Delinquent property taxes in Minnesota? Here’s what to know.

Do you own a home in Minnesota, and have fallen behind on your property taxes? You are not alone. Thousands of Minnesota homeowners fall behind on their property taxes each year. What most minnesotans don’t know, is that if you are delinquent for 4 or more years, that the county will seize your property and auction it off. Then, you only have 6 months to collect any surplus monies. You have 4.5 years from the first year you were delinquent.

In this article, you’ll get answers to some common questions:

How much do I owe?

How do I get paid up?

What happens if I do nothing?

What is a “redemption period”?

Will the county take my property?

What if I inherited a property?

How long do I have to pay them up?

What are my options?

What if my property is in disrepair?

What if I want to keep my property?

The taxpayer on file will get a letter in the mail stating how much they owe. If you do not have that letter or haven’t received it, not to worry. There are free online portals that you can find how much you owe.

Here are links to each of the online portals, with basic instructions on how to look up your property taxes due.

Hennepin County – https://www.hennepincounty.gov/services/property/property-information-search

Anoka County – https://prtpublicweb.co.anoka.mn.us/search/commonsearch.aspx?mode=combined 

Ramsey County – https://beacon.schneidercorp.com/application.aspx?app=RamseyCountyMN&PageType=Search 

Dakota County – https://gis.co.dakota.mn.us/Webappbuilder/PropertyInformationPublic/index.html

Washington County – https://mn-washington.publicaccessnow.com/ 

Scott County – https://www.scottcountymn.gov/385/Search-for-Property-Information

Carver County – https://publicaccess.carvercountymn.gov/search/commonsearch.aspx?mode=combined

Wright County –https://propertyaccess.co.wright.mn.us/search/commonsearch.aspx?mode=combined

Stearns County -https://propertyaccess.stearnscountymn.gov/search/commonsearch.aspx?mode=realprop

Olmsted County – https://publicaccess.co.olmsted.mn.us/forms/htmlframe.aspx?mode=content/home.htm 

St. Louis County – https://apps.stlouiscountymn.gov/assessor/propertydetails/

I’m going to use Hennepin County and Anoka County as the examples, but all of these will be similar.

Once you reach their main page, you will likely need to accept some terms. Click “I accept” or the similar button.

You will then be asked to enter an address, or a property ID.

Typically they will have you enter your house number, and then add your street name after the house number. Press enter.

You will be shown a screen with your property tax information.

Click on “Delinquent and Contract Amounts Due”

The screen will look like this. The total amount delinquent will be on the bottom right side, under “Total”. In this instance, it’s $31,594.48.

That is how much you currently owe in back taxes.

For Anoka county, you will enter your Parcel ID or your address.

You will get to a page like this.

Click on “Property Taxes Due”

This will show your delinquent taxes owed, as well as your current year owed.

In this instance, it’s $9,308.43 delinquent and $4,318.74 for this year.

You have a few options. If you can pay it all now, great! Find your property using the online portal in the “How much do I owe” section above, and there will be a link to pay your property taxes in full.

If you pay your delinquent property taxes in full, you are in the clear. All the county wants is to get paid - they do not want to take your property.

If you can only pay it partially, it will get applied to the latest year. So if you are delinquent in 2023, 2024 and 2025, the payments will be applied starting in 2025. This does NOT stop the forfeiture clock.

See “Will the county take my property?” For information on the forfeiture clock.

You can setup a payment plan, but only in your fourth year. So for 2026, you would have needed to be delinquent in 2022 for the county to offer a payment plan.

These payment plans are called “Confessions of Judgement”. They are either a 5 or 10 year term, and accrue interest yearly on the outstanding balance. They will allow you to keep the house, as long as you continue making payments.

If you want to keep your house but simply have fallen 4 years on taxes, a Confession of Judgement is usually a good route to go.

If you do nothing, the county will take ownership of your property. If you have delinquent taxes for at least 1 year, four years ago, on the 2nd Monday of May, the county will take ownership of your property.

For example. If you did not pay your 2022 taxes, but you paid your 2023, 2024 and 2025 taxes, the county will still take ownership of your property if the 2022 taxes are not paid or a payment plan isn’t entered.

So, what does that mean for you, if you’re living there? Or if you have family living there?

They do have the right to evict you once they take ownership. The county will auction it off within 6 months of the 2nd Monday of May, or when you vacate the property. Whichever is later.

Now, if you want to keep your property, you’re in luck - you have up until the completion of the auction to buy back your property.

You will need to pay all of the taxes off (Called the Minimum Bid), and they will give you title back to your property.

Please contact your county’s tax division for information on this, if you want to keep your property, and it already has been seized.

