Montana · MCA §§15-7-305, 15-7-308Montana realty transfer certificate: required to record, and the price stays private

Montana's Realty Transfer Act collects sale prices for assessment, but keeps them out of the public record. The county clerk and recorder must require the parties to the transaction, or their agents or representatives, to complete a certificate declaring the consideration paid or to be paid for the real estate, and a deed or other instrument transferring real estate may not be accepted for recording until the certificate has been received; failing to comply doesn't affect the deed's validity between the parties (MCA §15-7-305(1)–(2)). The form is prescribed by the Department of Revenue, and the water right ownership update form developed with the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation and the water court is part of or attached to it (§15-7-305(3)). Value means the full actual consideration, including any liens on the property (§15-7-303(4)). The certificate applies to all transfers, but some needn't disclose the consideration – among them agricultural land used for agriculture, timberland, government transfers, corrective instruments, court-decree transfers, estates, gifts, transfers between spouses or parent and child for nominal consideration and tax or sheriff's sales (§15-7-307). The certificate and its information are not a public record and must be kept confidential by the clerk and the department, because the legislature found that individual privacy outweighs public disclosure; compilations and analyses are excepted, and the water right form isn't confidential (§15-7-308). The department changes its ownership records only on a transfer certificate from the clerk (§15-7-304(2)).