Stillwater County, MT tax sales

County offices

County notes

• •The assignment fee is 40 dollars per assignment. Payment is by cash, check or cashier's check, delivered with the certified mailing receipts and copies of each Notice of Pending Assignment. Reach the treasurer at 406-322-8020, by fax at 406-322-8027, or at [email protected]. The office is on the first floor of the courthouse at 400 East 3rd Avenue North in Columbus, open 8 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday.
• •Allocation is a lottery, not a first-come line, for the main August round. One ranked parcel list per potential lienholder, in tax code order with the most wanted parcel first, is due by noon on August 28, and the office prefers its Excel assignment submission form. On August 29 the staff cut a deck of cards to randomly assign purchasers among the employees who process the requests, and no last-minute changes are allowed. Parcels left over after that day go first come, first served for the rest of the year.
• •The list an investor works from is the treasurer's Delinquent Tax Report, a PDF of uncollected taxes with delinquents that carries tax ID, owner, legal description and the amount due by tax year. The office also posts an Assignment List showing parcels already carrying an assignment, the assignee and the assignment date. Both sit under Featured Links on the treasurer's page, and the delinquent report is reposted under a new date as the office refreshes it, so pull the newest copy before mailing notices. The county advises comparing the August 15 version against the copy you started from and mailing notices only on parcels still delinquent.
• •In the final year of the redemption period the county drives the calendar. The treasurer sends each lienholder a Notice of Obligation in January, separated into deed properties and auction properties. Order a litigation guarantee from a title company in February through April and send the paid receipt to the treasurer to add the cost to the assignment. Between May 1 and May 30 publish the Notice That a Tax Deed May Be Issued twice, at least six days apart, and mail it certified with return receipt to every party on the litigation guarantee. File the proof of notice with the Clerk and Recorder within 30 days of mailing and first publication; liens without that filing are cancelled in July. Redemption ends on the first working day in August.
• •Whether a parcel ends in a deed or an auction turns on what is standing on it. A parcel with an owner-occupied residential dwelling goes to a public auction; everything else is deeded to the lienholder for a 25 dollar tax deed fee. For an auction parcel the lienholder files a tax deed application, which Stillwater County policy requires by August 5 or the next business day, paying a 25 dollar application fee plus any non-assigned taxes, any other assignments on the parcel and the sheriff's fee for delivering notice. The county publishes the auction notice within 30 days of the application and holds the auction within 60 days. The opening bid cannot be lowered and covers the redemption amount, what the lienholder paid at application, the 25 dollar deed fee and half the assessed value or half an independent appraisal conducted within 6 months to Montana Board of Real Estate Appraisers standards. A winning bidder other than the lienholder posts a deposit at the time of sale of 5 percent of the bid or 200 dollars, whichever is greater, and pays in full by cash or cashier's check, including auction costs, within 24 hours.
• •The county states it offers no legal help or advice to lien purchasers, that a lienholder's legal fees are not a tax lien cost and cannot be added to the lien, and that a lienholder who takes a tax deed should pursue a quiet title action.

Montana rules

Max interest rate

10% per year, fixed by statute (nothing is bid)Mont. Code Ann. 15-16-102 - Time for payment, penalty for delinquencyMont. Code Ann. 15-16-102Verified Sep 10, 2026

Minimum return

No statutory floor; every certificate earns the same statutory rateMont. Code Ann. 15-16-102 - Time for payment, penalty for delinquencyMont. Code Ann. 15-16-102Verified Sep 10, 2026

Redemption

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.Mont. Code Ann. 15-18-111 - Time for redemption, interested partyMont. Code Ann. 15-18-111Verified Sep 10, 2026

Deed deposit

The high bidder posts a nonrefundable deposit with the county treasurer at the time of sale of 5 percent of the bid or 200 dollars, whichever is greater, and the deposit is applied to the sale price on full payment. Notice of the deposit requirement must be posted at the auction site, and the treasurer may require bidders to show they can post it. The treasurer may refuse to recognize a bid from someone who previously bid and then refused to honor the bid.Mont. Code Ann. 15-18-220 - Sale at public auction, notice of auction, cancellation of assignment for unsuccessful auction, foreign entity prohibitionMont. Code Ann. 15-18-220Verified Sep 10, 2026

Surplus proceeds

Montana pays the owner's equity out rather than letting it be forfeited. The portion of the opening bid equal to half the most recent assessed value of the land and of the dwelling is treated as surplus funds, and so is anything a winning bid adds above the opening bid. Where the deed is bought by someone other than the assignee, the treasurer first repays the assignee the amount paid for the assignment, including delinquent taxes, penalties, interest and costs, plus everything paid on the tax deed application under 15-18-219(2). The treasurer then distributes the surplus to the legal titleholder of record within 30 days of receiving payment from the purchaser, whether or not the titleholder lives in Montana. On the ordinary non-auction track there is no sale, no bidding and no surplus: the assignee receives the deed itself.Mont. Code Ann. 15-18-221 - Distribution of tax deed auction proceedsMont. Code Ann. 15-18-221Verified Sep 10, 2026

Governing statute

Mont. Code Ann. Title 15, ch. 17Mont. Code Ann. 15-17-125 - Attachment of tax lien and preparation of tax lien certificateMont. Code Ann. 15-17-125Verified Sep 10, 2026

A tax deed does not convey marketable title. Most buyers file a quiet title action before they can resell or insure the property. See the due diligence guide.

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