Montana HOA Collections & Liens

Key Findings

• Montana governs condominium assessment collection through the Unit Ownership Act, Mont. Code Ann. Title 70, ch. 23. The association lien arises only when the association records a verified claim — it does not attach automatically on the due date. The lien secures the reasonable value of common expenses, ranks below tax liens and any first mortgage or trust indenture of record, and carries no super-priority.
• No comprehensive planned-community statute exists in Montana. Those associations base their collection authority on recorded covenants, the Montana Nonprofit Corporation Act, and common law — making the association lien contractual rather than statutory.
• Foreclosure of a condominium lien proceeds judicially through the construction-lien procedure. The statute sets no minimum debt or delinquency threshold. After a judicial sale, the owner holds a one-year right of redemption.

Section 1: Overview — How assessment collection and liens work in Montana

Montana's Unit Ownership Act — Mont. Code Ann. Title 70, ch. 23 — is the controlling law for condominium assessment collection. For planned communities, no equivalent comprehensive statute exists. Those associations draw their authority from recorded covenants, the Montana Nonprofit Corporation Act, and common law.¹ Montana has not adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, and the state has a distinctive appellate structure: there is no intermediate court of appeals, so any district court ruling goes directly to the Montana Supreme Court on appeal.

In a condominium, the association lien does not arise on the date an assessment falls due. It attaches only after the association records a verified claim in the county where the unit sits.¹ Montana grants the association no super-priority over a first mortgage. Section 70-23-607 makes the condominium lien expressly subordinate to tax and assessment liens and to a first mortgage or trust indenture of record.¹ When the association needs to foreclose, it files a court action routed through the construction-lien foreclosure procedure.² The Act sets no minimum dollar amount and no minimum delinquency period before an association may foreclose. Within the national collections landscape, Montana occupies a creditor-neutral, no-super-priority position: when a senior mortgage lender forecloses, that lender takes the unit free of the association's pre-sale common-expense claim.

Montana HOA Collections & Liens at a glance.

Source: Mont. Code Ann. §§ 70-23-607 to 70-23-611, 71-3-124, 25-13-802, and Title 35, ch. 2. Last verified: June 9, 2026.

Section 2: The lien and its priority

2A. Lien creation, authority, and what it secures

In a condominium, the assessment lien rests on a clear statutory foundation. Mont. Code Ann. § 70-23-607(1) gives the association a lien on each unit — and the unit's undivided interest in the common elements — for the reasonable value of any services, labor, or material the association furnishes that qualifies as a common expense.¹ But that lien is not self-executing. Section 70-23-607(2) conditions it on recording a claim in the county where the unit sits. That claim must include a true statement of the amount due after credits and offsets, the name of the owner or reputed owner if known, and a description of the property and unit sufficient for identification.¹ A person with knowledge of the facts must verify the claim under oath; the recording officer then files and records it in the lien book kept under Title 71, ch. 3, part 5, indexed as deeds are indexed.¹ The Act sets no deadline for recording the claim.

The lien's scope is narrow. Under § 70-23-102, common expenses are the costs of administering, maintaining, repairing, or replacing the common elements; costs all unit owners have agreed are common; and costs declared common by § 70-23-610, § 70-23-612, or the declaration or bylaws.⁶ Regular and special assessments levied to fund those costs fall within the lien. Fines for covenant or rule violations are not common expenses and fall outside the statutory lien. On foreclosure, the association may also recover filing and recording costs and reasonable attorney fees in the district and supreme courts under § 71-3-124 — a provision the Act imports from the construction-lien foreclosure procedure.⁵

In a planned community that has not submitted to the Unit Ownership Act, there is no statutory lien at all. The association's authority to assess and to place a lien is purely contractual, flowing from the recorded declaration of covenants, with corporate authority supplied by the Montana Nonprofit Corporation Act, Title 35, ch. 2.³ What such a lien secures, and the steps to perfect it, are whatever the covenants provide, constrained by general law.

2B. Lien priority against other encumbrances

Section 70-23-607(1) fixes the condominium lien's rank. The lien stands ahead of all other liens and encumbrances on the unit except two: tax and assessment liens, and a first mortgage or trust indenture of record.¹ It outranks junior mortgages and most later-recorded claims, but it yields to government tax and assessment liens and to the first mortgage or trust indenture. Montana grants no super-priority and no limited carve-out ahead of the senior lender — there is no provision giving the association a fixed number of months of assessments in front of a first mortgage.

Section 70-23-610 defines what happens when the senior lender forecloses. A purchaser who takes title through foreclosure of the first mortgage or trust indenture takes free of any common expenses that came due before the purchase date, and the unpaid share becomes a common expense of all unit owners going forward — including the new owner.⁷ A senior-lender foreclosure therefore extinguishes the association's pre-sale claim against the unit. Because the association's lien depends on recording, its priority against competing junior interests tracks the date its verified claim hits the record — but its subordination to the first mortgage or trust indenture of record is fixed by statute, regardless of when that first mortgage was recorded.

