SB 126 Montana Senate · 2025 Regular Session

Revise tenant moveout laws

SB 126 would revise Montana's tenant moveout laws by clarifying what constitutes normal wear (like small nail holes or normal carpet wear), limiting landlords' cleaning charges to professional cleaner costs, and prohibiting deductions for carpeting or repainting after a 2-year tenancy. It requires landlords to provide tenants with a copy of a professional cleaner's bill if used and shortens the timeline for refunding security deposits from 30 to 21 days after move-out. The bill also mandates written notice before imposing cleaning charges and restricts deductions to actual damages beyond normal wear. This directly affects tenants (who pay security deposits) and landlords (who manage those deposits).
Bill status died 1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2025
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Jan 10, 2025 Last action May 23, 2025
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

LC0692.pdf SB0126_1.pdf · 3 edits
MINOR
The bill number was changed from LC0692 to SB 126, indicating a shift from a committee or local designation to a formal Senate bill number. The sponsor name was added as M. Dunwell, clarifying who introduced the legislation. Page headers were updated to reflect the new bill number while maintaining the 69th Legislature 2025 designation.
TECHNICAL

Bill number changed from LC0692 to SB 126

Sponsor name M. Dunwell added to introduction line

Page headers updated to reflect new bill number SB 126

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
15
Key actions
0
Committee
1
Amendments
1
Jan 24, 2025
Amended
(S) Tabled in Committee - (S) Judiciary
upper
Jan 13, 2025
Committee
(S) Referred to Committee - (S) Judiciary
upper
Jan 10, 2025
Introduced
(S) Introduced
upper
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Photo of Mary Ann Dunwell
Mary Ann Dunwell
DDemocratic
MT
42