Landlord Won't Make Repairs in Montana: What Can I Do?
This page covers what Montana landlords must keep in working order and what you can do if they do not. The steps are in the order you take them. Each step that could cost you money or your home names the risk.
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Your landlord must make repairs and do whatever is necessary to keep your home fit to live in. This does not apply when the law makes you responsible for maintaining the home.
✓ Sources checked October 2, 2026
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Your landlord must supply running water and reasonable amounts of hot water at all times. Your landlord must supply reasonable heat between October 1 and May 1. These duties do not apply if the law does not require the building to have that equipment. They also do not apply if you alone control the installation that makes the heat or hot water.
✓ Sources checked October 2, 2026
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Describe the problem in a letter or email and keep a copy. Take dated photos of it. Your written request is a record that you told your landlord.
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Suppose your landlord's duties to maintain the home are not met in a way that affects health and safety. Those duties include keeping the home fit to live in and keeping electric, plumbing, and heating in good working order. You may give written notice. It must say the agreement will end at least 30 days after your landlord gets it, if the problem is not fixed in 14 days. If your landlord adequately fixes it before the end date, the agreement does not end. You cannot end it over a condition that you, your family, or others there with your consent caused. If a court later disagrees, you can owe the rent and face eviction. Get legal help first.
✓ Sources checked October 2, 2026
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Suppose your landlord's duties to maintain the home are not met and it is an emergency that affects health and safety. Those duties include keeping the home fit to live in and keeping electric, plumbing, and heating in good working order. You may end the rental agreement if your landlord does not fix it within 3 working days. The clock starts when your landlord gets your written notice of the problem and of your plan to end the agreement. You cannot end it over a condition that you, your family, or others there with your consent caused. If a court later disagrees, you can owe the rent and face eviction. Get legal help first.
✓ Sources checked October 2, 2026
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Suppose your landlord's duties to maintain the home are not met in a way that affects health and safety. Those duties include keeping the home fit to live in and keeping electric, plumbing, and heating in good working order. You give notice, and the landlord does not make the repairs within a reasonable time. Then you may make repairs that cost no more than 1 month's rent. You take the cost off your rent. For example, if your rent is $900, the repairs may cost up to $900. In an emergency, only a person qualified to make the repairs may do the work. If a court later disagrees, you can owe the rent and face eviction. Get legal help first.
✓ Sources checked October 2, 2026
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Suppose your landlord purposefully or negligently (carelessly) fails to supply heat, running water, hot water, electric, gas, or other essential services. This applies if that goes against your rental agreement or the landlord's duties to maintain the home. You may give written notice. You may then get reasonable amounts of those services yourself. You take their actual and reasonable cost off your rent. Your rights start only after you give notice and your landlord has had a reasonable opportunity to correct the problem. You have no such rights if you, your family, or others there with your consent caused it. If a court later disagrees, you can owe the rent and face eviction. Get legal help first.
✓ Sources checked October 2, 2026
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Suppose your landlord purposefully or negligently (carelessly) fails to supply heat, running water, hot water, electric, gas, or other essential services. This applies if that goes against your rental agreement or the landlord's duties to maintain the home. You may give written notice and find reasonable substitute housing. You then do not pay rent for the period of the landlord's failure. Your rights start only after you give notice and your landlord has had a reasonable opportunity to correct the problem. You have no such rights if you, your family, or others there with your consent caused it. If a court later disagrees, you can owe the rent and face eviction. Get legal help first.
✓ Sources checked October 2, 2026
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Except where Montana's landlord and tenant law says otherwise, you may recover money for your actual losses. You may get injunctive relief (a court order telling your landlord to act). This applies if your landlord breaks the rental agreement or your landlord's duties to maintain the home. Those duties include keeping the home fit to live in and keeping electric, plumbing, and heating in good working order. You get this money only if you win your case and your landlord pays.
✓ Sources checked October 2, 2026
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Except as the law says otherwise, your landlord may not retaliate (punish you) by increasing rent or decreasing services. Your landlord may not bring or threaten an action for possession (an eviction case). Among other reasons, this is true after you complain in writing to your landlord that your landlord's duties to maintain the home were not met. Those duties include keeping the home fit to live in and keeping electric, plumbing, and heating in good working order. It is true after you organize or join a tenant's union or similar organization.
✓ Sources checked October 2, 2026
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In court, a complaint made within 6 months before the landlord's act raises a presumption (an assumption) of retaliation. The court must find retaliation unless the landlord offers evidence that it did not happen. This does not apply if you complained after a notice of a proposed rent increase or a cut in services.
✓ Sources checked October 2, 2026
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Montana's retaliation rules do not stop an eviction case (an action for possession) in 3 situations. In the first, you, your family, or others there with your consent caused the code violation mainly by lack of reasonable care. In the second, you are in default in rent (behind on rent). In the third, following the code needs alteration (a change), remodeling, or demolition (tearing down). That work would effectively deprive (take away from) you the use of the home.
✓ Sources checked October 2, 2026
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