2C. Federal overlay

Three federal frameworks operate over Montana's collection process regardless of what state law provides. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1692 et seq., governs third-party collectors and attorneys who regularly collect association debts — requiring validation notices, restricting communications, and setting conduct standards.⁸ The federal bankruptcy automatic stay under 11 U.S.C. § 362 stops recording, perfection, and foreclosure the moment an owner files for bankruptcy; post-petition assessments receive separate treatment from any pre-petition debt.⁹ The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, 50 U.S.C. § 3901 et seq., restricts default judgments and can stay or cap enforcement against active-duty servicemembers; Montana also extends parallel protections to Montana National Guard members under Mont. Code Ann. § 10-1-903.¹⁰

Section 3: The collection and foreclosure process

3A. Pre-lien collection sequence

The Unit Ownership Act prescribes no pre-lien notice sequence for condominiums. It requires no notice of delinquency, no notice of intent to record, sets no day-count, specifies no delivery method, and imposes no requirement that the association offer a payment plan, accept a dispute, or furnish an itemized statement before recording.¹ The one disclosure the Act does require runs to prospective purchasers, not delinquent owners. Under § 70-23-611, when a prospective purchaser requests it, the manager must deliver a statement of any unpaid charges against the seller; a grantee who takes title is not liable for — and the unit is not subject to a lien for — unpaid charges beyond the stated amount.¹¹ In practice, the verified claim required by § 70-23-607(2) is the first statutory act in the sequence. Any pre-lien demand letters reflect association policy or covenant terms, not a statutory mandate. For planned communities, any pre-lien notice requirement, dispute right, or payment-plan obligation comes from the covenants — not from a statute.

3B. Recording and pre-foreclosure sequence

For condominiums, recording the verified claim is the act that perfects the lien. The claim must be recorded in the county where the unit sits, verified under oath, and must contain the amount due after credits and offsets, the owner's name if known, and a description that identifies the unit; the recording officer files it in the lien book under Title 71, ch. 3, part 5, indexed like a deed.¹ The Act sets no separate notice of intent to foreclose with a mandatory day-count. Because foreclosure is judicial, the prerequisite notice comes through service of the foreclosure complaint and summons in district court. The Act requires no board vote, no payment-plan offer, and no mandatory mediation as a condition of foreclosing — it authorizes the manager, acting on the association's behalf, to enforce the lien.² A practical timing limit does apply: because the foreclosure runs through the construction-lien procedure, the action to foreclose must begin within two years of filing the lien under § 71-3-562.¹² For planned communities, the recording steps, any notice of intent, and any board-vote or mediation requirement are set by the covenants, not by statute.

3C. Foreclosure mechanics and thresholds

Foreclosure of the condominium lien is a judicial proceeding. Section 70-23-608 directs that proceedings to foreclose a § 70-23-607 lien track, as closely as possible, the construction-lien foreclosure procedure under Title 71, ch. 3, part 5. The same section confirms that the manager may enforce the lien on the association's behalf.² The association also holds an alternative: it may sue for a money judgment for unpaid common expenses without foreclosing and without waiving the lien.² The construction-lien path is a full court action — the association files a complaint in the district court where the property sits, the court evaluates the validity of the lien and the underlying debt, and a judgment for the association results in an order of sale. During a foreclosure suit, § 70-23-609 lets the association seek a receiver to collect a reasonable rental if the bylaws so provide, and permits the manager to bid on the unit at the sale and then hold, lease, mortgage, or convey it, unless the declaration forbids it.¹³

Montana fixes no minimum dollar amount and no minimum delinquency period before a condominium association may foreclose. The Act conditions the lien on recording and the foreclosure on the construction-lien procedure, but it draws no floor on the debt.¹ Fines, because they fall outside the definition of common expenses, cannot support a foreclosure of the statutory lien.⁶ The sale timeline follows judicial foreclosure and execution-sale practice rather than the faster 120-day non-judicial trustee's-sale calendar of the Small Tract Financing Act. For planned communities, foreclosure of a covenant lien is likewise judicial, enforced through a court action on the recorded covenants — the Small Tract Financing Act's trustee's-sale power belongs to deeds of trust securing loans, not to association assessment liens.

3D. Post-sale: redemption, deficiency, surplus, reinstatement

Because the association lien is foreclosed judicially and the unit sold at an execution-style sale, Montana's general real-property redemption rule applies. Under § 25-13-802, the judgment debtor or a redemptioner may redeem the property within one year after the sale by paying the purchase amount with interest, plus any taxes, assessments, and reasonable maintenance expenditures the purchaser paid, with interest.⁴ That one-year right governs judicial sales; the Small Tract Financing Act's trustee's sales carry no post-sale redemption right — but the Small Tract Financing Act does not govern association liens.^14,15 A money judgment for unpaid common expenses under § 70-23-608(2) is a personal judgment against the owner and is collectible like any other judgment — the mechanism for pursuing any deficiency after a sale.² Surplus sale proceeds, after satisfying the lien, costs, and fees, go to junior claimants by priority, with any remainder to the former owner, consistent with execution-sale practice. An owner may stop the process by paying the arrears before the sale; the money-judgment alternative and the equitable character of the judicial process both leave room to cure. Possession and rents during the redemption year are governed by §§ 25-13-821 and 25-13-822. In planned communities, redemption, deficiency, and surplus follow the same general judicial-foreclosure and execution-sale rules, since those communities lack a dedicated statutory scheme.

