Montana Title 50. Health and Safety § 50-62-103. Service of order to repair hazardous condition or demolish structure

(1) If the fire prevention and investigation section of the department of justice, an officer of the section, or any other person identified in 50-62-101, upon an examination or inspection, determines that a building or other structure constitutes a public nuisance for any reason identified in 50-62-102 and the condition cannot be removed or remedied within 24 hours, the section, officer, or person shall order the hazardous condition to be repaired or the structure to be torn down or demolished and all dangerous conditions remedied.

(2) The order must be in writing, must provide the grounds for the order, and must be filed in the office of the clerk of the district court of the county in which the building or structure ordered to be altered, repaired, or demolished is located. All further proceedings for the enforcement of the order must be held in the district court in which the order is filed.

(3) A copy of the order filed as provided in this section, together with a written notice that it has been filed and will be put in force unless the owner, occupant, or tenant files objections or an answer to the order with the clerk of the court within the time specified in 50-62-104, must be served upon the owner and any purchaser under contract for deed of the building or structure directed to be altered, repaired, or demolished. If there is a tenant occupying the building, service must also be made upon the tenant. Service must be made personally upon the owner and occupant, if there is one.

(4) If the location of the owner or any purchaser under contract for deed is unknown and cannot be ascertained by the department of justice by the exercise of reasonable diligence, then upon filing in the office of the clerk of the district court an affidavit to this effect, service of the notice upon the owner or any purchaser under contract for deed may be made by the clerk of the district court by publication of it once in each week for 3 successive weeks in a newspaper printed and published in the county in which the building or structure is located and by posting a copy of the notice in a conspicuous place upon the building or structure. Service made in this manner is complete upon the expiration of the publication period. Proof of service of the notice must be filed in the office of the clerk of the district court within 5 days after the service of the notice.