Limitation of Action — Services or Construction to Improve Real Property

Office of the Revisor of Statutes Search Minnesota Statutes About Minnesota Statutes 2025 Statutes New, Amended or Repealed 2025 Table of Chapters 2025 Statutes Topics (Index) Chapter 541 Table of Sections Full Chapter Text Version List Section 541.051 Version List Recent History 2018 Subd. 1 Amended 2018 c 116 s 1 2013 541.051 Amended 2013 c 21 s 1 2007 541.051 Amended 2007 c 140 art 8 s 29 2007 541.051 Amended 2007 c 105 s 4 2004 Subd. 4 Amended 2004 c 196 s 1 541.051 LIMITATION OF ACTION FOR DAMAGES BASED ON SERVICES OR CONSTRUCTION TO IMPROVE REAL PROPERTY. § Subdivision 1. Limitation; service or construction of real property; improvements. (a) Except where fraud is involved, no action by any person in contract, tort, or otherwise to recover damages for any injury to property, real or personal, or for bodily injury or wrongful death, arising out of the defective and unsafe condition of an improvement to real property, shall be brought against any person performing or furnishing the design, planning, supervision, materials, or observation of construction or construction of the improvement to real property or against the owner of the real property more than two years after the cause of action accrues, as specified in paragraph (c), nor in any event shall such a cause of action accrue more than ten years after substantial completion of the construction. Date of substantial completion shall be determined by the date when construction is sufficiently completed so that the owner or the owner's representative can occupy or use the improvement for the intended purpose. (b) Notwithstanding paragraph (a), an action for contribution or indemnity arising out of the defective and unsafe condition of an improvement to real property may be brought no later than two years after the cause of action for contribution or indemnity has accrued, regardless of whether it accrued before or after the ten-year period referenced in paragraph (a), provided that in no event may an action for contribution or indemnity be brought more than 14 years after substantial completion of the construction. (c) For purposes of determining only when the statute of limitations begins to run pursuant to paragraph (a), a cause of action accrues: (1) for a bodily injury or wrongful death action, upon discovery of the injury; and (2) for an action for injury to real or personal property, upon discovery of the injury, but in no event does a cause of action accrue earlier than substantial completion, termination, or abandonment of the construction or the improvement to real property. For purposes of paragraph (b), a cause of action for contribution or indemnity accrues upon the earlier of commencement of the action against the party seeking contribution or indemnity, or payment of a final judgment, arbitration award, or settlement arising out of the defective and unsafe condition. (d) Nothing in this section shall apply to actions for damages resulting from negligence in the maintenance, operation or inspection of the real property improvement against the owner …

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