HB 232 Montana House · 2025 Regular Session

Require homeowners' associations to distribute annual budget and financial reports

House Bill 232 aimed to revise laws concerning homeowners' associations (HOAs) and their members. It required HOAs to produce and distribute annual budget reports, detailing estimated revenue and expenses for the upcoming fiscal year, and annual financial reports, summarizing the prior year's finances. The bill also set rules for increasing HOA fees, allowing increases only once annually. Increases up to 15% would need approval from a majority of property owners, while increases over 15% would require approval from two-thirds of property owners.

Bill status died 2 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2025

Committee Review

Jan 2025

House Failed

Feb 2025

Governor

Introduced Jan 16, 2025 Last action May 20, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

HB0232_1(7).pdf → HB0232_2.pdf · 5 edits

MODERATE

This bill significantly tightens financial transparency and fee increase rules for homeowners' associations (HOAs). It mandates that HOAs report specific financial categories only if they total at least $50 annually, requires fee increases to be capped at the greater of 15% or $100, and lowers the voting threshold for large fee hikes from two-thirds to three-fifths of owners.

Scope change

The bill introduces a new exemption for small HOAs consisting of 10 or fewer parcels, which are now excluded from these reporting and fee increase requirements.

REQUIREMENT

Financial reporting requirements were modified to only require summaries for revenue and expenditure categories totaling at least $50 annually, rather than all categories.

The deadline for sending annual budget and financial reports was shortened from 30 days to 15 days after the production date.

The maximum allowable fee increase was changed to the greater of 15% or $100 of the prior year's fees, up from a flat 15% cap.

The voting threshold required to approve fee increases exceeding 15% was lowered from two-thirds (2/3) of property owners to three-fifths (3/5) of property owners.

ELIGIBILITY

A new exemption was added for homeowners' associations consisting of 10 or fewer parcels, relieving them of the bill's reporting and fee increase restrictions.

Floor votes · House Feb 4, 2025

How they voted

30–70

Failed

Total votes 100

Feb 4, 2025

D Democratic42

1 Yea 41 Nay

97% Nay

R Republican58

29 Yea 29 Nay

50% Nay

Vote distribution

All Yea All Nay Mixed No data

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Feb 4, 2025

Vote failed

House Vote: fail (30-70)

house

Jan 29, 2025

Lower · Passed

(H) Committee Report - (H) Judiciary

lower

Jan 29, 2025

Lower · Passed

(H) Committee Executive Action - (H) Judiciary

lower

Jan 17, 2025

Committee

(H) Referred to Committee - (H) Judiciary

lower

Jan 16, 2025

Introduced

(H) Introduced

lower

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors