What can a landlord do with a tenant’s belongings left behind in Montana?

In Montana, a landlord must inventory and safely store abandoned property the landlord reasonably believes is valuable, and mail the tenant a written notice that it will be disposed of if not removed by a time at least 10 days after mailing, before selling or disposing of it. If the tenancy ends by court order, the property is considered abandoned and the landlord may immediately dispose of it as allowed by law. If it ends any other way, the landlord needs clear and convincing evidence that the tenant abandoned all the property left on the premises and must let at least 48 hours pass after obtaining that evidence before removing it, though trash and hazardous, perishable or valueless items may then be disposed of immediately. An item clearly labeled "rent to own" or "leased" may be discarded only with the lessor’s confirmation that it has no lien. The notice goes by certificate of mailing or certified mail to the tenant’s last-known address. If the tenant answers in writing by the date in the notice that the tenant will remove the property but does not do so within 7 days after delivering that response, the property is conclusively presumed abandoned. The landlord may charge reasonable storage and labor costs plus the cost of moving the property to storage, and is entitled to the storage costs before the tenant removes the property. After the notice the landlord may sell the property at a public or private sale, or destroy or otherwise dispose of it if the landlord reasonably believes the cost of storage or sale exceeds its value. The landlord may deduct the reasonable costs of notice, storage, labor and sale and any delinquent rent or damages from the sale proceeds and must send the rest to the tenant with an itemized accounting; if the tenant cannot be found after due diligence, the remainder is deposited with the county treasurer and reverts to the county’s general fund if not claimed within 3 years. The landlord must include the terms of the section in plain and understandable language as a notification when the lease or rental agreement ends. This is Mont. Code Ann. § 70-24-430.

WhatMontana
Belongings left behindStore valuables; 10 days’ written notice before sale
What the statute requires firstNotice, a waiting period or storage before disposal

What the statute says

“… stating that at a specified time, not less than 10 days after mailing the notice, the property will be disposed of if not removed …”

Quoted word for word from the section’s text.

Source

Mont. Code Ann. § 70-24-430

Read the statute in the Montana Code Annotated (Montana Legislature): leg.mt.gov.

Checked against the statute on November 15, 2026.

This is a summary of a published statute, not legal advice. Rules change, local ordinances can add to them, and the terms of a specific lease may differ. Check the citation and speak to a lawyer before acting.

How Seayora uses this rule

Seayora keeps a lease’s end date and every notice sent through it, with the date it went out, in the lease record — so the dates a rule like this one counts from are on file rather than remembered.

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