Montana
UCC filing officer may reject/remove improper liens; separate NCCL ban for land records What the badges mean
Last verified: July 27, 2026 — confirm current text on the official site; this date is not a promise the law is unchanged.
Specific items rechecked October 14, 2026: Mont. Code §§30-9A-420, 30-9A-501(1)(a), 7-4-2613.
This is a plain-language summary of a published judicial opinion, not a complete report of the case. Confirm names, holdings, and procedural posture against the opinion itself.
UCC financing statements
Check if one exists
Free basic search. Montana biz.sosmt.gov Liens Search by debtor name; free public results (not certified).
Refusal / removal authority
Montana's §30-9A-420(1) lives in UCC Title 30, Chapter 9A: if a filing officer receives a complaint or has reason to believe a lien submitted or filed is improper or fraudulent, the officer may reject the submission or remove the filing after notice and an opportunity to respond to the secured party and the debtor. Treble damages are available under (2) to a person adversely affected by a lien the filing officer determines improper or fraudulent.
MT §30-9A-420
Full citations
- Mont. Code §30-9A-420
Notice and opportunity to respond to secured party and debtor, then reject or remove at the UCC filing office.
If it's already filed: Removal under §30-9A-420; treble damages under (2); §30-9A-518 / §30-9A-625.
Real-property liens
For county land records, the dedicated Anti-Intimidation Act tool is §27-1-1505: nonconsensual common-law liens are prohibited; an affected person may petition district court to remove one, with costs, fees, and actual damages. §30-9A-420 is a UCC filing-officer statute (notice to the secured party and the debtor), not a power over deeds or other ordinary land records. It can still apply at the county: the office that records real-estate mortgages (the county clerk and recorder, §7-4-2613) is also the UCC filing office for fixture filings and for as-extracted collateral and timber to be cut (§30-9A-501(1)(a)), so UCC records of those kinds filed with the county come under §30-9A-420. §71-3-124 concerns foreclosure attorney fees, not fraud refusal.
MT §27-1-1505
Full citations
- Mont. Code §27-1-1505
§27-1-1505 provides a district-court petition to remove a nonconsensual common-law lien from real or personal property records.
If it's already recorded: Court-ordered removal; costs, fees, and actual damages under §27-1-1505(4).
Real-property records are held by the county clerk and recorder where the property sits.
Get notified before it happens
A free "property fraud alert" service is available in at least part of Montana — it emails or mails you whenever a document gets recorded against your name, so you find out right away instead of months later. Sign up for Gallatin County Fraud Guard →
Montana's fast-growing 2nd-largest county (Bozeman) — no program was found for Yellowstone County, the state's actual largest. The Fraud Guard signup URL now requires login and notes the recorder search has moved to gallatincountymt-web.tylerhost.net; the county still advertises the service, but the public signup form was not independently completed (2026-08-01). We found this link but couldn't fully verify the sign-up form loads live — double-check it works before relying on it.
If the path runs through court
Montana doesn't have a self-filed administrative form for this — the verified remedy runs through a court, which generally means an attorney rather than a fill-in-the-blank document.
Petition to Remove a Nonconsensual Common-Law Lien
Montana's Anti-Intimidation Act bans filing a nonconsensual common-law lien and lets the property owner (or organization) petition the district court where the property sits to order the appropriate public official to remove it, with costs, fees, and actual damages against the filer. Separately, UCC filing officers have a notice-and-response reject/remove tool under §30-9A-420 — that is not the same as a county-recorder power to refuse or delete ordinary deeds.
MT §27-1-1505
People consulting an attorney about a filing like this often bring:
- A copy of the filing, if available, and where and when it was filed or recorded (office, date, and document or instrument number)
- Any notices, letters, or other correspondence about it
- Records for the property or account it names, such as a deed, title, or loan papers
- Notes on any contact with the filer or the filing office, with dates
- This page's citations and their check dates
How this usually works in Montana
A summary of the tools Montana law and filing offices provide — general information, not instructions for your facts. Confirm current practice with the filing office and talk to an attorney about your situation.
- 1Montana's free UCC Liens Search is linked on this page; county clerks and recorders hold land records.
- 2§30-9A-420 lets the filing officer, on a complaint or its own reason to believe, reject or remove an improper or fraudulent UCC filing after notice and a chance to respond; the statute does not say who may file the complaint.
- 3For a nonconsensual common-law lien on land, the tool is §27-1-1505; §30-9A-420 does not let county recorders delete ordinary deeds.
- 4§71-3-124 concerns foreclosure attorney fees; it is not a fraud-cleanup statute.
What to expect
Montana’s UCC reject/remove tool (§30-9A-420) is real; land-record cleanup for NCCL-style filings runs through §27-1-1505 in district court. Confirm the current fee on the state's official site — filing and search fees change and are not published here.
Sources: the LienGuardAI fifty-state survey and UCC search portal review (How we verify). No dollar fee amounts are published here — always confirm the current fee on the state's own site.