Delinquent Property Taxes in Minnesota: Three Years From a Monday in May, Then Title Forfeits
Reviewed by DocDraft Legal Team · Minnesota · Last updated October 21, 2026
In Minnesota the ending has its own name, forfeiture, and the day it arrives is set by the service of one county notice rather than by the calendar. Delinquent property taxes are taxes a homeowner did not pay by the date the state set, after which the county adds penalty and interest and can finally force a sale of the property to collect them. Unpaid tax is deemed delinquent on the first business day in January, when a further 2 percent penalty attaches (Minn. Stat. 279.02). By February 15 the auditor files the delinquent list with the district court, which has the effect of filing a complaint against every parcel on it (Minn. Stat. 279.05). On the second Monday in May the auditor bids each judgment parcel in for the state for the whole delinquent amount (Minn. Stat. 280.01). Public vendue at that sale is abolished, so nothing is bought there (Minn. Stat. 280.001). From that sale date most owners have three years to redeem (Minn. Stat. 281.17), paying the bid-in amount and later delinquencies with interest at the rate in Minn. Stat. 279.03, 7 percent for 2026. Those three years cannot run out by themselves: the notice of expiration of redemption has to be given first, and the time ends 60 days after it and the filing of proof (Minn. Stat. 281.14, 281.23). Absolute title then vests in the state (Minn. Stat. 281.18), and only then is the land auctioned, with anything above the tax debt claimable by the former owner (Minn. Stat. 282.005). Attorney review is available through DocDraft.
Find out where you stand in Minnesota
Where are you with the unpaid property taxes?
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How long do I have to redeem delinquent property taxes in Minnesota?
Three years from the date of sale to the state at the tax judgment sale, for most property (Minn. Stat. 281.17). Lands in a targeted community other than homesteaded lands get one year from that sale date, and a district court can cut the period to five weeks for certain abandoned or vacant parcels.
When exactly does the right to redeem end in Minnesota?
Not on the three year anniversary by itself. The time for redemption does not expire until the county auditor gives notice of expiration of redemption, and it then expires 60 days after the giving of that notice and the filing of proof of it in the auditor's office (Minn. Stat. 281.14, 281.23).
How much does Minnesota charge to redeem delinquent property taxes?
The amount the parcel was bid in for, all later delinquent taxes, penalties and costs, and interest on them at the rate in Minn. Stat. 279.03, which the Department of Revenue set at 7 percent for 2026. There is no penalty premium and no bid-down rate. The statutory ceiling is 14 percent.
When do Minnesota property taxes become delinquent?
Where the tax on a tract exceeds 100 dollars, half is due before May 16 and the rest before the following October 16 (Minn. Stat. 279.01). Whatever is still unpaid is deemed delinquent on the first business day in January, when an additional 2 percent penalty immediately accrues (Minn. Stat. 279.02).
Minnesota delinquent property tax rules at a glance
Minnesota hands a delinquent owner an instrument with an odd name, a confession of judgment, which stops the forfeiture clock by composing the delinquent years into one debt paid over time (Minn. Stat. 279.37). Delinquent property taxes here are taxes an owner did not pay by the statutory date, after which penalty and interest are added and the property can be taken and sold to satisfy them. The route is a court case, not an auction: the delinquent list filed with the district court operates as a complaint (Minn. Stat. 279.05), the auditor bids each parcel in for the state in May (Minn. Stat. 280.01), and the owner keeps title for three years (Minn. Stat. 281.17). What is unusual is that the real deadline arrives by service of a notice rather than by calendar date, and that the land sells only after title has forfeited.
A Mille Lacs County house whose deadline was set on 13 May 2024
The clock on this one started on Monday, 13 May 2024, the second Monday in May. A two bedroom house in Mille Lacs County carried 3,250 dollars of unpaid 2023 taxes into the new year, so the balance was deemed delinquent on the first business day of January 2024 and took the extra 2 percent penalty (Minn. Stat. 279.02). The delinquent list went to the district court by February 15, judgment followed (Minn. Stat. 279.16), and on that May Monday the auditor bid the parcel in for the state (Minn. Stat. 280.01). Three years from that date is the baseline (Minn. Stat. 281.17), with interest near 228 dollars a year at the 2026 rate of 7 percent. The real cutoff comes 60 days after the notice of expiration is served (Minn. Stat. 281.23), and the money goes through the Auditor-Treasurer's office in Milaca.
Relevant Laws
Minn. Stat. 279.01 (due dates and the penalty schedule)
Where the taxes against a tract exceed 100 dollars, one-half must be paid prior to May 16 and the remaining one-half prior to the following October 16. An unpaid amount draws a penalty of two percent on homestead property and four percent on nonhomestead property, a second penalty of the same size if complete payment is not made by the first day of the next month, then one percent more on the first day of each subsequent month through December, capped at eight percent for homestead and 12 percent for nonhomestead property. Separate dates apply to agricultural homestead, seasonal recreational and qualifying class 3a commercial property, and a four month grace period applies to a homestead owned by an individual on federal active service.
Minn. Stat. 279.02 (delinquency on the first business day in January)
Provides that on the first business day in January each year the county treasurer returns the tax lists to the county auditor, that each tract against which taxes remain unpaid is deemed delinquent, and that an additional penalty of two percent on the amount of the original tax remaining unpaid immediately accrues. This is the event the whole timetable counts from.
Minn. Stat. 279.03 (interest on delinquent property taxes)
Interest commences on the first day of January following the year in which the taxes become due, and a portion of a month counts as a whole month. The rate is the per annum rate determined under section 270C.40, subdivision 5, with a maximum of 14 percent; it is doubled where an owner's delinquent taxes are more than 25 percent of the prior year's school district levy; and a county board may by resolution establish a lower rate. The rate is subject to change on January 1 of each year.
Minn. Stat. 279.05 and 279.06 (the delinquent list is a complaint, and the court's notice)
Section 279.05 requires the county auditor, on or before February 15 each year, to file with the court administrator of the district court a list of delinquent taxes on real estate, and provides that filing the list has the effect of filing a complaint in an action by the county against each parcel described. Section 279.06 sets the court administrator's notice, which requires an answer within 20 days of publication, warns that judgment will otherwise be entered, states that the land shall be sold to the state on the second Monday in May, and must carry a narrative description of the periods to redeem plus information on property tax relief programs.
Minn. Stat. 279.09, 279.091 and 279.092 (publication, mailing and the county's cost fee)
The notice and list must be published once in each of two weeks, the first publication on or before March 20 and the second not less than two weeks later, and a taxpayer who has paid since the first publication must be removed from the second. The auditor must also mail the notice and the pertinent portion of the list to all real property taxpayers and to parties who filed addresses under section 276.041 on or before March 20. Section 279.092 lets the county assess a service fee in the amount the county board determines as reasonably necessary to recover its costs, which becomes a lien on the parcel if unpaid.
Minn. Stat. 279.16 (judgment where no answer is filed)
Twenty days after the later of the affidavit of publication or the affidavit of mailing, the court administrator enters judgment against every parcel as to which no answer has been filed. The judgment declares the taxes, penalties and costs a lien on the parcel against every interest in it, and adjudges that unless the amount is paid the parcel be sold as provided by law.
Minn. Stat. 279.37 (confession of judgment for delinquent taxes)
Delinquent taxes may be composed into one amount by confession of judgment at any time prior to forfeiture. The standard plan takes one-tenth of the delinquent taxes, costs, penalty and interest, plus all current year taxes and penalty due, with the balance in nine equal annual installments payable on or before December 31. Class 3a property takes 20 percent down and four equal annual installments. The rate established when the judgment is confessed is fixed for its duration, and for class 1a or 1b homestead property it is the greater of five percent or the prime rate. The judgment is in rem, not personal. Default is failure to pay within 60 days of a due date, which reinstates waived interest and exposes the land to forfeiture. No more than two confessions are allowed on the same taxes, and the section does not apply where the redemption period has been shortened.
Minn. Stat. 280.001 and 280.01 (public bidding abolished; the state is bid in)
Section 280.01 directs the county auditor, on the second Monday in May each year, to sell all parcels against which judgment has been entered and remains unsatisfied, and to bid in for the state the amount of all delinquent taxes, penalties, costs and interest to date, with no notice of sale required to be published, posted or served. Section 280.001 then provides that no such parcel may be sold at public vendue by the auditor at all, and that every parcel shall be treated and regarded in all respects as land bid in for the state. There is therefore no certificate buyer and no bid-down rate on this route.
Minn. Stat. 280.11 and 281.24 (assignment of the state's interest, which the statute still allows)
Section 280.11 provides that at any time after a parcel has been bid in for the state and not redeemed, the county auditor shall assign and convey the parcel and all the right of the state in it to any person who pays the amount for which it was bid in, with interest at the rate of 12 percent per annum, plus all subsequent delinquent taxes, penalties, costs and interest. Section 281.24 keeps a bid-in parcel subject to assignment until the date of forfeiture and provides that where a parcel is assigned after notice of expiration has been given, that notice is ineffectual and the time for redemption continues until terminated after notice given as in other cases of parcels assigned to actual purchasers.
Minn. Stat. 281.02 and 281.03 (what a redeemer pays, and to whom)
Section 281.02 provides that a person redeeming a parcel shall pay into the county treasury the amount for which it was bid in, the amount of all subsequent delinquent taxes, penalties and costs, and interest on those amounts at the rate provided in section 279.03. Section 281.03 requires the county auditor to certify the amount due on the redemption, makes payment to the county treasurer the operative act, requires duplicate receipts, provides that payment annuls the sale, and states that if the amount the auditor certified is less than the law required that does not invalidate the redemption.
Minn. Stat. 281.14 (no redemption period expires until notice is given)
Provides that the time for redemption from any tax sale, whether made to the state or to a private person, shall not expire until notice of expiration of redemption has been given. This is why a Minnesota redemption deadline cannot be read off a calendar: the three year period in section 281.17 is a floor, and the operative cutoff is produced by service of the notice.
Minn. Stat. 281.17 (period of redemption, and the two shorter ones)
The period of redemption for lands sold to the state at a tax judgment sale is three years from the date of sale to the state, except that it is one year from the date of sale for all lands in a targeted community as defined in section 469.201, subdivision 10, other than homesteaded lands as defined in section 273.13, subdivision 22, and one year for real property constituting a qualified mixed municipal solid waste disposal facility. The county must use the property's classification and homestead classification for the assessment year the tax judgment is based on, and a later change in classification does not affect the period.
Minn. Stat. 281.173 and 281.174 (court-ordered five week redemption periods)
Section 281.173 lets a city, county, housing and redevelopment authority, port authority or economic development authority bring a district court action after the tax sale but before notice of expiration has been given, to reduce the redemption period to five weeks on abandoned premises. Section 281.174 does the same for vacant property that sits in a targeted neighborhood revitalization program area, has no structures on it, is classified residential, and had a residential structure on it within the last five years. Both routes need a complaint, a summons with an appearance date 15 to 25 days out, service at least seven days before that date plus posting on the property, and a court order.
Minn. Stat. 281.23 (notice of expiration of redemption, and the certificate of forfeiture)
Where a parcel bid in for the state has not been redeemed by 120 days before the period of redemption expires, the county auditor must forthwith give notice of expiration, and delay in giving it does not affect its validity. The statutory form tells the owner the time expires on the later of 60 days after service on all persons of record or the second Monday in May, that redemption must be made in the auditor's office, and that if the parcel forfeits and sells for more than the taxes, penalties, interest and costs the owner may be entitled to the excess and must submit the enclosed claim form. The notice must be posted, published two successive weeks, mailed by certified mail with return receipt requested, and served by the sheriff on the person in possession of each occupied parcel. Subdivision 7 ends the time 60 days after notice is given and proof is filed; subdivision 8 lets the county recover its posting, publishing, mailing and service costs from the owner; subdivision 9 has the auditor execute and record the certificate stating that absolute title has vested in the state.
