Montana HOA fine rules

What this means for homeowners

• Montana has no homeowners association act and no statute governing HOA fines. Nothing in the Montana Code Annotated requires an association to give notice before levying a fine, sets a cure period, guarantees a hearing, or caps the amount of a fine. Whether a Montana homeowners association may fine at all, how much, and what steps it must take first are set by the recorded declaration, covenants, conditions and restrictions, bylaws and rules, together with the Montana Nonprofit Corporation Act, Mont. Code Ann. Title 35, chapter 2, for an association incorporated under it, which supplies corporate mechanics rather than fine procedure.
• The one part of the Montana Code written specifically about homeowners associations is a single section, and it limits covenant amendments rather than enforcement. "A homeowners' association may not enter into, amend, or enforce a covenant, condition, or restriction in such a way that imposes more onerous restrictions on the types of use of a member's real property than those restrictions that existed when the member acquired the member's interest in the real property, unless the member who owns the affected real property expressly agrees in writing at the time of the adoption or amendment of the covenant, condition, or restriction" (Mont. Code Ann. § 70-17-901(1)(a)). "Types of use" is defined as use for residential, agricultural or commercial purposes, "the ability to rent the real property, including the land and structures on the real property, for any amount of time," and the ability otherwise to develop the property in accordance with applicable law, in each case unless the use was impermissible under the written or recorded restrictions (§ 70-17-901(6)(e)). The section does not apply to a covenant, condition or restriction "that is not subject to enforcement by a homeowners' association" or "that is required in order to comply with applicable federal, state, and local laws, ordinances, and regulations" (§ 70-17-901(3)), and it "does not ... create a private right of action for actions or omissions occurring before May 9, 2019" (§ 70-17-901(5)). To claim its benefit a member "shall request that the homeowners' association record, or allow recording of, the exception applicable to the member," shall provide the association with the date the property was conveyed, and shall pay the recording fees (§ 70-17-901(1)(b)); a successor-in-interest generally may not claim the benefit (§ 70-17-901(2)). The section was enacted by Sec. 1, Ch. 339, L. 2019.
• Two other Montana sections speak to homeowners associations and neither creates fine procedure. On entry, "A homeowners' association must receive permission from an owner of real property before an agent of the homeowners' association may enter the property," the association shall "seek to establish a date and time to enter the property that is convenient to the owner" and "specify what part of the property the agent of the homeowners' association seeks to access," and "An owner of real property may require that the owner or the owner's agent be present when an agent of the homeowners' association enters the property" (Mont. Code Ann. § 70-16-110(1), (2)); that section does not apply to condominiums where common elements must be accessed by entering the unit and the declaration or bylaws set the terms of access, or to easements of record that specifically benefit the association (§ 70-16-110(5), (6)), and it was enacted by Sec. 1, Ch. 452, L. 2025. On political signs, "A person, homeowners' association, property owners' association, corporation, or other private entity may not, as a condition of property ownership within the jurisdiction of the private entity or by other means, prohibit the placement of a sign advocating the election, appointment, or defeat of a candidate for public office or the passage or defeat of a ballot issue" on the owner's property or on common areas in which the owner owns an undivided interest, though the entity "may impose limits on the size of signs ... and may regulate the location of sign placement and the time period during which signs may be displayed" (§ 70-1-522(1), (2)). A third, § 35-2-525, permits a homeowners' association or association of unit owners to hold a meeting by remote means unless the articles or bylaws provide otherwise.
• The condominium statute contains no fine provision either. Montana condominiums are governed by the Unit Ownership Act, Mont. Code Ann. Title 70, chapter 23. Its enforcement provision is a duty and a lawsuit, not a fine: "Except as provided in 70-1-522, each unit owner shall comply with the bylaws and with the rules adopted pursuant to the bylaws and with the covenants, conditions, and restrictions in the declaration or in the deed to the owner's unit. Failure to comply with the bylaws, rules, covenants, conditions, and restrictions is grounds for an action maintainable by the association of unit owners or by an aggrieved unit owner" (§ 70-23-506). The act's list of mandatory bylaw contents in § 70-23-308 includes no fine, notice, cure-period or hearing item — it covers the board, meetings and quorum, officers, maintenance of common elements, employment of personnel, "the manner of collecting from the unit owners their share of the common expenses," administrative rules, use restrictions and amendment of the bylaws. The chapter's former part 10, headed "Enforcement and Penalty," is repealed in its entirety; it held two sections and each now reads only "Repealed. Sec. 3, Ch. 12, L. 1999" (§§ 70-23-1001, 70-23-1002). The 2019 covenant-amendment limit reaches condominiums too, both because § 70-17-901 defines "Homeowners' association" to include "an association of unit owners as defined by 70-23-102 subject to the Unit Ownership Act" (§ 70-17-901(6)(a)(ii)) and because "An association of unit owners shall abide by the provisions of 70-17-901" (§ 70-23-507). For records, an owner of an incorporated Montana association falls back on the Nonprofit Corporation Act, under which "a member is entitled to inspect and copy, at a reasonable time and location specified by the corporation," the records described in § 35-2-906(5) "if the member gives the corporation written notice or a written demand at least 5 business days before the date on which the member wishes to inspect and copy," and may reach accounting records and the membership list on the same notice if the demand "is made in good faith and for a proper purpose," describes the purpose and records "with reasonable particularity," and the records "are directly connected with this purpose" (§ 35-2-907(1), (2), (3)).