Montana Seller Disclosure Requirements: What Home Sellers Must Reveal

· ✓ Last verified Oct 4, 2026 · March 13, 2026 · by AskDoss Editorial Team ·Home Selling · 9 min read

Since October 1, 2023, MCA 70-20-502 has required Montana home sellers to give the buyer a written statement of the adverse material facts they actually know, before or when the contract is signed. If the statement arrives after signing, the buyer has 3 days to rescind unless both sides agreed otherwise in writing (70-20-504).

House Bill 296 wrote the rule into Title 70 in 2023

The seller’s duty sits in a short new part of the Montana Code: MCA 70-20-501 through 70-20-505, “Residential Real Property Disclosure Requirements.” It came from House Bill 296, signed by the governor on May 3, 2023 and printed as Chapter 375, Laws of 2023. The bill has no effective-date section, so the default rule of MCA 1-2-201 applies: a statute takes effect “on the first day of October following its passage and approval.” The 2025 Code shows no later amendment to any of the five sections.

The part covers “any transfer of residential real property in the state.” Residential real property means a building intended as a residence “that has one to four dwelling units or an individually owned unit in a structure of any size.” The definition expressly includes three cases: property with a combined residential and commercial use, a manufactured home declared an improvement to real property under 15-1-116, and a condominium. A transfer means “a sale or conveyance of, exchange of, or option to purchase by written instrument an ownership interest in real property for consideration,” so a deed given as a gift, for no consideration, falls outside the definition, and the contract definition reaches “a lease with an option to purchase real property.”

Ten topics and five required sentences (70-20-502)

The statement covers “any adverse material facts” the seller has actual knowledge of. The statute defines that as a condition, malfunction or problem that would materially lower the property’s value, affects the structural integrity of the improvements, presents a documented health risk to occupants, or would impair the health or safety of future occupants. At a minimum it must address what the seller knows about:

  • title, legal ownership, or the seller’s ability to transfer;
  • water service and the water source, the wastewater system, and utility connections;
  • the buildings, “including water intrusion,” plus any well, septic system, roof, foundation, plumbing, electrical or heating system, windows, doors or appliances;
  • substantial additions or alterations made “without a building permit”;
  • hazardous materials or pest infestations on the property “or in the immediate area,” and settling, soil, standing water or drainage problems there too;
  • whether any part of the property “has been tested or treated for asbestos, radon gas, lead-based paint, mold, methamphetamine, fuel or chemical storage tanks, or contaminated soil or water”;
  • any other adverse material fact the seller actually knows about.

Subsection (2) then requires five statements “substantially similar” to the statute’s wording. Among them: the seller is not obligated to investigate the property; the statement “is not a warranty of any kind”; it is no substitute for the buyer’s own inspections; and “unless the buyer and seller have otherwise agreed in writing, any contract is not effective until 3 days after the buyer has received the disclosure statement.” Part 5 prescribes content, not a printed state form, and it names no agency to write one.

Late delivery and the 3-day rescission right (70-20-504)

The seller, or the seller’s agent, delivers the statement to the buyer or the buyer’s agent “prior to or contemporaneously with the execution of a contract.” When it comes after the contract is signed, section 70-20-504(1) gives the buyer “3 days from the day the seller or the real estate agent or other authorized representative of the seller delivers the disclosure statement to rescind the contract.” Rescinding takes “a separately signed written statement of rescission” delivered to the seller or the seller’s representative. A phone call does not do it. The statute says “3 days” and does not specify business days. Even an on-time statement must carry the 502(2)(c) sentence quoted above, which adds that during that 3-day delay the buyer “may withdraw or rescind any contract to purchase the residential real property without penalty.”

Two limits cut this right back. The whole subsection starts with “Unless otherwise agreed to by the buyer and the seller in writing.” And under subsection (2), “The buyer may waive the right to rescind in any offer to purchase.”

The six transfers that skip the statement (70-20-503)

  1. Transfers under a court order. The statute’s examples: a sale ordered by a probate court while a decedent’s estate is administered, a writ of execution, a bankruptcy trustee’s transfer, eminent domain, and a transfer resulting from an order for specific performance.
  2. Transfers between spouses under a decree of dissolution or legal separation, or a property settlement agreement incidental to that decree.
  3. The foreclosure group: a defaulting owner’s deed to the mortgagee or deed-of-trust beneficiary, foreclosure and power-of-sale sales, resales by a lender that acquired the property that way or by deed in lieu, and the matching transfers of manufactured or mobile homes.
  4. Transfers from one co-owner to one or more other co-owners.
  5. Transfers to “a spouse, child by blood or adoption, or parent” of the seller or of any other owner.
  6. Transfers where the buyer waived the statement in the contract “at the time of submitting the offer to purchase.”

New construction, government sellers and trusts do not appear on this list.

What the seller answers for, and what the code leaves to other law

Section 70-20-505 says the statement is not a warranty and is “a disclosure by the seller only,” not the agent’s. A seller “may not be responsible for misstatements or errors” based on information “obtained from a reliable third-party, including a local governing agency.” None of the five sections in Part 5 sets out damages or a penalty.