Minn. Stat. 281.18 and 281.25 (title vests in the state, in trust for the taxing districts)
Section 281.18 provides that a parcel sold to the state at a tax judgment sale remains subject to redemption until the expiration of the time allowed after notice of expiration, and that upon expiration absolute title vests in the state. Section 281.25 provides that title to every parcel the state acquires is held in trust for the respective taxing districts interested in the taxes, assessments, penalties, interest and costs accrued against the parcel, in proportion to their interests.
Minn. Stat. 282.005 (the mandatory initial sale and the claim for surplus proceeds)
Before managing tax-forfeited land any other way, a county must offer the parcel at a public auction to the highest bidder, within six months of either the filing of the certificate of forfeiture or the date the property is vacated by the occupant, whichever is later, with at least 30 days' published notice. The minimum bid is the sum of delinquent taxes, special assessments, penalties, interests and costs assigned to the parcel; the opening price is the estimated market value from the most recent assessment and may not be reduced to the minimum bid for 30 days. Only the minimum bid goes to the county's forfeited tax sale fund, and proceeds in excess of it are available for distribution. The county auditor must notify interested parties of a surplus within 60 days of the sale with a claim form prescribed by the commissioner of revenue, and an interested party must file a claim within six months of the date the notice is first mailed. Multiple or disputed claims may be sent to district court under Rule 67. Unclaimed surplus returns to the county fund.
Minn. Stat. 282.241 and 282.261 (repurchase after forfeiture, and its terms)
Section 282.241 lets the owner at the time of forfeiture, or heirs, devisees or representatives, or a person given the right to pay taxes by statute, mortgage or agreement, repurchase the parcel for the sum of all delinquent taxes and assessments computed under section 282.251 together with penalties, interest and costs that accrued or would have accrued. Except for property homesteaded on the date of forfeiture, repurchase is permitted during six months only from the date of forfeiture, and in any case only after a county board resolution finding that repurchase will correct undue hardship or injustice or will promote the use of the land that best serves the public interest. Any application for a property made available for sale under section 282.005 must be made before that sale. Section 282.261 sets the terms at not less than one-tenth down and ten equal annual installments at the section 279.03 rate, with a county service fee.
Minn. Stat. 284.28 (one year to attack a completed forfeiture)
Provides that the state's title to land forfeited for delinquent taxes shall not be held invalid by reason of any failure, omission, error or defect in the taxation or forfeiture proceedings, including jurisdictional defects and cases where the taxes were in fact paid before forfeiture, and that no cause of action or defense adverse to the state may be asserted unless commenced within one year after the filing of the county auditor's certificate of forfeiture under section 281.23, subdivision 9. The burden of proving the state's title invalid rests on the party asserting it.
Minnesota Department of Revenue: Interest Rates for Minnesota Counties
The Department of Revenue's published rate table for county auditors, treasurers and land commissioners. For 2026 it gives delinquent taxes at 7 percent, property tax judgments at 4 percent, confession of judgment on homesteaded property at 7 percent, confession of judgment on all other eligible property at 7 percent, and repurchase or tax-forfeited land sold on contract for deed at 7 percent. The page notes that the delinquent tax rate is based on the adjusted prime rate charged by banks on bank-to-business loans, cannot exceed 14 percent, that the 10 percent minimum that applied before 2024 is gone, and that beginning for 2024 a county board may by resolution establish a lower rate.
Minnesota Department of Revenue: Delinquent Real Property Tax and Tax Forfeiture Manual
The state agency manual, known as the Red Book and updated December 2025, that county auditors and land commissioners administer this process from. It sets out the six stages from determination through conveyance, states that the period of redemption is in most cases three years from the time the property is bid in for the state, records that homestead property in a Minneapolis or St. Paul targeted community keeps three years while other classes there get one, and says a parcel is redeemed by paying the total delinquent tax amount to the county treasurer. The page carries a heading on the court decision in Tyler v. Hennepin County and points to Minnesota Laws 2024, chapter 127, article 70 as the legislature's response.
