Real Estate Taxes

Not paying your real estate taxes in Minnesota can result in your property being foreclosed upon by the government. If a foreclosure occurs under these circumstances, in Minnesota, under current law, you are not entitled to the surplus from the sale of the home.

Hypothetical: Mary owns her home. She moves into assisted living. Due to the cost of assisted living Mary can no longer afford to pay her real estate taxes. So, she stops paying them. The county forecloses on her home. The home is worth $200,000. The property taxes, with interest, are $25,000.

In this hypothetical, if Mary does not redeem her home within the time period allowed under the law, Mary would not receive the surplus of $175,000. Instead, the county gets to keep it.

When a mortgage has been paid, it is not an uncommon problem for real estate taxes to go unpaid. When the owner receives notice(s) about the real estate taxes being due, the owner often ignores them because they do not understand that the real estate taxes have to be paid separately. If the home is foreclosed upon, the owner also often ignores those notices because the owner mistakenly believes that they will receive the surplus from the sale of the home. It is important to timely pay your real estate property taxes.

Spangler and de Stefano, PLLP advises clients on estate planning and planning for medical assistance.

The material contained herein is for informational purposes only, and is not intended to create or constitute an attorney-client relationship between Spangler and de Stefano, PLLP and the reader. The information contained herein is not offered as legal advice and should not be construed as legal advice.