‘Minnesota Partition Act’ will modernize property partition, clarify eminent domain laws

The “Minnesota Partition Act” will clarify and reflect modern practices for how court actions involving two or more owners are decided.

Effective Aug. 1, 2025, unless otherwise noted, a new law modernizes Minnesota’s statute on property partition, clarifies eminent domain laws, updates statute to reflect case law on partitions, and changes the effective date a 2024 certain transfer on death deed law.

Among its provisions, the law:

• describes who may bring legal action regarding sales of real property held by two or more joint tenants or tenants-in-common;

• provides that a partition can still occur when there is a dispute as to who owns shares of the property;

• outlines the duties and powers of referees assigned by a court to facilitate property sales, including that referees “shall sell the property by any means to assure the highest and best price, under the most favorable terms”;

• states a court must accept a referee’s report “unless the party seeking to set aside or modify the report can demonstrate that the report is clearly and palpably against the evidence, by a preponderance of the evidence that clearly suggests a mistake, improper motive, bias, or caprice in making the report”;

• modifies who must be notified of an eminent domain report filed by court-appointed commissioners; and

• expands the ways a person affected by an eminent domain action may file an appeal of a district court’s decision.

Effective retroactively from April 27, 2024, the law also changes the application of a transfer on death deed law enacted in 2024.

Rep. Sandra Feist (DFL-New Brighton) and Sen. Michael Kreun (R-Blaine) sponsor the law.

HF359/SF202*/CH2

SF0202* / HF0359 / CH2