Minnesota Laws 2024, chapter 127, article 70 (the post-Tyler rewrite and its reach)
The article that created sections 282.005 and 282.007 and amended sections 279.06, 281.23, 282.01, 282.241 and 282.301. Its own effective-date section provides that the amendment to the delinquent-tax notice is effective for notices provided after the day following final enactment, that the 279.06 change is effective beginning January 1, 2025, and that sections 4 to 8, which include the mandatory initial sale and the surplus claim process in section 282.005, are effective for forfeitures occurring after December 31, 2023. The applicability clause is what makes the surplus right reach parcels that forfeited before the act passed.
Regional Variances
Minnesota delinquent property tax rules at a glance
Sale mechanism
Judicial and in rem. The delinquent list filed with the district court on or before February 15 has the effect of filing a complaint against each parcel (Minn. Stat. 279.05), judgment is entered where no answer is filed (Minn. Stat. 279.16), and on the second Monday in May the county auditor bids each parcel in for the state for the whole delinquent amount (Minn. Stat. 280.01). Public vendue is abolished, so the parcel is treated in all respects as land bid in for the state (Minn. Stat. 280.001). Nothing is conveyed to anyone at that step.
Delinquency dates
Where the tax on a tract exceeds 100 dollars, half is due prior to May 16 and half prior to the following October 16 (Minn. Stat. 279.01). The unpaid balance is deemed delinquent on the first business day in January of the next year (Minn. Stat. 279.02). Second-half penalty is waived for certain agricultural homestead and agricultural property paid by November 15, and the first half is due prior to June 1 for class 1c and 4c seasonal recreational property and qualifying class 3a commercial property.
Penalty and interest before the judgment
Two percent on homestead and four percent on nonhomestead property on each missed installment, the same again if payment is not complete by the first of the next month, then one percent more each month through December, capped at eight percent homestead and 12 percent nonhomestead (Minn. Stat. 279.01). A further two percent attaches on the first business day in January (Minn. Stat. 279.02), and interest begins January 1 (Minn. Stat. 279.03).
Time before the land can be sold
The parcel is bid in for the state about four months after the delinquency date, on the second Monday in May (Minn. Stat. 280.01), but no land changes hands then. Title forfeits only after the redemption period and the notice of expiration have run (Minn. Stat. 281.18, 281.23). The county must then offer the forfeited parcel at public auction within six months of the certificate of forfeiture or the date the occupant vacates, whichever is later (Minn. Stat. 282.005, subd. 4).
Redemption period and clock
Three years from the date of sale to the state at the tax judgment sale, which is the second Monday in May when the auditor bids the parcel in, not the delinquency date and not the judgment date (Minn. Stat. 281.17, 280.01). One year from that sale date for lands in a targeted community other than homesteaded lands, and one year for a qualified mixed municipal solid waste disposal facility. Five weeks where a district court so orders for certain abandoned or vacant parcels (Minn. Stat. 281.173, 281.174). Taxes composed into a confession of judgment are deemed sold to the state at the first tax judgment sale after the judgment is entered (Minn. Stat. 279.37, subd. 4).
The notice that actually ends the clock
The period cannot expire until the auditor has given notice of expiration of redemption (Minn. Stat. 281.14), a duty that arises once the parcel is unredeemed 120 days before the period runs out (Minn. Stat. 281.23, subd. 1). The time then expires 60 days after the notice is given and proof of it is filed with the auditor (Minn. Stat. 281.23, subd. 7). The statutory form states it to the owner as the later of 60 days after service on all persons of record or the second Monday in May.
Redeemer's charge
A simple annual rate on the money owed, with no premium, no flat penalty and no bid-down figure. The redeemer pays the amount for which the parcel was bid in, all subsequent delinquent taxes, penalties and costs, and interest on them at the rate in Minn. Stat. 279.03 (Minn. Stat. 281.02). The Department of Revenue sets that rate annually off the bank prime rate; it is 7 percent for 2026, the statutory ceiling is 14 percent, it doubles where an owner's delinquent taxes exceed 25 percent of the prior year's school district levy, and a county board may resolve to charge less.
