Mortgagor
The mortgagor is the borrower — the party who grants a mortgage over their property as security for a debt.
What the mortgagor keeps#
More than most people in default assume.
Title, throughout the loan. A Minnesota mortgage is an encumbrance, not a transfer.
Possession, throughout the loan and — critically — throughout any redemption period after a foreclosure sale. Title does not pass until that period expires unredeemed.
The statutory right of redemption, which Minnesota courts have held cannot be contracted away entirely.
A mortgagor whose property has been sold at a sheriff's sale is still the owner and still entitled to live there. That is genuinely surprising to people and it is worth stating plainly, because a great many households leave homes they were entitled to remain in.
The rights extend beyond the mortgagor#
Minn. Stat. 580.23 grants the redemption right to "the mortgagor, the mortgagor's personal representatives or assigns."
Personal representatives matters where an owner dies during a foreclosure. The estate can redeem — but only if someone has authority to act, which means a probate has been opened. The redemption clock does not pause while a family works out who is in charge.
Assigns matters because the right of redemption is itself transferable. It can be sold, and that is one of the ways a redemption gets funded where the owner has no money.
Co-mortgagors#
Where more than one person granted the mortgage, each generally holds the statutory rights.
In practice that can be a problem rather than a protection. Divorced or estranged co-owners, siblings who inherited together, an owner who has moved out of state — all need to coordinate inside a fixed period, and the period does not accommodate family difficulty.
Where a redemption is being contemplated, establishing early who needs to sign and whether they will is as important as establishing where the money comes from.
What the mortgagor owes#
The debt, until the foreclosure resolves it.
And in most Minnesota residential foreclosures, the sale resolves it entirely. Minn. Stat. 582.30 subd. 2 bars a deficiency judgment where a mortgage is foreclosed by advertisement with a six-month or five-week redemption period.
So the ordinary mortgagor in an ordinary Minnesota foreclosure loses the property and does not carry the shortfall — which is not what most of them expect, and not what fear of foreclosure is usually built on.
Selling during the redemption period#
The option most mortgagors do not realise they retain.
Because the mortgagor holds title and possession throughout the redemption period, the property can be sold during it. The redemption amount is satisfied from the proceeds and the balance belongs to the owner.
On a property with equity that is a materially better outcome than letting the certificate ripen, where the owner receives nothing.
The constraint is time. A sale takes weeks to arrange and complete, and the redemption period does not extend for a transaction in progress. Starting in month one is a different proposition from starting in month five — and on a five-week period it is generally not achievable at all.