Claims after closing go through Montana’s fraud law. MCA 28-2-406 defines constructive fraud as “any breach of duty that, without an actually fraudulent intent, gains an advantage to the person in fault” by misleading someone else. In Moschelle v. Hulse, 190 Mont. 532, 622 P.2d 155 (1980), the Montana Supreme Court affirmed a judgment allowing the buyers to rescind a contract for the purchase of a Virginia City tavern on the ground of constructive fraud under 28-2-406: the sellers had said the 100-year-old building was in good condition, and the buyers later found its foundation in extremely bad condition and the joists under the bathroom floor rotted. Materiality still matters. In Bond v. City of Philipsburg, 2003 MT 74, 315 Mont. 7, 67 P.3d 255, the Court upheld summary judgment for the sellers because a flow of water in the 1980s, more than ten years before the sale, was not a material fact. Under MCA 27-2-203, an action for relief on the ground of fraud must be brought “within 2 years,” and the claim does not accrue “until the discovery by the aggrieved party of the facts constituting the fraud.”

Radon, mold and meth: Montana’s older notice statutes

The radon and mold rules apply to “inhabitable real property,” meaning any building designed to be occupied as a dwelling or a place of business, so they are broader than the 2023 part. The meth rule defines its own “inhabitable property” (75-10-1302(3)(a)): any building or structure used as a clandestine meth or fentanyl lab, or contaminated with hazardous chemical residues from consumption of either drug, “that is intended to be primarily occupied by people, either as a dwelling or a business, including a storage facility or mobile home, or that may be sold, leased, or rented for any length of time.”

  • Radon, MCA 75-3-606. The seller or seller’s agent must give the statutory radon paragraph on a document signed “prior to or contemporaneously with an offer,” and the buyer signs a copy. A seller who knows the building was tested must hand over the results and “evidence of any subsequent mitigation or treatment.” The section “does not create a contingency on the purchase of the property or any right to rescind” unless the contract says so. A seller or agent who complies with both subsections “is not liable in any action based on the presence of radon gas.”
  • Mold, MCA 70-16-703. The printed mold paragraph is optional (“may be provided”). Known mold is not. A seller or agent who knows mold is present “shall” disclose it before or on entering the contract, and a seller who knows of testing must say so and supply the results if available. Complying with both parts bars actions “based on the presence of or propensity for mold.”
  • Methamphetamine or fentanyl, MCA 75-10-1305. An owner of property known by the owner to have been used as a clandestine meth or fentanyl lab, or property that has been contaminated from consumption of either drug, must notify any later occupant or purchaser in writing if a certified contractor has not remediated it to the standards of 75-10-1303. The notice must come “before agreement to a lease or sale.” Subsection (4) gives a narrower immunity: if the Department of Environmental Quality has confirmed that the 75-10-1303 decontamination standard has been met, and the owner or the owner’s agent has told the occupant or purchaser, before agreement to the lease or sale, that a certified contractor’s documentation of remediation (or documentation that the property meets the standard without decontamination) was submitted, the owner and the owner’s agent “are not liable in any action brought by a person who has been given notice that is based on the presence of methamphetamine in an inhabitable property.”

A separate duty for licensed agents (MCA 37-51-313)

A seller’s agent must “disclose to a buyer or the buyer agent any adverse material facts that concern the property and that are known to the seller agent,” but “is not required to inspect the property or verify any statements made by the seller.” The agent must also say when he or she “has no personal knowledge of the veracity” of that information. For licensees, the definition in 37-51-102 excludes “the fact that an occupant of the property has or has had a communicable disease or that the property was the site of a suicide or felony.” That carve-out is in the licensing chapter; the seller statute in 70-20-501 has its own definition.

Houses built before 1978: federal lead-paint rule

Before the buyer is bound, the seller must hand over the EPA pamphlet, disclose known lead-based paint and hazards, and give over available reports (40 CFR 745.107). Under 40 CFR 745.110, the buyer gets “a 10-day period (unless the parties mutually agree, in writing, upon a different period of time)” for a risk assessment or inspection, and may waive it in writing. Foreclosure sales are exempt (745.101). Housing for the elderly or disabled and 0-bedroom units fall outside “target housing” unless a child under 6 lives there or is expected to (745.103).

Related pages

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a Montana buyer give up the disclosure statement?

Yes. Section 70-20-503(6) exempts a transfer where the buyer waived the statement in the contract when submitting the offer, and 70-20-504(2) lets the buyer waive the 3-day rescission right in any offer to purchase. Read the offer form before signing it.

I’m selling my late mother’s house. Do I owe a statement?

Only the exemptions in 70-20-503 excuse it. A sale ordered by a probate court during estate administration is exempt, and so is a transfer to the seller’s spouse, child or parent. A sale to an outside buyer without a court order is not on the list. The statement covers only what you actually know. Its required wording says that, apart from having lived at or owned the property, the seller has no greater knowledge than a careful inspection by the buyer would give.

Does an as-is sale change anything?

No. “As-is” is not one of the six exemptions, so the statement is still due. The seller still does not have to investigate, because the required wording says the seller “is not obligated to investigate the residential real property.”

The buyer found a leak after closing that the seller hid. What now?

The disclosure part itself contains no damages section, so a claim after closing rests on other law, such as fraud or constructive fraud. Montana gives 2 years from discovery of the facts to file for relief on the ground of fraud (MCA 27-2-203). Bring the signed statement, since it shows what the seller said he knew.

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