Minneapolis Fire Damage Rules: TISH, Vacancy and Code Compliance

Process One: Truth in Sale of Housing

Minneapolis requires an evaluation before a residential property may be marketed. It applies to single-family houses, duplexes, townhouses and first-time condominium conversions. Previously owned condominiums are outside it, as are properties with three or more units and commercial buildings.

When Exactly Does the TISH Requirement Bite?

Before the property can be shown. The requirement attaches to marketing rather than to closing, so listing, advertising or putting a sign up without a full Truth in Housing report is out of sequence. It applies to sale by owner, agent-assisted sale, contract for deed and other title transfers alike.

The seller hires an evaluator from the City's licensed list. Evaluators are private contractors who set their own prices, and the City will not recommend one. The evaluator inspects inside and out and produces a report listing required repairs and voluntary recommendations. Since 2020 home energy data is collected during the evaluation as well.

The report is valid for two years or one sale, whichever comes first. A buyer who later resells must obtain a fresh one.

Do the Required Repairs Have to Be Done Before Closing?

Not necessarily. The buyer may sign an Acknowledgement of Responsibility and take on the required repairs, completing them within 90 days of closing. After completion an evaluator or a City inspector reinspects depending on the type of repair, and the City issues a Certificate of Completion.

That mechanism is why a fire-damaged house can be sold in Minneapolis without being repaired first. What it is not is a way to avoid the evaluation itself, which still has to happen before the property is shown.

Process Two: Condemnation and Code Compliance

Where a fire is serious enough, the property is condemned and requires a code compliance inspection before it can be reoccupied. Chapters 87 and 89 of the City ordinances govern that process.

The important interaction is with TISH. A property brought out of condemnation receives a Certificate of Code Compliance, and the City treats that certificate as removing the need for a Truth in Housing report for up to a year after issue.

Which Route Is My Property On?

If the fire led to condemnation, the code compliance route. If it did not, the TISH route. They are alternatives rather than additions, and knowing which applies determines who you need to hire, what the report will say and how long the process takes before you can market the property.

The practical difference matters. A TISH evaluation is a private inspection of an existing habitable house. A code compliance inspection addresses bringing a condemned building back to a standard where it may be occupied again, which on a badly burned property is a substantially larger undertaking.

Process Three: Vacant Building Registration

Chapter 249 requires the owner of a building to register it with the director of regulatory services within five days after it becomes a vacant building.

The criteria reach a fire-damaged property from several directions at once: condemned and requiring a code compliance inspection; unoccupied and unsecured for five days or more; secured by means other than those normally used in the building's design for thirty days or more; carrying multiple housing, fire or building code violations for thirty days or more; or unable to obtain a certificate of occupancy because of work stoppage or expired permits.

What Does Registration Actually Cost?

An annual fee of $7,228.70, raised from $7,087 in June 2025, payable at registration and on each anniversary of the date the City found the building vacant. The fee is set by the director's schedule and may be adjusted annually, so confirm the current figure rather than relying on a published one.

Registration is now capped at two years, with a one year extension available on application where the director determines the owner has made substantial progress toward bringing the building into compliance.

Beyond that the property moves to administrative enforcement, which is more expensive rather than less. Monthly citations start at $250 and double up to $2,000 while non-compliance continues, producing something in the order of $24,000 a year against a registration fee of roughly seven thousand.

The Restoration Agreement

The mechanism for stopping the fee deserves its own section because it is time-limited and few owners hear about it in time.

A Restoration Agreement is a contract between the City and the owner providing timeframes, work orders and cost estimates for the complete rehabilitation of the property, together with the financial penalties for failing to meet them. Where one is entered, the annual registration fee may be waived or held in abeyance for the current year.

What Is the Deadline for a Restoration Agreement?

You must call to schedule an appointment within 90 days of the initial vacant building registration order or renewal letter. Appointments are set several weeks out, so the call has to come well before the meeting. You will need proof of ownership, and for a condemned property a code compliance inspection from within the last year.

We publish no guidance on negotiating a Restoration Agreement or on what a particular rehabilitation scope should contain. The agreement carries penalties and deposit forfeiture provisions, and it is worth taking advice rather than signing one because a deadline is approaching.

The Statewide Layer

Minnesota requires a seller of residential property to disclose material facts affecting the use or enjoyment of the property that are known to the seller, with an alternative route through an inspection report in certain circumstances. Minnesota also charges a deed tax on conveyances, customarily paid by the seller, with a small additional county-level charge in the metro counties.

We publish no deed tax rates or disclosure form requirements here. The statewide obligations are less consequential on a Minneapolis fire file than the three City processes above, and your closing agent will quote the deed tax precisely for your price.

Your Four Exits, Compared

Repair and list. Highest gross, and it stops the registration clock, which on a registered building is worth over seven thousand a year on its own.

Sell as it stands. Transfers the repair, the code compliance route and the registration liability. The TISH evaluation still has to be done before marketing unless the code compliance route applies.

Demolish and sell the lot. Removes the building and the registration exposure with it, though demolition is permitted work with its own costs and timeline.

Do nothing. The most expensive option available in this city, because the registration fee accrues, the two year cap approaches, and the citation regime beyond it runs several times higher.

One City, Different Neighbourhoods

Minneapolis is a single city with one inspections department, so what changes between neighbourhoods is the housing rather than the rules. The older housing where the fire and the winter compound is covered under an area of older frame houses and a district of older stock and duplexes. Larger houses behave differently in a belt of larger frame homes and an area of older housing and small multi-family, while the higher-value southwest neighbourhoods and the post-war housing near the lakes complete the set.

Beyond the city, Saint Paul, Bloomington, Brooklyn Park, Plymouth, Maple Grove, Edina, Richfield, Saint Louis Park, Eagan and Woodbury each run their own inspections, and several operate their own time of sale programmes with their own requirements.

The full index is on our service area index.

Local-Scope Questions

Can I List the House Before the Evaluation?

No. The requirement attaches to marketing, so the full report must exist before you list, advertise or show the property.

My Property Is Condemned. Does Registration Still Apply?

Yes, and condemnation requiring a code compliance inspection is itself one of the registration criteria. The two processes run alongside each other rather than instead of each other.

The Fee Arrived and I Cannot Pay It.

Call about a Restoration Agreement immediately. Within 90 days of the order or renewal letter it can be waived or held in abeyance, and the alternative after two years is a citation regime several times more expensive.

Primary Sources

City of Minneapolis Community Planning and Economic Development — Truth in Sale of Housing programme
Minneapolis Code of Ordinances Chapter 249 — vacant building registration and the five day requirement
City of Minneapolis Regulatory Services — vacant building registration fee schedule and criteria
City of Minneapolis — Restoration Agreement process and procedures for waiving the registration fee
Minneapolis Code of Ordinances Chapters 87 and 89 — condemnation and code compliance before reoccupation