Can a tenant withhold rent for repairs in Minnesota?

In Minnesota, when a violation exists, a tenant may deposit the rent due with the court administrator in a rent escrow action after giving the landlord written notice of the violation and waiting 14 days, or, for a code violation, after the time an inspector granted for repairs has expired without satisfactory repairs. The written notice must be delivered personally or sent to the person or place where rent is normally paid, and the deposit is filed with an affidavit specifying the violation, or for a code violation with a copy of the inspector’s written notice. Violations include breaches of state, county or city health, safety, housing, building, fire prevention or housing maintenance codes, of chapter 504B, of laws against discrimination, of tenant rights in public and subsidized housing, and of the lease. Rent that comes due before the hearing must also be deposited, and while the case is pending the tenant must pay rent to the landlord or as the court directs and may not withhold rent to remedy the violation. A hearing is held within 10 to 14 days. It is a sufficient defense that the violation does not exist or has been remedied, that it was caused by the willful, malicious, negligent or irresponsible conduct of a complaining tenant or anyone under the tenant’s control, or that a tenant unreasonably refused the landlord entry to correct it. The court may order relief including retroactive rent abatement, release escrowed rent to remedy the violation, and order future rent deposited with the court or abated until the violation is remedied, and these rights may not be waived. Repair-and-deduct is a different remedy with its own rules. This is Minn. Stat. §§ 504B.385, 504B.415.

WhatMinnesota
Rent withholdingPay rent to the court after 14 days’ written notice
How it worksThe rent is paid into court or an escrow account instead

What the statute says

“If the violation is not corrected within 14 days, the residential tenant may deposit the amount of rent due to the landlord with the court administrator along with an affidavit specifying the violation.”

Quoted word for word from the section’s text.

Source

Minn. Stat. §§ 504B.385, 504B.415

Read the statute in the Minnesota Statutes (Office of the Revisor of Statutes): revisor.mn.gov.

Checked against the statute on November 15, 2026.

This is a summary of a published statute, not legal advice. Rules change, local ordinances can add to them, and the terms of a specific lease may differ. Check the citation and speak to a lawyer before acting.

How Seayora uses this rule

Every deadline on this page runs from the tenant’s notice. A repair request filed in Seayora keeps the date it was made and every update after it, on the website and both phone apps, so owner and tenant are working from the same date.

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