What it costs now, in the documents an association actually records

The new schedule is front-loaded, so short instruments took the biggest proportional hit:

• A one-page assessment lien: $8 → $20.
• A one-page lien release: $8 → $20. Note that every lien generates two recordings, so the round trip went from $16 to $40.
• A two-page notice of abandonment under § 70-17-210(2): $16 → $30.
• A six-page amended declaration: $48 → $70.
• The same six-page declaration in a non-conforming format: $80.

Add $20 to every foreclosure cost estimate on top of that.

The indexing provision nobody has felt yet

This is the part worth diarising. Section 7-4-2637(1)(b) provides that “beginning July 1, 2027, the department of revenue shall set the fee … by administrative rule to adjust for inflation” — adjusted biennially, using the June Consumer Price Index measured against June 2025, rounded down to the nearest whole dollar.

So the current numbers are a floor, not a fixture. An association that hard-codes recording charges into a fee schedule, a collection policy or a management agreement should expect the figure to move in July 2027 and every two years after.

Three documents worth updating

These are ordinary administrative fixes, and the reason to make them now is that the alternative is under-recovering quietly for years:

• The collection-cost schedule. An association that passes recording costs through to a delinquent owner recovers only the figure on its schedule. A schedule still reading “$8 per page recording fee” recovers less than half.
• Demand letters and payoff quotes. A payoff figure issued after October 1, 2025 that used the old fees understates what the association is owed, and a quote is the number the owner will hold you to.
• The lien form itself. The $10 non-conforming surcharge makes compliance with § 7-4-2636's margin, font and first-page requirements worth checking on any home-grown or long-unreviewed lien template. A form that was fine when the penalty did not exist is a standing surcharge now.

Budget scale, honestly stated

For most Montana associations these are small numbers. An association recording a handful of liens a year is absorbing tens of dollars, not thousands. The reason to treat it as news rather than trivia is that it is recoverable cost being left on the table — and in an association with a real delinquency problem, the multiplier is the case count, not the fee.

There is also a second-order point. Montana's lien and foreclosure framework itself did not change in 2025 — House Bill 465, “Generally revise lien laws and foreclosure,” died in Senate committee on May 23, 2025, and no 2025 law amended condominium assessment liens under § 70-23-609. So the procedure is the same as it was; only the price of running it went up.⁴

One bill to read carefully and not misattribute

Senate Bill 373, “Revise laws related to enforcement of liens,” Chapter 393 of the 2025 Laws, effective October 1, 2025, made real procedural changes — new venue options, no summons required, and the notice period before a show-cause hearing extended from 5 days to 21 days, served by certified mail. It is easy to read as an association collections law. It is not. It amended § 71-3-1203, which sits in the part of Title 71 governing liens for work, labour, services, feed and material — possessory and service liens. Montana association assessment liens arise under the declaration and, for condominiums, under § 70-23-609, neither of which SB 373 touched. It reaches an association only in the unusual case where the association is itself a service lienor.³