Montana: Residential Lease Execution Formalities

Requirements one by one

Governing law and scope

Montana's writing rules are in 28-2-903 and 70-20-101. The Residential
Landlord and Tenant Act recognizes oral and written rental agreements, adds a
responsible-person disclosure, and supplies the expiration default. The
Security Deposits Act adds a separate condition statement when a deposit is
required. Title 30 governs electronic execution, and Title 70, chapter 21
governs recording.

This page covers an ordinary private dwelling lease. Mobile-home lot rentals,
subsidized programs, and commercial leases use additional or different rules.

Writing threshold

Montana permits an oral tenancy at will or a lease term not exceeding one year.
Section 70-20-101 says an estate at will or term of one year or less is outside
its signed-writing rule, and § 70-24-103 defines a rental agreement to include
both written and oral agreements.

A longer lease needs a writing subscribed by the person creating or granting
the interest or by a lawful agent authorized in writing. Section 28-2-903 adds
a time-from-making test: even a stated one-year term can require a writing if a
delayed start makes full performance impossible within one year after the deal
is made.

Required signatures and authority

Section 70-20-101 requires the covered conveyance to be subscribed by the party
creating, granting, assigning, surrendering, or declaring the interest, or by a
lawful agent whose authority is written. Section 28-2-903 uses the party-to-be-
charged rule and likewise requires the agent's authority to be written and
subscribed by that party.

Those statutes do not state a blanket rule that both parties sign every lease.
The deposit-condition statement has its own signature rule: § 70-25-206
requires the signature of the landlord or the landlord's agent.

Witness, acknowledgment, and notary

Sections 28-2-903 and 70-20-101 state no witness or notarization condition for
ordinary enforcement between the original parties. A covered signed writing is
the execution requirement.

Recording is different. Under § 70-21-203, the signer ordinarily acknowledges
the instrument before it is recorded. Execution may instead be proved by a
subscribing witness, with that proof notarized. The witness route is an
alternative method of proving execution for recording, not a requirement that
every lease be witnessed.

Electronic execution

Montana's UETA applies to transaction records and signatures under § 30-18-103.
Under § 30-18-104, each party must agree to electronic transactions, and a
party may refuse electronic means for a later transaction.

Under § 30-18-106, an electronic record and electronic signature satisfy legal
writing and signature requirements. Required electronic delivery must remain
usable: § 30-18-107 requires a record the recipient can print or store, and a
sender who blocks retention cannot enforce it against the recipient.

Required copy or written statement

Montana states no general deadline to deliver a fully executed copy of every
ordinary residential lease. It does require written information for every
tenancy. At or before commencement, § 70-24-301 requires the names and addresses
of the premises manager and the owner or service-and-notice agent, and the
information must be kept current.

When the landlord requires a security deposit, § 70-25-206 requires a separate
written statement of the premises' current condition in conjunction with lease
execution or creation of the tenancy. The landlord or agent signs it. On the
tenant's written request, the landlord also supplies the preceding tenancy's
damage and cleaning-charge list, if any.

Renewal, modification, and term form

Montana has a specific written-lease expiration default. If the agreement does
not establish a default extension and neither party gives the other 30 days'
written termination notice before the original end date, § 70-24-205 converts
the tenancy to month-to-month.

A renewal or extension exceeding one year, or one not performable within one
year after making, follows §§ 28-2-903 and 70-20-101. Section 70-20-101 also
expressly applies its writing rule to assignment and surrender of a covered
real-property interest.

Recording and third-party effect

A lease longer than one year is within Montana's race-notice recording rule.
Section 70-21-304 makes the unrecorded conveyance void against a later purchaser
or encumbrancer who acts in good faith, pays value, and records first. An
exactly one-year lease is excluded by the statute's words.

The lease remains valid between its parties and people with notice under
§ 70-21-102. To record, § 70-21-203 requires acknowledgment or the alternative
proof route. The current recording chapter states no lease-specific memorandum
or notice alternative comparable to those in some states.

Effect of noncompliance

Section 28-2-903 calls the covered unwritten agreement invalid and makes its
evidence inadmissible without the writing or qualifying secondary evidence.
Section 70-20-101 says the longer interest may not be created, granted,
assigned, surrendered, or declared without the required signed instrument.

Failure to provide the § 70-24-301 names and addresses makes the noncomplying
person an agent for service, notices, landlord obligations, and use of collected
rent. Failure to provide the § 70-25-206 condition statement bars recovery for
damage or cleaning unless the landlord proves the statutory facts by clear and
convincing evidence. Nonrecording carries the narrower race-notice consequence
described in § 70-21-304.

What trips people up

One year is tested in two ways. The property statute looks at the lease
term. The general statute of frauds also asks whether performance can finish
within one year after the agreement is made.

The tenant receives required writings even when the lease may be oral. The
owner/manager disclosure applies at the start of the tenancy, and the condition
statement applies whenever a security deposit is required.

A subscribing witness is not mandatory. It is an alternative proof route
for recording when the execution is not acknowledged in the ordinary way.

Common questions

May a Montana residential lease be oral?

Yes, for a tenancy at will or a term not exceeding one year, unless the deal's
timing makes it not performable within one year after making. A longer term
requires the signed writing.

Does the tenant have to receive a signed lease copy?

Montana states no general delivery deadline for a fully executed lease copy.
It separately requires the responsible-person disclosure for every tenancy and
the landlord-signed condition statement when a security deposit is required.

Must a Montana lease be notarized?

Not merely to bind the original parties. Acknowledgment or proved execution is
needed to record a covered lease.

What happens when a written lease expires?

If the agreement supplies no default extension and neither side gives 30 days'
written pre-expiration notice, the tenancy continues month-to-month under
§ 70-24-205.

Statutes and sources

• Mont. Code Ann. §§ 28-2-903 and 70-20-101 — one-year tests, writing,
  signatures, agent authority, assignment, and surrender. Official text:
  § 28-2-903
  and § 70-20-101
  (accessed July 30, 2026).
• Mont. Code Ann. §§ 70-24-103, 70-24-205, 70-24-301, and 70-25-206 —
  oral rental agreements, expiration default, responsible-person disclosure,
  and deposit-condition statement. Official text: § 70-24-103,
  § 70-24-205,
  § 70-24-301, and
  § 70-25-206
  (accessed July 30, 2026).
• Mont. Code Ann. §§ 30-18-103, 30-18-104, 30-18-106, and 30-18-107 —
  electronic-transaction scope, consent, legal recognition, and retainable
  delivery. Official UETA part
  (accessed July 30, 2026).
• Mont. Code Ann. §§ 70-21-102, 70-21-203, and 70-21-304 — between-party
  validity, recordability, and race-notice priority. Official recording
  chapter
  (accessed July 30, 2026).