If you fall far enough behind on your mortgage payments in South Dakota, your loan servicer (on behalf of the lender or the subsequent loan owner) will start a foreclosure. The process could be nonjudicial, though judicial foreclosures are also possible.
Either way, South Dakota foreclosure laws set out the specifics of the South Dakota foreclosure process. After the servicer completes the steps that state law requires, and assuming you don’t successfully fight the foreclosure or work out a way to avoid it, your home is sold to a new owner at a foreclosure sale.
When Does Foreclosure Start in South Dakota?
If the property is the borrower’s principal residence, in most cases, federal law requires the servicer to wait until the loan is more than 120 days overdue before officially starting the foreclosure. This 120-day preforeclosure period is a good time to apply for loss mitigation if you want to try to prevent a foreclosure.
In some limited situations, however, the foreclosure can start earlier, like if you violated a due-on-sale clause or if the servicer is joining the foreclosure action of a superior or subordinate lienholder. (12 C.F.R. § 1024.41 (2025).)
Your Rights During Foreclosure Under Federal Mortgage Servicing Laws
After you fall behind on your payments, federal mortgage servicing laws require the servicer to establish—or make good faith efforts to establish—live contact with you no later than 36 days after the delinquency, and again within 36 days after each subsequent delinquency. The servicer has to tell you about loss mitigation options, like a loan modification, short sale, or any other alternatives to foreclosure that might be available. (12 C.F.R. § 1024.39 (2025).)
The servicer has to provide loss mitigation information in writing too. (12 C.F.R. § 1024.39 (2025).) These early intervention requirements are just a few of the many federal laws that protect borrowers who’re behind in their mortgage payments.
How Does the South Dakota Foreclosure Process Work?
A judicial foreclosure begins when the lender initiates a lawsuit in court. The lender will serve you with a lawsuit asking the court for permission to sell the home to pay off the debt. If you don’t answer the suit, the lender will likely get a default judgment allowing it to hold a foreclosure sale.
But if you choose to challenge the foreclosure, the case will proceed through the litigation process. If the lender wins the case through summary judgment or at trial, the judge will enter a judgment against you that allows the lender to sell the property at a foreclosure sale.
The nonjudicial foreclosure process is pretty simple: The lender serves the borrower a notice of sale 21 or more days before the sale date and publishes the notice in a newspaper once per week for four weeks. (S.D. Codified Laws § 21-48-6.1, § 21-48-6 (2025).)
You can, however, force the lender into court by filing an application. (S.D. Codified Laws § 21-48-9 (2025).) To ensure that you follow the procedure for getting the process in front of a judge, you’ll want to consult with a South Dakota attorney. A lawyer will take steps to comply with all legal requirements.
No Right to Reinstate In a Nonjudicial Foreclosure, Check Your Mortgage
While South Dakota law doesn’t give the borrower the right to stop a nonjudicial foreclosure sale by reinstating the loan, many mortgage contracts give the borrower the right to reinstate. Check your contract to see if you get the right to complete a reinstatement. If not, the lender might agree to let you reinstate the loan.
If the foreclosure is judicial, state law does give you the right to reinstate. If you pay the reinstatement amount before the court enters a judgment in a judicial foreclosure, the court will dismiss the foreclosure action. But if you reinstate after judgment, but before the sale, the court will stay (postpone) the foreclosure action. If you default again, the foreclosure can continue. (S.D. Codified Laws § 21-47-8, § 21-47-10 (2025).)
Is There a Right of Redemption in South Dakota?
In some states, a foreclosed homeowner has the right to redeem the home by paying off the full price paid at the sale, plus interest and costs, within a specified amount of time following a foreclosure. In general, the borrower gets one year to redeem the home after a South Dakota foreclosure sale. (S.D. Codified Laws § 21-52-11 (2025).) But if the mortgage is a short-term redemption mortgage, the redemption period is 180 days after the purchaser from the foreclosure sale records a certificate of sale in the land records. (S.D. Codified Laws § 21-49-30, § 21-52-11 (2025).)
If the homeowner abandons the home (leaves the property for good), the purchaser can ask the court to reduce the redemption period to 60 days. (S.D. Codified Laws § 21-49-13(8), § 21-49-38 (2025).)
Can the Lender Get a Deficiency Judgment in South Dakota?
When a foreclosure sale fails to bring in enough to repay the mortgage debt, including fees and costs, the difference between the sale price and the total debt is called a “deficiency balance.” Many states, including South Dakota, allow the lender to get a judgment called a “deficiency judgment” for this sum against the borrower.
In a nonjudicial foreclosure, if the lender purchases the property, the deficiency amount is limited to the difference between the total debt and the property’s fair market value. (S.D. Codified Laws § 21-48-14 (2025).)
In a judicial foreclosure, the court will take the property’s value into account and look at other factors when deciding whether a deficiency exists. (S.D. Codified Laws § 21-47-16, § 21-47-17 (2025).)
Talk to a Local South Dakota Foreclosure Lawyer
State and federal foreclosure laws are complicated, and cases can proceed differently depending on the circumstances. Also, servicers and lenders sometimes make mistakes or skip steps, but most foreclosure errors go uncontested. In cases where the servicer or foreclosing lender omitted a required step, made an error, or violated state or federal foreclosure laws, you could have a defense that could force it to start the foreclosure over, or you might have leverage to work out an alternative.
If you believe your rights were violated, talk to a local foreclosure attorney or legal aid office immediately. A lawyer can give you information about different ways to fight the foreclosure in court, as well as tell you about different ways to avoid a foreclosure, like with a loan modification.
A HUD-approved housing counselor can also provide you with helpful information (at no cost) about ways to prevent a foreclosure.