Montana Quitclaim Deed Instructions

Step 1: Find the Clerk and Recorder for the County Where the Land Is Located

A Montana deed is recorded by the county clerk and recorder of the county where the land is located, which need not be the county you live in. Montana has 56 counties and no statewide directory of their recording offices on a state website, so find the office through the county's own site. It posts the address and hours, and whether the office takes documents by mail or through electronic recording. Land that lies in two counties is recorded in one, and a certified copy of the recorded deed may then be recorded in the other.

Recording is what protects the grantee. From the moment a deed is filed with the clerk, it is notice of its contents to everyone who later buys or lends against the property. Until then, the statute makes an unrecorded deed void against a later buyer or lender who paid value in good faith and recorded first. Between the parties themselves the deed works from the day it is signed and delivered, but against everyone else the deed recorded first wins.

Step 2: Set the Deed Up as a Standard Document

Montana's clerks record a deed that meets the statute's standard document rules at the ordinary fee, and one that does not for $10 more. The rules: blue or black ink on white paper, letter or legal size; the names of the parties on the first or second page; a description of the property; and every signature, initial, and date in blue or black ink. The margins must be clear: at least three inches at the top of the first page, one inch at the top of every later page, one inch at the bottom of each page, and half an inch at each side. The notary's acknowledgment is exempt from the ink and margin rules, as is an embossed seal that strays into a margin.

One item goes in the margin on purpose. The name and mailing address of the person the recorded deed should be returned to belongs in the upper left corner of the first page, inside the side margins. Page numbers and similar notes may sit in the margins too. Everything else, including the title "Quitclaim Deed", starts below the three-inch line, which is where the clerk's recording stamp goes.

Step 3: Fill In the Grantor

The grantor is the party giving up whatever interest they hold: a person, a married couple, a trustee, or a company. Give the full legal name exactly as it appears on the deed the grantor received, because the clerk indexes by name and a title examiner has to match the two. Where the grantor is a trust, the trustee signs as trustee; where it is a company, an officer signs with their title. Montana does not require the deed to state whether the grantor is married.

The grantor's name goes on the Realty Transfer Certificate as well, spelled exactly as on the deed. The certificate also asks for a current mailing address, a daytime phone number, and the last four digits of the grantor's Social Security number. The Department of Revenue uses those digits to match the transfer against income tax returns, and the certificate itself is confidential by statute, so the number never reaches the public record.

Step 4: Fill In the Grantee, With a Permanent Mailing Address

The grantee is the party receiving the interest. Give the full legal name as it should appear on future deeds and tax bills. The deed itself needs no address for the grantee, but the certificate does: the grantee's permanent mailing address, and a separate address if the property tax notice should go somewhere else. That is the address the Department of Revenue will put on the property tax record, because the certificate is how the state learns the property changed hands.

Where the grantee is a trust, name the trustee, as in "Jane Doe, Trustee of the Doe Family Trust". Where it is a company, use the name on its Secretary of State filing. A deed to two or more grantees should also say how they will hold title, which Step 6 covers, because without the right words Montana gives them separate shares with no survivorship.

Step 5: State the Consideration, and Know That No Tax Follows It

Montana charges no transfer tax, no deed tax, and no documentary stamp tax when a deed is recorded. Since 2010 the state constitution has said that neither the state nor any local government may impose any tax on the sale or transfer of real estate. No tax is added to the clerk's recording fee, whatever the price.

The statutory deed form still opens "in consideration of" a stated amount, and a deed recites what was given: the price, or "love and affection" for a gift, or "ten dollars and other good and valuable consideration". That last recital is used where the parties would rather not print the price on a public record. The price itself is reported on the confidential certificate instead. For a gift, a transfer between spouses or between parent and child for nominal consideration, an inheritance, a court-ordered transfer, or a deed that only corrects an earlier one, the certificate need not state the price at all.

Step 6: Add the Legal Description, and Say How Co-Owners Will Hold Title

Copy the legal description word for word from the current deed. For a platted lot that is the lot number, the block, and the name of the subdivision. For other land it is the government survey description or the metes and bounds, and a certificate of survey number where one exists. Montana's statute allows land with a descriptive name to be conveyed by that name; "the Norris ranch" is the statute's own example. A name alone is a poor description for anyone who later has to find the boundaries. A street address is not a legal description. The certificate also asks for the property's geocode, the number the Department of Revenue assigns to each parcel, which is on the property tax bill.