Other redemption costs
Costs are already inside the figure the parcel was bid in for, because the judgment and the state's bid take in taxes, penalties, costs and interest to date (Minn. Stat. 280.01). Added to that: a county service fee against each listed parcel in the amount the county board determines as reasonably necessary to recover its costs, which becomes a lien if unpaid (Minn. Stat. 279.092); the county's posting, publishing, mailing and service costs for the expiration notice, recoverable from the owner (Minn. Stat. 281.23, subd. 8); and a county-set processing fee on a confession of judgment (Minn. Stat. 279.37, subd. 8). The statute fixes no dollar figure for any of them.
Notice to the owner
Before judgment, the court administrator's notice gives 20 days to answer, is published once in each of two weeks with the first publication on or before March 20, and is mailed to all real property taxpayers and filed parties on or before March 20 (Minn. Stat. 279.06, 279.09, 279.091). Before forfeiture, the notice of expiration is posted in the auditor's office, published two successive weeks, mailed certified with return receipt requested, and served by the sheriff on the occupant of an occupied parcel, with posting allowed after two attempts (Minn. Stat. 281.23). Failure to receive it excuses no default.
Where to redeem
Two offices, one transaction. The county auditor certifies the amount due and records the redemption, and payment is made into the county treasury to the county treasurer (Minn. Stat. 281.02, 281.03). Many counties run the pair as a single office, for example the Mille Lacs County Auditor-Treasurer's Office. Payment may be in United States currency or by check, money order or electronic means including automated clearinghouse transactions and federal wires (Minn. Stat. 279.025). An under-certified amount does not invalidate a redemption (Minn. Stat. 281.03).
Surplus proceeds
Claimable, and recently rewritten. Only the minimum bid, being the delinquent taxes, special assessments, penalties, interests and costs assigned to the parcel, goes to the county's forfeited tax sale fund; proceeds in excess of it are available to interested parties, a term that includes the owner and lienholders (Minn. Stat. 282.005, subds. 2, 5, 6). The auditor must send notice and a claim form within 60 days of the sale, and a claim must be filed within six months of the first mailing. Unclaimed surplus returns to the county fund. This regime applies to forfeitures occurring after December 31, 2023 (Minnesota Laws 2024, c. 127, art. 70, s. 12).
Payment plan
A confession of judgment, available any time before forfeiture (Minn. Stat. 279.37). One-tenth down plus all current year taxes and penalty due, then nine equal annual installments on or before December 31, with the rate fixed for the life of the judgment; for class 1a or 1b homestead property that rate is the greater of five percent or the prime rate, 7 percent for 2026. Class 3a property pays 20 percent down and four annual installments. Entering the judgment waives interest on the taxes it covers and suspends proceedings while no default exists. Two confessions maximum on the same taxes, and none where the redemption period has been shortened.
Repurchase after forfeiture
A separate and later right from redemption. Before the public sale the county must hold, an interested party may repurchase by paying the delinquent taxes and assessments with the penalties, interest and costs that accrued or would have accrued, and all interests of all interested parties remain unaffected (Minn. Stat. 282.005, subd. 3). Under Minn. Stat. 282.241, repurchase by the former owner is limited to six months from forfeiture except for property homesteaded on that date, and always needs a county board resolution finding undue hardship, injustice or a public interest in the use of the land.
Assignment of the state's interest
Still in the statute, though it is not part of the route the Department of Revenue's current manual describes. Minn. Stat. 280.11 directs the auditor to assign the state's rights in an unredeemed bid-in parcel to any person who pays the bid-in amount with interest at 12 percent per annum plus later delinquencies, and Minn. Stat. 281.24 keeps a parcel subject to assignment until the date of forfeiture, with the redemption time then running from notice given by the assignee. Whether a given county uses it is a question for that county auditor, and attorney review is available.
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