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

Montana's recent HOA legislation has focused on owner property rights rather than on assessment-lien or foreclosure mechanics. One bill cleared the 2025 session and entered the statute books; an earlier effort to cap dues and special assessments never made it to a vote.

B. Recent appellate rulings

Montana has no intermediate appellate court, so any definitive interpretation of these mechanics must come from the Montana Supreme Court on direct appeal from district court. A targeted review of Montana Supreme Court opinions from the past 36 months turned up no decision interpreting the condominium assessment lien, its priority under § 70-23-607, or its foreclosure procedure. The one recent association case is a covenant-interpretation dispute, not an assessment-lien case.

C. Active legislative debates

No active proposal targeting condominium or HOA assessment liens, priority, or foreclosure mechanics is currently pending in Montana. Recent legislative attention has centered on owner property-rights measures — entry permission and earlier attempts to cap dues — rather than on the core lien and foreclosure framework.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Montana occupies the creditor-neutral end of the collections spectrum. It is not a super-priority state like Nevada, where NRS 116.3116(2)(b) gives the association lien priority over the first security interest for the assessments that would have come due in the nine months before the notice of default — a true lien priority the Nevada Supreme Court confirmed in SFR Investments Pool 1 v. U.S. Bank, 334 P.3d 408 (Nev. 2014). It is also unlike Connecticut, whose UCIOA-based statute, Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-258(b), grants a nine-month split-priority lien ahead of first and second mortgages, plus costs and fees. Montana is likewise not a threshold-restricted state: California bars foreclosure under Cal. Civ. Code § 5720(b) until delinquent assessments reach $1,800 or run more than 12 months overdue, and Arizona condominiums under A.R.S. § 33-1256(A) may be foreclosed only after one year or $1,200 of delinquency, whichever comes first. Montana sets none of those floors and grants no priority over the first mortgage. It is a subordinate-lien, judicial-foreclosure jurisdiction for condominiums and a covenant-primary jurisdiction for planned communities — a senior-lender foreclosure wipes out the association's pre-sale claim. For a multi-state operator, the practical implication is straightforward: treat the first mortgage as effectively senior, record claims promptly to fix priority against junior interests, and plan for judicial timelines and a one-year post-sale redemption rather than a fast trustee's sale. Montana's direction on these mechanics is static. The core lien and priority rules date to the original 1965 enactment (Ch. 120, Laws of 1965), and recent bills have addressed owner rights rather than association remedies.

This page is reviewed quarterly as the Montana Legislature and the Montana Supreme Court act. Federal frameworks — including the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the bankruptcy automatic stay under 11 U.S.C. § 362, and the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act — apply regardless of the state framework.

1. Mont. Code Ann. § 70-23-607, Claim for common expenses — priority of lien — contents — recording ↩
2. Mont. Code Ann. § 70-23-608, Foreclosure of lien under claim for common expenses — action without foreclosure ↩
3. Mont. Code Ann. Title 35, ch. 2, Montana Nonprofit Corporation Act ↩
4. Mont. Code Ann. § 25-13-802, Time for redemption — amount to be paid (one year) ↩
5. Mont. Code Ann. § 71-3-124, Filing costs and attorney fees recoverable on foreclosure of liens ↩
6. Mont. Code Ann. § 70-23-102, Definitions (common expenses) ↩
7. Mont. Code Ann. § 70-23-610, Purchaser at foreclosure sale not totally liable for prior common expenses ↩
8. Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1692 et seq. ↩
9. Bankruptcy automatic stay, 11 U.S.C. § 362 ↩
10. Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, 50 U.S.C. § 3901 et seq. ↩
11. Mont. Code Ann. § 70-23-611, Joint liability of grantor and grantee for unpaid common expenses ↩
12. Mont. Code Ann. § 71-3-562, Limitation on actions (construction lien foreclosure within two years) ↩
13. Mont. Code Ann. § 70-23-609, Foreclosure on unit — payment of rent — purchase of unit by manager ↩
14. Mont. Code Ann. § 71-1-318, Small Tract Financing Act trustee's deed (no post-sale redemption) ↩
15. Mont. Code Ann. § 71-1-228, Rights of redemption applicable (except Small Tract Financing Act) ↩
16. HB 416 (2025), Require homeowners' associations to seek permission for entry on real property ↩
17. SB 479 (2023), Generally revise homeowner association laws ↩
18. Clover Meadows Homeowners Association, Inc. v. Spear, 2024 MT 102N ↩