If you do not pay your property tax one year, on the 1st of the following year, they are considered “delinquent”.

6 months after they’re delinquent, specifically on the 2nd Monday of May, the “redemption period” starts.

The redemption period is just the amount of time you have to pay off the taxes.

If you do not pay off the taxes in that time period, or enter into a payment plan (See “Confession of Judgement) - the county will take ownership of your property, and auction it off.

If they auction it off; You are not entitled to any proceeds if you do not submit a surplus claim form within 6 months.

You will be notified and must go through a collection process. The county will publish this in a legal newspaper and on their website as well. You have 6 months to collect this surplus or you forfeit it.

If you do nothing, yes- the county will absolutely take ownership your property.

You can:

Pay off the taxes

Sell the property to pay off the taxes

Setup a payment plan (Confession of Judgement)

Let them sell it, and collect the surplus at auction (6 mo time limit)

Do nothing, lose all potential monies from the property.

Most of our work at Bellhop is with people who have inherited properties. It can get sticky quickly.

Let’s give an example:

Johnny Sr buys a house on 123 Apple Street in 1956. He pays it off, and he wants to give it to his son, Johnny Jr. But, before he signs any documents transferring ownership, he passes away in 2022.

Now, Johnny Jr was living in the house up until 2022, taking care of his father. He was making payments on the taxes and everything. But hard times come (as they always do), and he stopped making payments, and taking care of the place.

He moves out in 2022, so the house has sat vacant for 3 years now.

Additionally…

Johnny Jr has a brother, Kevin, who tragically passes away in 2023.

Johnny Jr also has a sister, Marcele. She is still alive.

Johnny Jr wants to sell 123 Apple Street - and here is the problem.

Johnny Sr never wrote Johnny Jr in his will to inherit the house.

And in order to sell the house, Johnny Jr needs to do what is called a “Probate” for his dad.

Not only does he need to do a probate for his dad, he needs to do a probate for his brother, Kevin.

Why does he need to go through probate for his brother, Kevin?

Because Kevin will inherit 1/3 of the property.

Now, what is a probate?

A Probate is the states way of saying “You are who you say you are, and you have rights to this piece of property. Now that we’ve established that, you can sell it, move into it, whatever you want.”

So, Johnny Jr now needs to go through a probate for his dad, and his brother, and get his sisters approval to sell it.

This is a tame version of what we do on a regular basis.

We get everyone on the same page that they want to sell, help pay for any legal probate’s that need to get done, and get these vacant, disrepair properties sold to our investors.

How could this have been avoided?

Well, Johnny Sr could have:

Put the property into a Trust, bypassing probate entirely and keeping everything confidential, or

Given Johnny Jr a “Transfer on Death Deed” which will give him ownership, and bypass probate, or

Given Johnny Jr a “Quit Claim Deed” and just given him straight ownership, or

Written Johnny Jr into his will. That would still need to have been probated, though.

Technically, you have until the end of the auction to pay them up, although you may get evicted before that.

If you are delinquent in 2022, you have until the 2nd Monday of May in 2026 to pay them or enter into a payment arrangement.

You can:

1. Pay the taxes little by little (It will apply to the latest year first)

2. Pay them in one lump sum

Sell the property and pay the taxes in full

3. Enter into a payment plan (Confession of Judgement) on your fourth year of delinquency

4. Let the property go to auction, and submit a request to get the surplus monies from the auction sale.

5. Do absolutely nothing, don’t collect anything and forget about the property (Please, don’t do this, let us help if you’re considering it)

Regardless if your property is in good shape or in disrepair, it all comes down to whether or not you want to keep it.

If you want to keep it, you can pay the taxes off, or enter into a payment plan on your fourth year of delinquency.

If you want to sell it, you can:

List it on the open market with a Realtor, or…

Get an offer from an investor, who will buy it directly from you.

If you want to sell and are in a sticky situation, please reach out to us. We’d be happy to help you move on from the property, and get some cash in your pocket as well.

If you want to keep it, wonderful! It’s yours, you have every right.

You can:

1. Payoff the taxes little by little. They will apply to the latest tax year first.

2. Payoff the taxes in one lump sum.

3. Wait until the fourth year and get on a payment plan, called a Confession of Judgement.

I know this has been a large list, but I wanted to answer a lot of the common questions here.

If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to call me, or one of our bellhops and we will do our best to answer them and guide you in the right direction. We have no chips in the game, and do our best to be completely neutral.

If you do want to sell it, and are in a sticky situation, we’d love the opportunity to hear about it, and help you out. Please give us a call.

God Bless!

Jordan PR Olson

Owner

Bellhop Homes LLC

MN Tax Delinquency Experts

Real Estate Investors