Montana's UCIOA draft would sweep in existing associations unless they opt out by 2028
Montana's UCIOA draft would sweep in existing associations unless they opt out by 2028
2026-09-15 · Montana · Legislation · Proposed — not yet introduced
What is proposed. The Montana committee draft of the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act would apply to associations that already exist — not only to new ones — and the escape route would carry a hard deadline and a vote threshold. This is a provisional staff draft. It is not law, it is not a filed bill, and it has no bill number.
The document
The posted text is headed “As of: 2026/02/23 … Drafter: Maddie Krezowski, LC / PD 0022*.0” and carries the placeholder lines of a committee bill — “**** BILL NO. ****”, “INTRODUCED BY”, “BY REQUEST OF THE ****”. Its short title clause reads “[Sections 1 through 95] may be cited as the ‘Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act’.”1
Its own drafter flags that it is unfinished. A comment dated 2/24/2026 in the companion change log reads: “NOTE: This provisional draft does not include existing sections of code that should be amended to add reference to the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act…”2
The transition rule, as drafted
Section 92 of the draft is the provision a Montana board would actually have to act on. Before October 1, 2028 the act would reach only communities created after its effective date, plus any that amend their declaration to opt in. On and after that date it would apply to all common interest communities — unless a pre-existing community
“elects not to be subject … by amending its declaration by vote or agreement of unit owners of units to which more than 50% of the votes in the association are allocated and recording the amendment before October 1, 2028.”
That subsection is drafted to override competing authority: it expressly supersedes section 38(1) of the act, any inconsistent provision of other Montana law, and any inconsistent provision in the declaration or bylaws.
What being swept in would actually mean
Section 94 is the teeth. For a pre-existing community that does become subject to the act, “a provision of its declaration or bylaws inconsistent with [the act] is invalid” — with carve-outs at sections 13, 15, 16 and 18. Section 93 then stops the Unit Ownership Act, Title 70 chapter 23, from applying to any community the new act covers.
So the draft does not layer a new statute on top of existing documents. Where the two conflict, the documents lose.
The two thresholds that decide whether this reaches you at all
Two exemptions in the draft do most of the work, and both turn on numbers a board already knows:
- Section 15 — small cooperatives. A cooperative with no more than 12 units and no development rights would be subject only to sections 5 and 6.
- Section 16 — small or limited-expense planned communities. Exempt (subject only to sections 4 through 6) if the community has no more than 12 units, or if the declaration caps annual average common expense liability per residential unit at $300, exclusive of optional user fees and insurance premiums, with inflation adjustment under section 11.
- Section 21 — shared-cost covenants. Covenants sharing the cost of a common wall, party wall, driveway or well would not create a common interest community at all.
A great many Montana associations — small rural subdivisions with a shared road or well, twelve-unit condominium regimes — sit inside one of those exemptions. Larger communities with real budgets do not.
Rules the draft would take away from a board
Section 48 of the draft is where covenant enforcement narrows. As drafted, an association may not prohibit:
- display of the Montana state flag on a unit or an adjoining limited common element;
- signs regarding candidates for public or association office, or ballot questions, in the same locations.
Time, place, size, number and manner rules would remain available, and rules on the United States flag would have to follow federal law. Section 48(5) would also give owners the right to peacefully assemble on the common elements, subject to time, place and manner rules.
The draft also carries a definitional change with real reach: a comment dated 2/18/2026 records that “This provisional draft adds the second sentence in Sec. 2(31) that reads It include home-based child care as provided in 70-17-216” — which would constrain covenant enforcement against in-home daycare.
The definitional mess it is trying to clean up
One drafter's comment is the best short description of why this project exists at all. Dated 11/17/2025:
“The term Homeowners association is currently defined in Montana law at sections 35-2-525; 35-2-550; 70-16-110; 70-17-901; 76-3-103 … and 76-25-203 … The term homeowners association is also used but not defined in sections 70-1-522 and 70-17-210.”
Six definitions, two undefined uses. That is the patchwork a Montana board is currently reading.
What a board would have to calendar, and what it should not do yet
If any version of this passes in 2027 with section 92 intact, opting out is a project with a deadline rather than a decision to defer: a vote of more than 50 percent of allocated votes, a declaration amendment drafted to match, and a recording before October 1, 2028 — at Montana's new recording fees, which rose on October 1, 2025.
This is not a reason to start that project now. Nothing has been introduced; the draft's own effective-date section reads October 1, 2026, a stale date left over from the drafting cycle that would have to be reset for a 2027 bill; and its drafter says on the face of the change log that conforming amendments are still missing. The reasonable step today is to know your unit count and your per-unit annual assessment, and to watch what the committee does on September 17, 2026.3
Related Montana HOA Topics
- Local Government Interim Committee — studies and topics page, hosting “UCIOA Draft 2-24-2026” and its companion comments document ↩
- Comments to UCIOA Draft 2-24-2026 — drafter’s annotations and change log against HB 619 (Montana Legislative Services Division) ↩
- House Joint Resolution 50 (2025), enrolled — the study resolution the draft was produced under ↩
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