Landlord Atlas

How much notice must a landlord give before entering in Montana?

Verified July 11, 2026 All Montana topics →

Montana landlords must give tenants at least 24 hours' notice before entering a rental unit, and may enter only at reasonable times for listed purposes — inspections, repairs and improvements, services, and showings — with no-notice entry allowed in an emergency or when giving notice is impracticable, during a tenant absence of more than 7 days, under a court order, to make repairs the tenant was obligated to do, or after abandonment or surrender.

The notice does not have to be in writing: Montana's notice statute accepts hand delivery, mail (certified mail counts as served 3 days after mailing), e-mail if the lease provides an address, and — since a 2021 amendment most guides still miss — simply posting the intent to enter conspicuously on the unit's main entry door. The statute bars using the access right to harass the tenant; a tenant faced with unlawful entry or harassing repeated demands may get an injunction or terminate the lease and recover actual damages, while tenants themselves may not change or add locks without the landlord's written permission and must supply a key. There are no clock-hour limits beyond 'reasonable times.'

Montana entry notice at a glance

Advance notice required 24 hours
Notice standard Mont. Code Ann. 70-24-312(3)(a): except in an emergency 'or unless it is impracticable to do so,' the landlord shall give at least 24 hours' notice of the intent to enter and may enter only at reasonable times; the landlord may not abuse the access right or use it to harass the tenant. Notice is NOT required to be written: it runs through 70-24-108 (actual knowledge; hand delivery; mail with certificate of mailing or certified mail, deemed served 3 days after mailing; e-mail to an address provided in the rental agreement, complete on read receipt or a non-automatic reply), and under 312(3)(b) conspicuously posting the intent to enter on the unit's main entry door also constitutes notice (added effective 2021-05-14).
Permitted reasons The tenant may not unreasonably withhold consent for the landlord to inspect the premises, make necessary or agreed repairs, decorations, alterations, or improvements, supply necessary or agreed services, or exhibit the unit to prospective or actual purchasers, mortgagees, tenants, workers, or contractors (70-24-312(1)). Subsection (4) makes other access exclusive: court order; entry to make repairs the tenant owed under 70-24-425; entry during a tenant absence exceeding 7 days or on abandonment under 70-24-426(2); or premises the tenant has abandoned or surrendered.
Emergency exception Yes
Time-of-day restrictions None by the clock — entry must be at 'reasonable times' only. 'Case of emergency' is statutorily defined (70-24-103(4)) as an extraordinary occurrence beyond the tenant's control requiring immediate action, including essential-service interruptions and life-threatening events.

Notes and caveats

notice_hours encoded 24 — express statutory figure ('at least 24 hours' notice,' 70-24-312(3)(a)), verbatim-matched across two reads of the official page and the HB 541 enrolled text; the number is unchanged since the 1977 act. Two render points most charts get wrong: (1) notice need not be WRITTEN — 70-24-108 methods plus the 312(3)(b) main-entry-door posting rule (added by HB 541, Ch. 536, L. 2021, effective on approval 2021-05-14) both suffice, and e-mail notice is complete only on a read receipt or a non-automatic reply; (2) the notice duty has a broader-than-usual escape valve — excused when 'impracticable,' not just in emergencies (URLTA-vintage language, flag honestly). Emergency entry needs no consent (312(2)) and 'case of emergency' is a defined term (70-24-103(4), read from the HB 810 (2025) enrolled text and the MCA page). Lock rule: 70-24-312(5). Remedies: tenant 70-24-410 (injunction or termination plus actual damages); landlord 70-24-424 for refusal of access. Waiver: a lease clause waiving these rights is unenforceable (70-24-202(1)) with up-to-3-months'-rent damages if used knowingly (70-24-403). Mobile-home lots have a parallel 24-hour rule at 70-33-312.

Statute citations

How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text on the official Montana Code Annotated site (mca.legmt.gov, MCA 2025 edition): all nine sections of Title 70 ch. 25 and sections 70-24-103, -108, -201, -202, -312, -403, -404, -410, -422, -441 plus 7-1-111 and 1-2-201, each load-bearing section fetched twice in independent reads (WebFetch pass + raw HTML pass) with all figures matching verbatim (30-day/10-day deposit return, 24-hour cleaning cure window, certified-mail 3-day service rule, 24 hours' entry notice, 30-day/7-day periodic termination notice, rent-control preemption text). Every amendment claim additionally pinned character-for-character from official enrolled bills downloaded via the Legislature's document API (docs.legmt.gov): HB 444 (2025, Ch. 656) and HB 488 (2023, Ch. 383) for 70-25-201/-202, HB 810 (2025, Ch. 768) for 70-24-103/-201, HB 541 (2021, Ch. 536) for 70-24-312/70-24-201/70-25-201, SB 105 (2023, Ch. 319) and HB 283 (2023, Ch. 572) for 7-1-111; chapter numbers pinned from the official bill-to-chapter tables (archive.legmt.gov MCA Supplements). Bill status/signing dates read from the official api.legmt.gov bill-status history for 2025 bills (HB 444 signed 2025-05-12; HB 810 signed 2025-06-09) and corroborated via Montana Free Press Capitol Tracker for 2021/2023 bills. Negative checks (no deposit cap, no interest or separate-account rule, no rent-increase notice statute, no late-fee cap or grace period) run twice against the complete section indexes of ch. 24 parts 1-4 and ch. 25 parts 1-2. 2025 session sweep: HB 444 and HB 810 enacted and effective (incorporated); HB 304, HB 277, HB 305, HB 306 died in committee; 69th Legislature adjourned, next regular session January 2027; no on-topic special-session activity.