SB 501 Montana Senate · 2025 Regular Session

Establishing the Keep Montanans Housed Act

SB 501, the "Keep Montanans Housed Act," would require Montana landlords to offer tenants the first opportunity to purchase their rental property before selling to a third party. Landlords must provide tenants with a written offer at a price comparable to market value or appraised value within 45 days, allowing tenants to challenge the offer using their own appraiser at their expense. The bill would directly affect tenants in qualifying rental units and landlords seeking to sell or vacate properties for demolition, repurposing, or sale. However, the bill died in committee on May 23, 2025, and never became law, so these provisions remain inactive.
Bill status died 1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Feb 2025
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Feb 25, 2025 Last action May 23, 2025
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

LC1073.pdf SB0501_1.pdf · 2 edits
MINOR
The bill was renumbered from LC 1073 to SB 501.1 and the sponsor list was updated to include L. Smith, S. Novak, M. Dunwell, J. Ellis, J. Morigeau, D. Fern, and E. Boldman. The legislative title and formatting were adjusted to reflect the new Senate Bill number while maintaining the same core purpose of establishing the Keep Montanans Housed Act.
TECHNICAL

Bill number changed from LC 1073 to SB 501.1, indicating it was introduced in the Senate rather than the House.

Primary sponsors were added to the bill header, listing seven legislators as co-sponsors.

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
Feb 28, 2025
Amended
(S) Tabled in Committee - (S) Judiciary
upper
Feb 26, 2025
Committee
(S) Referred to Committee - (S) Judiciary
upper
Feb 25, 2025
Introduced
(S) Introduced
upper
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Photo of Laura Smith
Laura Smith
DDemocratic
MT
40