If two or more people will own the property, the wording decides what happens when one of them dies. Montana's statute makes every interest created in favor of several persons, including husband and wife, an interest in common: separate shares that each pass by will or inheritance. The one exception is a deed that declares the interest to be a joint tenancy. A joint tenancy is owned in equal shares and the survivor takes the whole. So a deed to "John Doe and Jane Doe, husband and wife" leaves them tenants in common. To have the survivor take the whole, say so: "as joint tenants with right of survivorship, and not as tenants in common". Montana has no tenancy by the entirety and no community property.

Step 7: If You Are Married and a Homestead Is Declared, Both Spouses Sign

Montana's rule is narrow and easy to misread. A married person's homestead cannot be conveyed unless the deed is signed and acknowledged by both husband and wife. But in this chapter of Montana law a homestead is not simply the house you live in. It is the dwelling and land that the owner has selected by signing, acknowledging, and recording a declaration of homestead with the clerk and recorder, the filing that shields the home from most creditors. If a declaration is recorded on the property, the deed needs both spouses, whether or not both names are on the title. A declaration can be selected from the property of either spouse, so check the county records for one before deciding who signs.

Where no declaration has been recorded, the statute, by its own terms, has nothing to say, and Montana has no dower, curtesy, or community property that would otherwise give a spouse a claim. Whether a court would stretch the homestead rule to an undeclared home is not a question the statute answers. A Montana attorney is the right person to ask before a married owner signs alone. A deed from one spouse to the other raises none of this, and a deed both spouses sign satisfies the rule in every case.

Step 8: Sign the Deed Before a Notary, in Person or Online

A deed must be acknowledged before it can be recorded, and Montana requires no witnesses. An acknowledgment is the grantor's declaration, before a notary, of having willingly signed the deed for the purposes it states. The notary confirms the grantor's identity from personal knowledge or an identification credential, then completes and signs the certificate of acknowledgment. Sign in blue or black ink. Where the grantor signs as a trustee or an officer, the notary also confirms that capacity.

Montana allows remote notarization. A Montana notary who has notified the Secretary of State, named the approved technology, and passed the required course may take your acknowledgment over a live audio-video connection. You may be anywhere in Montana, in another state, or, for property in the United States, abroad. The notary must be physically in Montana during the session, and the notarial act is treated as performed in Montana. If the result is an electronic deed, a paper copy that the notary certifies as accurate is one the clerk must accept for recording. Our Remote Online Notarization by State page compares the states.

Step 9: Fill In the Realty Transfer Certificate, and Answer the Water-Right Question

The Realty Transfer Certificate is the form that makes Montana different. The clerk and recorder may not accept a deed for recording until a certificate has been filed with it, and the Department of Revenue's Form RTC is the only form the statute allows. It asks for the date of transfer, the parties with the details in Steps 3 and 4, the property description and geocode, and the kind of transfer. It asks for the sales price too, unless one of the exceptions in Step 5 applies. Whoever prepares it signs it. The certificate is a confidential tax document, not a public record, and filing a false or incomplete one is an offense carrying a fine of up to $500 and up to six months in jail.

Part 7 is the water-right disclosure, and it applies to every deed except one for property served by a public water supply. The grantor says whether any water rights are on record with the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation for the land. The grantor then says whether they all transfer, none transfer, or some are being divided or held back. If all the rights transfer, the new owner files the department's ownership update form and fee afterward, and the department updates its records from the certificate. If any right is being divided or severed from the land, the deed cannot be recorded unless the department's certification form, signed by both parties, is filed with it. The department's water-right ownership page carries the forms, and a Montana water-right consultant or attorney is the person to ask if you do not know what rights the land carries.

Step 10: Record the Deed, and Know What Follows

Take or mail the signed and acknowledged deed, with the certificate, to the clerk and recorder for the county where the land lies, with the fee. For a standard document the fee is $20 for the first page and $10 for each additional page, set by statute for every county since October 1, 2025. A deed that does not meet the standard is recorded for $10 more. Beginning in July 2027 the Department of Revenue will adjust the fee for inflation every two years, so confirm the current figure with the clerk. There is no transfer tax and no tax certificate. Include a stamped envelope for the recorded deed, addressed to the return name in the upper left corner.

