Short answer. You must make the same payments required of any redemptioner. Once you do, no further redemption is allowed and you are restored to your estate. The person you paid must execute a certificate of redemption, acknowledged before a notary, and it must be recorded in the registry of deeds.
What the law says
If the judgment obligor redeems, he must make the same payments as are required to effect a redemption by a redemptioner, whereupon, no further redemption shall be allowed and he is restored to his estate. The person to whom the redemption payment is made must execute and deliver to him a certificate of redemption acknowledged before a notary public or other officer authorized to take acknowledgments of conveyances of real property. Such certificate must be filed and recorded in the registry of deeds of the place in which the property is situated, and the registrar of deeds must note the record thereof on the margin of the record of the certificate of sale. The payments mentioned in this and the last preceding sections may be made to the purchaser or redemptioner, or for him to the officer who made the sale.
Rule 39, Section 29 — Effect of redemption by judgment obligor, and a certificate to be delivered and recorded thereupon; to whom payments on redemption made. Read the full provision →
Same payment standard as any redemptioner
If the judgment obligor himself redeems his own property, he must make the same payments as would be required to effect a redemption by any other redemptioner; the Rule does not give the original owner an easier or different path back into the property than it gives anyone else with a right to redeem. There is no discount or special treatment simply because the person redeeming happens to be the original owner rather than an outside redemptioner.
Effect: no further redemption, restored to the estate
Once the judgment obligor redeems on that basis, no further redemption is allowed by anyone else, and he is restored to his estate, meaning his ownership is treated as though the execution sale had never removed it in the first place. Once that happens, the purchaser's rights and any other redemptioner's rights under the property simply come to an end, since the obligor has reclaimed full ownership. This cutoff protects the redemption process from becoming an endless chain: once the original owner has come back in and paid what the rule requires, later claimants cannot try to redeem from him in turn, because the property is no longer subject to redemption at all.
The certificate of redemption and where it must be recorded
The person to whom the redemption payment is made is required to execute and deliver a certificate of redemption, acknowledged before a notary public or another officer authorized to take acknowledgments of real-property conveyances. That certificate must then be filed and recorded in the registry of deeds of the place where the property is situated, with the registrar noting the record on the margin of the certificate of sale, and payments under this process may be made either to the purchaser or redemptioner directly, or to the officer who conducted the sale, on their behalf.
Related provisions
- Rule 39, Section 29 — Effect of redemption by judgment obligor, and a certificate to be delivered and recorded thereupon; to whom payments on redemption made
- Rule 39, Section 28 — Time and manner of, and amounts payable on, successive redemptions; notice to be given and filed
- Rule 39, Section 30 — Proof required of redemptioner