Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act
The Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act is federal law protecting renters when the property they live in is foreclosed. It does one simple thing that matters enormously: it stops a foreclosure from instantly converting a tenant into a trespasser.
What it provides#
Two protections for a bona fide tenant.
The lease survives. A purchaser at foreclosure generally takes subject to an existing bona fide lease and must honour it through its term.
Ninety days' notice minimum. Before requiring a bona fide tenant to vacate, the purchaser must give at least ninety days' notice.
Where the purchaser intends to occupy the property as a primary residence, the lease can generally be ended earlier — but the ninety-day notice requirement still applies. It is a floor, not an alternative.
Bona fide#
The protections attach to genuine tenancies, and the qualifying test exists to exclude arrangements manufactured to delay a foreclosure.
Broadly, a bona fide tenant is renting at arm's length for something approximating market rent, and is not the former owner or the owner's child, spouse or parent.
A month-to-month tenant paying rent to an unrelated landlord qualifies. A lease signed for a nominal sum a week before the sheriff's sale does not.
The lapse, and why old advice is wrong#
The Act originally carried a sunset provision and expired at the end of 2014. It was restored and made permanent in 2018.
That history matters when reading anything published in the intervening years, which will correctly state that the protection no longer existed. It does now, and a great deal of stale guidance says otherwise.
How it fits with Minnesota's redemption period#
The two protections stack, and the sequence is worth being clear about.
During the redemption period — six months in most Minnesota cases — the mortgagor retains possession and the tenancy simply continues. The federal Act is not yet doing any work, because the purchaser is not the owner.
Only when the redemption period expires unredeemed does title vest, and only then does the federal ninety-day protection become the operative constraint.
So a Minnesota tenant in a foreclosed building typically has the redemption period plus ninety days before being required to leave — a materially longer runway than most tenants in that position believe they have.
What a tenant should do#
Keep paying rent. Keep every notice received. Confirm who is entitled to the rent before changing where it goes.
And get advice early rather than at the point of an eviction filing — legal aid organisations handle these cases and the assistance is free for those who qualify. The protections are real, and they are most useful to people who know about them before they have already packed.