The clerk sends each certificate to the Department of Revenue, which changes the ownership on the property tax record from it. If the grantor on the certificate is not the person the property is assessed to, the department adds the grantee's name beside the current one and notifies both. It substitutes the grantee's name only when it has reliable evidence of who owns the property. Property tax follows the owner of record, so keep the recorded deed and watch for the next tax notice in the grantee's name.

Where do I record a Montana quitclaim deed?

With the county clerk and recorder for the county where the land is located, whether or not you live there. Montana has no county recorder by that name and no statewide directory of recording offices on a state website; each county's site lists its clerk and recorder. An unrecorded deed is void against a later buyer or lender who paid value in good faith and recorded first, and a recorded deed is notice to everyone from the day it is filed.

What is a Montana Realty Transfer Certificate, and do I need one for a gift?

It is the Department of Revenue's Form RTC, and every deed needs one, gift or not. The clerk and recorder may not accept a deed for recording until the certificate is filed with it. It reports the parties, the property, the kind of transfer, the price, and whether water rights go with the land. The department uses it to move the property tax record to the new owner. For a gift, a transfer between spouses or parent and child for nominal consideration, an inheritance, or a court-ordered transfer, the price is left off. The certificate is confidential, and the deed's validity between the parties does not depend on it.

Does my spouse have to sign a Montana quitclaim deed?

Yes if your spouse is on the title or a declaration of homestead is recorded on the property. Otherwise the statute does not require it, though the question is not fully settled. Montana's statute says a married person's homestead cannot be conveyed unless both husband and wife sign and acknowledge the deed, and a homestead under that chapter is one selected by a recorded declaration. With no declaration recorded, the statute does not reach the property, and Montana has no dower, curtesy, or community property. The statute does not say whether a court would apply the rule to an undeclared home, so a married owner planning to sign alone should ask a Montana attorney first.

Is there a transfer tax on a Montana quitclaim deed?

No. Montana's constitution, since a 2010 amendment, forbids the state and every local government from imposing any tax on the sale or transfer of real estate. A gift to a relative and a sale for full price both cost the clerk's recording fee, $20 for the first page and $10 for each additional page, with no tax on top. A deed that misses the format standards costs $10 more, and a water-right ownership update carries the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation's own fee. The Realty Transfer Certificate that accompanies the deed reports the price for assessment purposes; it is not a tax.

Does a deed to my spouse or my child give them survivorship rights in Montana?

Only if the deed says so. Montana's statute makes an interest created in favor of several persons, including a husband and wife, an interest in common unless the deed declares a joint tenancy. Tenants in common hold separate shares that pass by will or inheritance; joint tenants hold equal shares and the survivor takes the whole. Write "as joint tenants with right of survivorship, and not as tenants in common" if that is what you want. Montana has no tenancy by the entirety.

What if the land has water rights?

Answer Part 7 of the Realty Transfer Certificate. The grantor must state whether any water rights are on record with the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation for the land and whether they transfer with it. The grantor signs that part unless the property is served by a public water supply. If all the rights transfer, the new owner files the department's ownership update form and pays its fee. If any right is being divided or kept back from the land, the clerk cannot record the deed without the department's certification form, signed by both parties. A recorded document that says nothing about water rights transfers them with the land.

Where do I get a Montana quitclaim deed form?

Montana has no official quitclaim deed form. The statute offers a short form for a grant, and a quitclaim deed replaces "grant" with words of release so that no covenants are implied. A form written for no particular state can fail a Montana clerk in three places. It has no return name and address in the upper left corner of the first page, no three-inch top margin, and no companion Realty Transfer Certificate, without which the clerk will not accept it. If you would rather start from something built for this state, our Quitclaim Deed Help page lists prepared forms and deed preparation services.

Can I get a Montana quitclaim deed notarized online?

Yes. A Montana notary who has told the Secretary of State they intend to work remotely, named the approved technology and completed the required course can take your acknowledgment over a live audio-video link. The notary has to be in Montana while doing it. You do not: you can be elsewhere in the state, in another state, or abroad, so long as the property is in this country. Where the signing produces an electronic deed, the notary can certify a paper copy, and the clerk and recorder must take that copy.