Yes. You can protect your home from the judgments of creditors. Minnesota Statutes Section 510.01 provides an exemption that protects a judgment debtor’s homestead from seizure or sale under legal process.[1] A homestead is defined as the “house owned and occupied by a debtor as the debtor’s dwelling place, together with the land upon which it is situated…”[2] The homestead exemption, however, is limited as to both area and value. Minnesota Statutes Section 510.02 provides that the homestead “may include any quantity of land not exceeding 160 acres” and that the exemption “may not exceed $510,000.”[3] That dollar cap is not fixed: it is adjusted periodically for inflation by the Commissioner of Commerce, so confirm the current published figure before you rely on it.[4] When the value of your property exceeds the exemption limit, a judgment creditor may levy an attachment or execution upon the whole property to reach the excess value.[5]

As the owner of exempt homestead property, you may sell and convey the homestead without subjecting it, or the proceeds of its sale for the period of one year after the sale, to any judgment or debt from which it was exempt, except that the sale proceeds are not protected from a court-ordered child support or maintenance obligation in arrears.[6] It follows that the grantee of the homestead property acquires title exempt or immune from the claims of the grantor’s creditors.[7]

In Hentges v. P.H. Feely & Son, Inc., 436 N.W.2d 488 (Minn. Ct. App. 1989), the respondent creditors had docketed five judgments against a Mr. Peter Rutt (“Rutt”). Rutt was the record owner of property located in Scott County, Minnesota, at the time the judgments were docketed.[8] Appellants Steven and Jeanette Hentges (“Hentges”) had purchased the property from Rutt under a contract for deed.[9] After the Hentges discovered the judgments they requested an order removing the respondents’ judgments from the record.[10] Without explanation, the Hentges request was denied by the trial court by order dated April 4, 1988.[11] The Minnesota Court of Appeals, however, reversed the trial court’s determination, finding that because Rutt homesteaded the property prior to selling it to the Hentges, the Hentges acquired the property free and clear of Rutt’s creditors by virtue of Section 510.07.[12]

[1] Minn. Stat. § 510.01.

[2] Id.

[3] Minn. Stat. § 510.02, subd. 1. Where the homestead is used primarily for agricultural purposes the exemption is limited to $1,275,000.

[4] Minn. Stat. § 510.02, subd. 2; Minn. Stat. § 550.37, subd. 4a (the dollar amounts in Section 510.02, subdivision 1, change periodically for inflation, with the Commissioner of Commerce announcing and publishing the adjusted figures).

[5] Minn. Stat. § 510.08(b) (where exempt premises “exceeds the value prescribed in section 510.02, an attachment or execution may be levied upon the whole”); see Minn. Stat. § 510.02.

[6] Minn. Stat. § 510.07 (the proceeds of a homestead sale are exempt for one year from any judgment or debt from which the homestead was exempt, “except that the proceeds of the sale are not exempt from a judgment or debt for a court ordered child support or maintenance obligation in arrears”); Sisco v. Paulson, 45 N.W.2d 385, 386 (Minn. 1950).

[7] Minn. Stat. § 510.07 (the homestead exemption is not lost during a transfer by sale); Hentges v. P.H. Feely & Son, Inc., 436 N.W.2d 488, 491 (Minn. Ct. App. 1989) (applying Minn. Stat. § 510.07 and quoting Sisco v. Paulson, 45 N.W.2d 385, 387 (Minn. 1950)) (holding that the grantee of exempt homestead property takes title free and immune from the claims of the grantor’s judgment creditors); Neumaier v. Vincent, 43 N.W. 376 (Minn. 1889) (holding that a judgment lien does not attach in the interval between the purchase and the actual occupancy of a homestead).

[8] Hentges, 436 N.W.2d at 490.

[9] Id.

[10] Id.

[11] Id.

[12] Id. at 491.