Montana Mold Law: Tenant Rights, Disclosure & Insurance
Does Montana license mold work?
None. The Montana Dep't of Labor & Industry, Business Standards Division, oversees roughly 39 licensing boards and programs; the roster contains no board or program for mold assessors, mold remediators, or indoor-air-quality professionals. No mold licensing statute was located in the Montana Code Annotated. Mold work in Montana is governed only by general contractor registration and consumer-protection law.
Habitability: what landlords must provide
Statutory, under the Montana Residential Landlord and Tenant Act of 1977. MCA 70-24-303 ('Landlord to maintain premises') requires the landlord to 'make repairs and do whatever is necessary to put and keep the premises in a fit and habitable condition' and to maintain facilities in good and safe working order. Mold is NOT named. Mold claims proceed as a breach of the general 'fit and habitable' duty, so the tenant must prove the mold rendered the unit unfit — there is no per-se mold standard, no state mold action level, and no state clearance criterion. (MCA 70-24-303)
Notice and repair timeline
14 days (general) / 3 working days (emergency). Under MCA 70-24-406 the tenant delivers written notice specifying the breach; if the landlord does not remedy within 14 days the rental agreement terminates on a date not less than 30 days after receipt of the notice. Where the breach creates an emergency, the landlord has 3 working days after notice before the tenant may terminate.
Tenant remedies
(1) Termination + actual damages + injunctive relief — MCA 70-24-406, after the 14-day (or 3-working-day emergency) notice. (2) Repair-and-deduct — MCA 70-24-406: tenant may cause repairs costing no more than one month's rent and deduct the cost from rent after notice and the landlord's failure to act. (3) Essential services — MCA 70-24-408 ('Purposeful or negligent failure to provide essential services -- tenant's remedies'), which supplies its own remedy set. (4) Minor violations — MCA 70-24-407 (damages for minor violations by landlord). (5) Unlawful ouster / diminution of service — MCA 70-24-411. Rent withholding as such is not an independent statutory remedy; constructive eviction is not separately codified in ch. 24 and would be a common-law theory (specific citation unverified).
Selling a home: mold disclosure
No Montana statute requiring a residential seller property-condition disclosure statement was located — Montana is a caveat-emptor-leaning state with no mandatory seller disclosure form. The operative duty runs through the licensee: MCA 37-51-313 requires a seller's agent to 'disclose to a buyer or the buyer agent any adverse material facts that concern the property,' and imposes parallel duties on dual agents. Known mold would be an adverse material fact, but the statute does not name mold or water damage, and it binds the broker rather than the seller. Sellers themselves may still face common-law fraud/negligent-misrepresentation exposure for active concealment (citation unverified). (MCA 37-51-313 (broker/salesperson duty to disclose adverse material facts). No general seller-disclosure statute identified.)
Deadlines to bring a claim
Personal injury: 3 years — MCA 27-2-204(1) ('the period prescribed for the commencement of an action on a liability not founded on an instrument in writing is within 3 years'), subject to the exceptions in 27-2-216 and 27-2-219. Property damage: 2 years — MCA 27-2-207(1) ('injury to or waste or trespass on real or personal property'). Note the asymmetry: a mold plaintiff has 3 years for bodily injury but only 2 years for damage to the building or contents, so property claims can expire first. Construction/improvements to real property: MCA 27-2-208 (title confirmed: 'Actions for damages arising out of work on improvements to real property or land surveying') — the specific year counts within 27-2-208 are UNVERIFIED.
Insurance treatment of mold
No mold-specific Montana insurance statute, regulation, or Commissioner of Securities and Insurance bulletin was located. Mold sublimits and 'fungi, wet or dry rot, or bacteria' exclusions reach the market through the general form-filing regime: MCA 33-1-501 provides that no policy form, certificate, rider, or endorsement 'may be delivered or issued for delivery in Montana unless the form ... [has] been filed with and approved by the commissioner,' with filing at least 60 days in advance and deemed approval after 60 days of commissioner inaction. Montana neither mandates mold coverage nor bars mold exclusions. Whether Montana CSI has ever issued a mold-specific bulletin is UNVERIFIED.