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- 2025
69th Legislature 2025 HB 147
- 1 - Authorized Print Version – HB 147
ENROLLED BILL
AN ACT PROVIDING A DEFINITION OF ENFORCEMENT ACTION TO INCLUDE A TIME PERIOD AND
OTHER REQUIREMENTS; AMENDING SECTION 70-17-210, MCA; AND PROVIDING AN IMMEDIATE
EFFECTIVE DATE.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MONTANA:
Section 1. Section 70-17-210, MCA, is amended to read:
"70-17-210. Covenant enforcement and abandonment. (1) An association or any party to an
interest in land subject to a covenant, condition, or restriction may initiate a legal action to enforce covenants,
conditions, or restrictions.
(2) A parcel owner may assert a defense that a covenant, condition, or restriction has been
abandoned for purposes of enforcement by offering evidence that no enforcement action has been undertaken
for the prescribed period in 27-2-202. Once a covenant, condition, or restriction is abandoned by a court order
or agreed to have been abandoned by the approval of the appropriate association, by recording a notice of
abandonment or amendment in the office of the county clerk and recorder of the county where the development
is situated, all persons are precluded from undertaking a different interpretation or enforcement action of the
abandoned covenant, condition, or restriction against a similarly situated parcel owner in the same
development.
(3) (a) Except as provided in subsection (3)(b), an association that has not met for a period of 15
years is prohibited from taking an enforcement action against a parcel owner whose use of the parcel is
substantially similar to the nature and scope of the use of other parcels in the development.
(b) Covenants, conditions, and restrictions are still valid and enforceable under this subsection (3)
if they are otherwise necessary:
(i) to comply with applicable federal, state, and local laws, ordinances, and regulations;
- 2025
69th Legislature 2025 HB 147
- 2 - Authorized Print Version – HB 147
ENROLLED BILL
(ii) for an easement or right-of-way;
(iii) for the maintenance of infrastructure or improvements in the development;
(iv) to comply with a court order or the approval provided by a government on the establishment of
the covenants, conditions, and restrictions;
(v) for the installation, maintenance, or removal of utilities; or
(vi) to abate a nuisance.
(4) For the purposes of this section and as it pertains to a parcel owner's defense, "enforcement
action" related to a covenant means that the covenant was equally and consistently enforced under whatever
method an association uses to enforce covenants on all properties subject to the covenant over at least a 2-
year period."
Section 2. Effective date. [This act] is effective on passage and approval.
- END -
I hereby certify that the within bill,
HB 147, originated in the House.
___________________________________________
Chief Clerk of the House
___________________________________________
Speaker of the House
Signed this _______________________________day
of____________________________________, 2025.
___________________________________________
President of the Senate
Signed this _______________________________day
of____________________________________, 2025.
HOUSE BILL NO. 147
INTRODUCED BY J. HINKLE, C. SCHOMER, E. BUTTREY, K. ZOLNIKOV, J. GILLETTE, J. FITZPATRICK
AN ACT PROVIDING A DEFINITION OF ENFORCEMENT ACTION TO INCLUDE A TIME PERIOD AND
OTHER REQUIREMENTS; AMENDING SECTION 70-17-210, MCA; AND PROVIDING AN IMMEDIATE
EFFECTIVE DATE.