Questions We Get Asked

On a single-family house, duplex, townhouse or first-time condominium conversion, yes, and before you can show the property rather than before closing. Properties with three or more units are outside the requirement.

A City-licensed evaluator, hired and paid by you. They are private contractors rather than City employees and they set their own prices, so the City will not recommend one.

No. A buyer may sign an Acknowledgement of Responsibility and complete them within 90 days of closing, with reinspection by an evaluator or a City inspector and a Certificate of Completion afterwards.

Two years or one sale, whichever comes first. A buyer who later resells has to obtain a fresh one.

A property brought out of condemnation receives a Certificate of Code Compliance, which substitutes for the Truth in Housing report for up to a year after issue.

That is the annual vacant building registration fee, currently $7,228.70, raised from $7,087 in June 2025. It is payable at registration and on each anniversary of the date the City found the building vacant.

Within 5 days after the building becomes a vacant building, under Chapter 249 of the City ordinances.

Several things, and a fire-damaged house often meets more than one: condemned and requiring a code compliance inspection, unoccupied and unsecured for 5 days or more, secured other than by its normal design for 30 days or more, or carrying multiple code violations for 30 days or more.

A Restoration Agreement with the City can waive it or hold it in abeyance for the year. You must call to schedule within 90 days of the initial registration order or renewal letter, and appointments are set weeks out.

Registration is capped at two years with a one year extension where the director finds substantial progress. Beyond that the property moves to administrative enforcement, with monthly citations starting at $250 and doubling up to $2,000, roughly $24,000 a year.

Yes. Condemnation restricts occupancy rather than transfer. It changes which process a buyer works through and therefore the figure, but it does not prevent a sale.

An inspection and repairs to bring the building to a standard where it may be reoccupied, governed by Chapters 87 and 89. On older construction that reaches systems never built to modern standard, which is where the cost sits.

Yes, and condemnation requiring a code compliance inspection is itself a registration criterion. The two processes run alongside one another.

A substantial one. Heat off means pipes freeze and split, and water damage compounds the fire damage over months. A house repairable in October can need considerably more work by March, and that deterioration has nothing to do with the fire.

Both. Older dimensional framing can sometimes be repaired in sections where newer engineered assemblies cannot, which helps. Older houses also produce longer required repair lists and larger code compliance jobs, which does not.

Then whether the building counts as vacant may turn on continued occupancy of the other unit. Worth asking Regulatory Services rather than assuming, because the difference is over seven thousand dollars a year.

Yes. Who keeps the proceeds is a negotiated term rather than a legal barrier. Tell any buyer at the outset; one who suggests concealing it from your carrier is telling you something useful.

Nothing. No fee, no commission, no repair spend and no obligation if you decline.

Minnesota charges a deed tax on the conveyance, customarily the seller's, with a small additional county charge in the metro counties. Your closing agent will quote it precisely for your price.

The estate has to be able to convey. It is a common cause of delay and it runs alongside the City processes rather than instead of them, so the registration fee keeps accruing meanwhile.