Updated September 5, 2026. Quick answer: For Montana condominiums, the Unit Ownership Act does not itself set a required ownership vote or threshold for special assessments; it simply requires each condo’s bylaws to spell out “the manner of collecting from the unit owners their share of the common expenses” (Mont. Code Ann. § 70-23-308(6)), so the approval mechanism is whatever the individual declaration and bylaws say. For non-condo homeowners’ associations, Montana has no comparable assessment statute at all; assessment authority comes entirely from the association’s own declaration and bylaws.
Key statute: Mont. Code Ann. §§ 70-23-101 to 70-23-1102 (Unit Ownership Act, Condominiums), esp. §§ 70-23-308, 70-23-501, 70-23-607, 70-23-608; Mont. Code Ann. § 70-17-901 (homeowners’ association covenant statute, Title 70, ch. 17, pt. 9)
How Montana lets an association approve it
The Unit Ownership Act does not prescribe a board-alone or membership-vote rule for special assessments. It requires only that bylaws “must provide for” “the manner of collecting from the unit owners their share of the common expenses” (Mont. Code Ann. § 70-23-308(6)), and that “[t]he common profits of the property shall be distributed among and the common expenses shall be charged to the unit owners according to the percentage of undivided interest of each in the common elements” (§ 70-23-501). No statutory vote threshold appears anywhere in the Act. For non-condo HOAs, Mont. Code Ann. § 70-17-901 does not address assessment approval at all, leaving the mechanism entirely to the association’s declaration and bylaws.
The notice you’re owed
The Act requires bylaws to address “the method of calling meetings of the unit owners and the percentage, if other than a majority as defined by 70-23-102, that constitutes a quorum” (§ 70-23-308(2)), a general meeting-notice requirement set by each condo’s own bylaws, not a statutory minimum-days notice specific to special assessments. Neither § 70-23-308 nor any other reviewed section specifies timing, content, or delivery method for special-assessment notice. Section 70-17-901 is silent on notice entirely.
Paying it: plan, interest, and late fees
The Unit Ownership Act creates no statutory right to pay a special assessment in installments, and no section in Part 6 (Conveyances, Liens, and Common Expenses) specifies an interest rate or late-fee amount for delinquent common expenses. The lien provision states only that the association “shall have a lien upon the individual unit and the undivided interest in the common elements appertaining to such unit for the reasonable value of such common expenses” (§ 70-23-607(1)), with no statutory interest or late-charge figure attached. Any installment-payment option, interest rate, or late fee is a matter left to the declaration or bylaws.
Under Mont. Code Ann. § 70-23-607(1), a condominium association furnishing services, labor, or material “lawfully chargeable as common expenses” has a lien on the unit and its undivided common-element interest that is “prior to all other liens or encumbrances upon the unit except: (a) tax and assessment liens; and (b) a first mortgage or trust indenture of record,” and under § 70-23-608(1)-(2) that lien may be foreclosed “as nearly as possible to the proceedings to foreclose liens created by Title 71, chapter 3, part 5,” or the association may instead sue for a money judgment “without foreclosing or waiving the lien.”
Does Montana require a reserve study?
No. Reviewing all of Mont. Code Ann. Title 70, ch. 23 (Parts 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11) turned up no section requiring a periodic reserve study, structural assessment, or capital-reserve funding analysis. Mont. Code Ann. § 70-17-901, the sole HOA-specific statute, likewise contains no reserve-study mandate.
Honest gaps
Montana treats condominiums and other HOAs very differently: condos fall under the detailed Unit Ownership Act, with specific common-expense and lien/foreclosure sections but no statutory vote thresholds, notice specifics, or installment/interest terms (those come from bylaws); non-condo HOAs are covered only by the narrow § 70-17-901, which regulates use-restriction covenants and does not address special-assessment approval, notice, payment terms, or reserve studies. For planned-community HOAs, Montana has essentially no statute governing special assessments beyond the declaration and bylaws (and general nonprofit corporation law, not reviewed here). All text was read directly from Montana’s official codified site (mca.legmt.gov).
Source note. Read from https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0700/chapter_0230/part_0030/section_0080/0700-0230-0030-0080.html; https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0700/chapter_0230/part_0050/section_0010/0700-0230-0050-0010.html; https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0700/chapter_0230/part_0060/section_0070/0700-0230-0060-0070.html; https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0700/chapter_0230/part_0060/section_0080/0700-0230-0060-0080.html; https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0700/chapter_0170/part_0090/section_0010/0700-0170-0090-0010.html on September 5, 2026.
Related: HOA rules in a 55+ community · how a special-assessment foreclosure actually works · lump sum vs. a payment plan.
General information drawn from each state’s own statutes as read at its official legislature or code-publisher site (or a verbatim codified mirror where noted), not legal advice. Special-assessment law is state law, and every association’s own declaration and bylaws add rules on top of the statutory floor described here. We are not a law firm and this is not legal advice.