The short answer
3 years from attachment of the tax lien, ending on the first working day in August; 2 years for a subdivided residential or commercial lot with delinquent improvement district assessments and no habitable dwelling or commercial structure
Montana runs 3 different redemption windows
Which one applies is decided by the parcel, not by the state, so read the condition before trusting the headline figure.
How the clock works
The clock runs from attachment of the tax lien, which happens no later than the first working day in August, and it ends on the first working day in August of the third year after that. Redemption stays open for the whole period and the assignee cannot shorten it. On the residential auction track the right to redeem runs further still: the statutory notice tells the parties that a tax deed will be auctioned unless the lien is redeemed before the date of the auction, and 15-18-112(4) lets a particular tax year be redeemed until a deed has issued under 15-18-211 or 15-18-220. Interest and costs keep accruing until the day of redemption, and the county treasurer, not the assignee, calculates the payoff as of the date of payment. A redemption before the lien is assigned goes to the county; after assignment the treasurer pays the assignee.
Who can redeem
The owner, the holder of an unrecorded or improperly recorded interest, the occupant of the property, or any interested party. On the 2 year unimproved lot track the occupant is not listed and the right runs to the owner, the holder of an unrecorded or improperly recorded interest, and any interested party. An interested party means a mortgagee, the vendor of a contract for deed or that vendor's successor in interest, a lienholder, or another person with a properly recorded interest; a person whose interest is not properly recorded is not an interested party for this chapter. An owner of less than the whole interest, or a lienholder, who redeems gets a lien for the taxes paid on the interests not owned by the redemptioner.
What the owner pays to redeem
The full amount of the property tax lien, which is the delinquent taxes plus the 2 percent penalty, the interest accrued at 5/6 of 1 percent a month and the county's costs, plus every subsequent tax the assignee paid with interest and penalty at the same 15-16-102 rate. The treasurer then pays the assignee the amount the assignee paid for the lien, plus any subsequent amounts paid, plus interest at the 15-16-102 rate from the date of each payment to the date of redemption, and sends it to the address on the assignment certificate within 30 days. Anything left over is credited to the taxing funds the taxes would originally have gone to. Costs are the category to check before assuming a payoff: they include the county's charge for assigning the lien, the certified mailings, a title search to the extent needed to identify interested parties, publication and the filing of proof of notice, and the treasurer may require receipts or accept a notarized affidavit of costs.
How your interest accrues
Interest runs at 5/6 of 1 percent a month, which is 10 percent a year, on the whole amount the assignee paid. Mont. Code Ann. 15-18-114(2)(a) is explicit: on redemption the treasurer pays the assignee the amount the assignee paid the county for the property tax lien, plus any subsequent taxes the assignee paid under 15-18-112, plus interest at the 15-16-102 rate from the date of each payment to the date of redemption. Because 15-17-323(1)(a) fixes the assignment price at the payoff, there is no premium to dilute the base. The 2 percent delinquency penalty is a one time charge already built into the payoff the assignee buys, not an extra return on top. The county's assignment fee is a cost under 15-17-121(3)(a)(iii) and rides on the lien. Montana sets no minimum return, so a lien redeemed a month after assignment earns about a month of interest and nothing more. Subsequent-year taxes may be added to an existing assignment only between June 1 and July 31, or after the date in 15-16-102(4)(b) and before July 31 for a parcel in the property tax assistance program, and they earn the same rate from the date paid.
Why nothing is bid at this sale
Nothing is bid in Montana because nothing is auctioned. Montana repealed its tax lien sale. Title 15, chapter 17, part 2 is captioned "Tax Lien Sale (Renumbered and Repealed)" in the official code, 15-17-201 through 15-17-214 are shown as repealed, and the one surviving section, old 15-17-212, was renumbered 15-17-125 and now describes an ATTACHMENT rather than a sale. Under 15-17-125(1)(a) the treasurer attaches the lien and the county is the possessor of it unless it is assigned under 15-17-323. Under 15-17-323(1)(a) the treasurer must assign that lien to any person who first mails the assessed owner a notice of pending assignment and then pays the delinquent taxes, penalties, interest and costs. The amount is fixed by the payoff and the rate is fixed by 15-16-102, so neither price nor yield is competed. What a county allocates is access: 15-17-323(1)(b) directs each treasurer to write a policy for the case where more than one person seeks the same assignment, developed with the county clerk and recorder and the county attorney, and those policies differ. Madison County serves the counter first come, first served and breaks a tie by drawing numbers from a cup. Yellowstone County takes one ranked parcel list per investor by noon on the day before assignment day and runs a randomized snake draft at 10:00 a.m., then sells whatever is left first come, first served. Gallatin County takes ranked lists by noon on August 30 and runs a lottery on September 1. Those dates and fees come from each county's own published timeline and move with the year, so read them as the three shapes a policy takes rather than as fixed dates. TWO STATUTORY STEPS LOOK LIKE A SALE HERE AND ARE NOT AN INVESTOR AUCTION. The first is the attachment itself on the first working day in August, which several county offices still call the tax lien sale and advertise in the newspaper each summer; it transfers nothing to an investor, it moves the lien to the COUNTY, and the published notice under 15-17-122 is a warning to delinquent owners rather than a bidder notice. The second is the county tax-deed land auction under 7-8-2301, a genuine public auction but of land the county already owns after taking its own tax deed, ordered by the county commissioners within 6 months of acquiring title at a price the board fixes in advance. Neither one is a tax lien auction, and Montana holds no tax lien auction of any kind. A Montana sheriff's sale or foreclosure sale notice is a mortgage foreclosure and has nothing to do with the tax lien process.
What happens when it ends
Montana runs no scheduled county tax deed auction and no calendar of deed sales. Two different endings apply once the redemption period runs out, and which one applies is a property of the parcel. For ordinary property the treasurer simply grants the assignee a tax deed under 15-18-211 for a 25 dollar deed fee plus the county's actual notice costs, with no auction and no bidders. For property that contains a dwelling currently occupied by the legal titleholder of record, and that is classified residential under 15-6-134, agricultural under 15-6-133(1)(a) or (1)(c), or forest under 15-6-143, the assignee may not take the deed directly. Under 15-18-219 the assignee files an application with the treasurer and pays a 25 dollar application fee, the redemption amount on any unassigned liens or liens held by other assignees, any delinquent taxes, penalties and interest, and the current taxes. The treasurer then holds a public auction in the county within 60 days of receiving that application, under 15-18-220. That auction exists so the owner's equity is paid out rather than forfeited, which is why the opening bid carries half the assessed value. If no assignment was ever taken, no deed issues to the county unless the county commissioners direct the treasurer by resolution.
A redeemed certificate, plus your accrued interest, is what makes the wait profitable; see how redemption periods work across states. An unredeemed certificate is instead your path to the property through a tax deed sale, which still does not convey marketable title on its own, so budget for a quiet title action.
Verified Sep 10, 2026 against Montana statutes.
Tax Sale Atlas publishes educational information about public tax sale processes. This is not legal, financial, or investment advice. Rules, dates, and fees change; confirm with the county office before you bid.