Locked Out or Utilities Cut Off
MCA 70-24-411 — a lockout or a shutoff, and up to 3 months' rent or treble damages
If the landlord unlawfully removes or locks out the tenant, or purposefully interrupts heat, water, electricity, gas or another essential service, the tenant may get back in or end the lease, and either way recover up to 3 months' rent or treble damages, whichever is greater.
Who handles this in Montana: legal aid programs, lawyer referral and the state offices, listed in the Montana directory.
When the landlord purposefully or negligently fails to supply an essential service, the tenant may give written notice and then buy reasonable amounts of the service and deduct the cost from the rent, recover damages for the reduced rental value, or get substitute housing and owe no rent meanwhile.
Apart from abandonment, surrender or what the law permits, a landlord may not take back possession at all, including by cutting off heat, running water, hot water, electricity or gas.
Sources for this section (3)
- MCA 70-24-408 — Purposeful or negligent failure to provide essential services -- tenant's remedies
- MCA 70-24-411 — Unlawful ouster, exclusion, or diminution of service -- tenant's remedies
- MCA 70-24-428 — Landlord's recovery of possession limited
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of October 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Montana attorney.