costs at any time before the sale. If the home is your homestead, you can also postpone the sale by recording a sworn affidavit at least 15 days before the sale date. The sale moves 5 months later, or 11 months if your redemption period would have been 12 months, but your redemption period becomes five weeks.

   Minn. Stat. §§ 580.30, 580.07

5. The sheriff's sale

   The county sheriff sells the home at a public auction. Once the sale happens the loan can no longer be reinstated. From then on, the only way to keep the home is to redeem it.

   Minn. Stat. ch. 580

6. The redemption period

   You usually have six months after the sale to redeem by paying the sale price plus interest and certain costs. You can stay in the home during this time. The period is 12 months in some cases and can be cut to five weeks if a court finds the home abandoned.

   Minn. Stat. §§ 580.23, 582.032

7. After redemption ends

   If no one redeems, the sheriff's sale buyer becomes the owner. The Minnesota courts note that a foreclosure can lead to an eviction case if the former owner does not move out.

Minnesota foreclosure deadlines to know

These are the periods written into the law. Your own dates are on the notices you received. If a notice and this page disagree, trust the notice and ask a counselor or lawyer.

Your rights as a homeowner in Minnesota

Other Minnesota protections

• Foreclosure prevention counseling notice

  Before recording the foreclosure on an owner-occupied home of one to four units, the lender must send you a notice about free counseling and give your name, address and phone number to an approved counseling agency within one week.

  Minn. Stat. §§ 580.021, 580.022

• Dual tracking limits

  A servicer cannot refer your loan to foreclosure while a complete loss mitigation application is pending. If your application arrives after a sale is set but before midnight of the seventh business day before the sale, the servicer must halt the sale and review it, and after a denial or a rejected offer it must wait 60 days before holding the sale.

  Minn. Stat. § 582.043, subd. 6

• Right to postpone the sale

  The owner of a homestead with one to four units can postpone the sheriff's sale once, by 5 months if the redemption period would be six months or 11 months if it would be 12 months, by recording a sworn affidavit and delivering copies to the sheriff and the foreclosing attorney. The trade-off is a five-week redemption period. Since August 1, 2025 this also applies to foreclosure by action.

  Minn. Stat. § 580.07, subd. 2

• No deficiency in most home foreclosures

  When the lender forecloses by advertisement with a six-month redemption period, it cannot get a judgment against you for any shortfall.

  Minn. Stat. § 582.30, subd. 2

• Right to sue over loss mitigation violations

  You can ask a court to stop or set aside a sale if the servicer broke the loss mitigation rules. You must record a notice of the lawsuit before your redemption period ends.

  Minn. Stat. § 582.043

Minnesota mortgage assistance programs

If the home is sold for more than you owe

Any surplus after the mortgage, interest, taxes and sale costs are paid belongs to the owner on demand. Under a 2025 change, when the surplus is $100 or more, the sheriff holds it through the redemption period and mails a notice to the property address telling you to call the sheriff's office. If you ask, it can be applied toward redeeming the home. If no one redeems, it goes first to junior creditors who demand it during the redemption period, and then to the owner of record.

Minn. Stat. § 580.10

Ways to avoid foreclosure

Most of your options come from federal rules and from whoever owns or insures your loan, so they work the same way in Minnesota as anywhere else. What changes by state is how much time you have to use them.

• Repayment plan
• Forbearance
• Payment deferral or partial claim
• Loan modification
• Reinstatement
• Short sale
• Deed in lieu of foreclosure
• Chapter 13 bankruptcy