Montana Landlord-Tenant Laws
Montana Security deposits
Montana puts no cap on security deposits, but the landlord must return the deposit with a written list of any rent due, damage, and cleaning charges within 30 days after the tenancy ends or the premises are surrendered and accepted, whichever comes first — and within just 10 days if an inspection shows no damage, no cleaning needed, no unpaid rent, and the tenant can show no unpaid utilities.
Montana Rent increase notice
Montana has no statute requiring advance notice of a rent increase — the 30-day figure everyone quotes is derived from Mont.
Montana Late fees
Montana sets no cap on residential late fees and mandates no grace period — rent is payable without demand or notice at the time the lease fixes (Mont.
Montana Entry notice
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.
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.