Montana Landlord-Tenant Laws
Local rent regulation in Montana
Montana law denies cities and counties any power to control the amount of rent charged for private residential or commercial property, except for property in which the local government itself holds an interest.
Cited to Mont. Code Ann. § 7-1-111 · Verified August 12, 2026 · Full Montana rent-increase rules →
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. Code Ann. 70-24-441(2), which lets either party end a month-to-month tenancy with at least 30 days' written notice before the date designated in the notice (7 days for week-to-week), so a landlord proposing higher rent is effectively offering new terms the tenant can decline by leaving on 30 days' notice.
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. Code Ann. 70-24-201(3)), and the statutes acknowledge late fees only to define them as part of 'rent' when agreed on in the rental agreement.
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.
Montana Eviction process
To evict a residential tenant in Montana the landlord serves a written termination notice under MCA 70-24-422 - 3 days for unpaid rent, 14 days for a general lease violation, and 3 days for an unauthorized pet, unauthorized occupants, verbal abuse, damage to the premises or dangerous or illegal activity - and if the tenant does not pay, cure or leave, files an action for possession in justice, city or district court.
Montana Application fees
Montana regulates the back end of the rental application fee rather than its size: a property manager of four or more dwelling units must refund the fee within a reasonable period of time if the applicant does not end up party to a rental agreement, and may keep only the out-of-pocket cost of services actually performed and disclosed in writing when the fee was collected.
Montana mobile home park laws
Montana's Residential Mobile Home Lot Rental Act, Title 70, chapter 33 of the Montana Code Annotated, governs the tenancy of a resident who owns the home and rents the lot beneath it, and it reaches a single rented parcel as well as a community.
Lot-rent, closure, park-sale and home-sale rules with statute citations →
Montana Fair Market Rents (FY 2026) — HUD's benchmark rents for every Montana metro area and county.
Changes since last full verification
The Verified date above (July 11, 2026) marks the last time every figure on this page was verified end-to-end against official state sources. The changes below were published since then, each verified against the official source it names (what these dates mean).
- Correction, August 5, 2026 — Montana's comparison of its one-number lease-violation notice to other states misstated Virginia's rule: Virginia gives tenants 21 days to fix a lease violation (termination 30 days after notice), while the 14-day cure figure belongs to Oregon. The Montana page now attributes each state's numbers correctly; Virginia's own record was already right and its encoded figures are unchanged.
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 section behind a figure here read twice independently 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.