844.05.Waste.

Section 844.05 protects a buyer at a tax sale, judicial sale, or a sale under a mortgage’s power of sale during the gap between the sale and when the buyer takes possession. Subsection (1) lets that purchaser sue to restrain waste during that period, and lets the purchaser recover damages, in that suit or a later one, against anyone who commits waste on the premises after the sale.

But the section does not strip the person still lawfully entitled to possession — often someone with a redemption period still running — of all use of the property in the meantime. Subsection (2) lists specific acts that person may do without being liable for waste: using and enjoying the premises as they were used before the sale without permanent injury to the freehold; making necessary repairs to buildings, fences, or other structures without altering their form or lessening their value; using and improving the land in the ordinary course of husbandry or mining, and keeping crops growing at the expiration of the redemption period; applying wood or timber on the land to necessary repairs of existing fences, buildings, or structures; and, if occupying the land, taking necessary firewood for the person’s own or the family’s use.

The result is a balance: the purchaser gets protection against a person stripping value from the property before possession transfers, while the person still entitled to possession retains ordinary, non-destructive use of the land until that transfer happens.