Montana Code Annotated 2023

TITLE 7. LOCAL GOVERNMENT

CHAPTER 4. OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES

Part 26. Office of County Clerk

Documents Subject To Recording

7-4-2613. Documents subject to recording. (1) The county clerk shall, upon the payment of the appropriate fees, record by printing, typewriting, photographic, micrographic, or electronic process or by the use of prepared blank forms:

(a) (i) subject to subsection (1)(a)(ii), deeds, grants, transfers, certified copies of final judgments or decrees partitioning or affecting the title or possession of real property any part of which is situated in the county, contracts to sell or convey real estate and mortgages of real estate, releases of mortgages, reconveyances by trustees of deeds of trust, assignments of mortgages and deeds of trust, powers of attorney to convey real estate, leases that have been acknowledged or proved, and abstracts of the instruments that have been acknowledged or proved;

(ii) an instrument or deed evidencing either a division of real property or a merger of real property only if the instrument or deed is accompanied by a certification from the county treasurer that taxes and special assessments that have been assessed and levied have been paid;

(b) notices of buyer's interest in real property, notwithstanding any other requirement of law or rule relating to eligibility for recording of the deed, contract for deed, or other document relating to the notice of buyer's interest. However, if the instrument of conveyance underlying a notice of buyer's interest would be unrecordable, the clerk and recorder shall notify the buyer by certified mail that the underlying instrument is unrecordable and may be void.

(c) an acknowledged statement indicating that the holder of a nonprobate interest in real property is deceased. A nonprobate interest in real property is a joint tenancy interest or a life estate interest. The acknowledged statement must contain:

(i) a statement that the holder of the nonprobate interest has died and that the holder's interest in the property is terminated; and

(ii) a legal description of the property.

(d) certificates of births and deaths;

(e) wills devising real estate admitted to probate;

(f) official bonds;

(g) transcripts of judgments that by law are made liens upon real estate;

(h) instruments describing or relating to the individual property of married persons;

(i) all orders and decrees made by the district court in probate matters affecting real estate and that are required to be recorded;

(j) notice of preemption claims;

(k) notice and declaration of water rights;

(l) assignments for the benefit of creditors;

(m) affidavits of annual work done on mining claims;

(n) notices of mining locations and declaratory statements;

(o) estrays and lost property;

(p) a book containing appraisement of state lands; and

(q) other writings that are required or permitted by law to be recorded.

(2) Any instrument that qualifies for recording under this section may incorporate by reference any provision, statement, description, or other language or material that is contained in another properly recorded instrument and that is recorded in the same county as the instrument that is incorporating the language or material by reference is to be recorded.

History: Ap. p. Sec. 4411, Pol. C. 1895; re-en. Sec. 3032, Rev. C. 1907; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 68, L. 1917; re-en. Sec. 4796, R.C.M. 1921; Cal. Pol. C. Sec. 4235; re-en. Sec. 4796, R.C.M. 1935; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 24, L. 1945; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 218, L. 1971; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 199, L. 1975; amd. Sec. 19, Ch. 293, L. 1975; Sec. 16-2902, R.C.M. 1947; Ap. p. Sec. 4414, Pol. C. 1895; re-en. Sec. 3035, Rev. C. 1907; re-en. Sec. 4801, R.C.M. 1921; Cal. Pol. C. Sec. 4238; re-en. Sec. 4801, R.C.M. 1935; Sec. 16-2907, R.C.M. 1947; R.C.M. 1947, 16-2902(part), 16-2907; amd. Sec. 14, Ch. 443, L. 1979; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 701, L. 1979; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 377, L. 1981; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 366, L. 1993; amd. Sec. 11, Ch. 420, L. 1993; amd. Sec. 3, Ch. 391, L. 1995; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 9, Sp. L. May 2000; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 37, L. 2001; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 412, L. 2001.