We represent purchasers, sellers, owners, developers, tenants, and lenders on projects involving the development, construction, financing, leasing, sale, and purchase of commercial and residential real property throughout Montana. Skilled counsel at the drafting stage dramatically reduces the odds that you're stuck in litigation later.
We approach each real estate matter on an individual basis — determining the right avenue of resolution and the practical solutions based on the client's actual needs, not a template. Good Montana real estate work is documentation-intensive, and documentation is where we live.
Transactions · Title · Water · Easements · Land Use
Flathead Valley real estate has never looked like suburbia. Shared wells run across property lines. Easements trace back to 1920s homesteads. Water rights predate most of the deeds. Lot lines were drawn before the GPS era and re-drawn a half-dozen times since. And yet the transactions happening on these parcels every month are the largest investments most Montana families will ever make.
We represent buyers, sellers, owners, developers, tenants, and lenders on the full range of commercial and residential matters — with particular emphasis on the title, water, and boundary questions that out-of-state counsel consistently misjudge. Good drafting at the purchase-agreement stage is the best antidote for avoidable problems.
Skilled counsel in the drafting of real estate transaction documents dramatically reduces the possibility of becoming embroiled in costly litigation down the road. Every paragraph we write is one argument your lawyer doesn't have to make in a courtroom three years later.
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Managing Attorney · Real Estate Practice Lead
Chad leads the firm's real estate practice — handling Flathead Valley transactions, commercial leasing, boundary and easement disputes, water-rights work, and the title puzzles that come with century-old homestead conveyances. He has advised clients on real estate matters from Lakeside to Whitefish and up into the Swan and North Fork, which means he knows the title companies, planning staff, and local surveyors whose services you may need to review or approve your real estate related documents or proposals. When a matter needs to be litigated, it is, but the first question Chad asks is usually whether a clean document can save the transaction.
We represent buyers, sellers, owners, developers, tenants, and lenders on the full arc of a Flathead real estate matter — from LOI through closing, from boundary survey through court-ordered partition, from shared-well agreement through water right ownership update.
Purchase and sale agreements, commercial leases, tenant improvement terms, financing documents, and the closing mechanics that complete the deal on your terms — not the form-book version that favors the party with more lawyers.
When neighbors disagree about where the line runs, whose road it is, or what the CC&Rs actually allow, we handle the negotiation, mediation, and if needed the litigation — in Flathead County and across the Montana court system.
Eight lanes that cover the matters Flathead Valley buyers, sellers, owners, and developers bring through our doors most often. Each one reflects the way Montana conveyancing, water rights, and land-use rules actually work — not a template pulled from a coastal practice.
We draft and review residential and commercial purchase agreements, seller disclosure statements, addenda, and closing documents. For buyers, we pressure-test title commitments, survey exceptions, and contingency language before you sign. For sellers, we write representations that accurately describe the property without creating post-closing exposure.
Multi-tenant retail, office, warehouse, and seasonal residential leases tailored to Flathead Valley operating realities. We draft and negotiate base rent and CAM structures, tenant improvement allowances, renewal options, assignment and subletting rights, default and cure provisions, and personal guaranty terms.
Fence lines, shared driveways, prescriptive claims, and title clouds from old deeds drafted before modern surveys. We prosecute and defend boundary-line actions, quiet-title suits, and adverse-possession claims — and we work with surveyors to establish the evidentiary record before litigation starts.
Co-owned land that needs to be divided, inherited parcels headed for sale, or platted lots that no longer match how the property is actually used. We handle judicial and voluntary partitions, lot-line adjustments through county planning, minor subdivisions, and family conveyances between co-tenants.
Access easements over neighboring land, utility and pipeline rights-of-way, conservation easements, and implied easements from historical use. We draft new easement agreements, interpret old ones that reference landmarks that no longer exist, and litigate when use has expanded beyond the original grant.
We represent both lenders and borrowers in Montana trust-indenture foreclosures and judicial foreclosure actions. That includes reviewing loan documents for enforceability, running non-judicial trustee sale procedures, defending deficiency actions, and negotiating workouts, deeds in lieu, and short-sale structures.
Montana water rights are adjudicated, prioritized, and recorded separately from the land they serve. We handle water-right transfers with real estate conveyances, shared-well agreements for subdivided parcels, groundwater-permit issues, and disputes over historical use when neighboring claims overlap.
Counsel for developers, owners, and investors on entitlements, subdivision review, construction contracts, mechanic's liens, and like-kind exchange structuring. We coordinate with tax advisors, lenders, and 1031 intermediaries so the transaction closes clean and the deferral holds.
If yours isn't here, the answer is probably a short phone call away. We keep consultations focused so you leave knowing whether you actually have a claim — or not.
Not automatically. Montana water rights are adjudicated and recorded separately from the land itself, and they do not pass by a standard warranty deed unless they are specifically described and conveyed. Before closing, we review the DNRC records, the existing water-right claims, and the purchase agreement to confirm what's actually being transferred — and to flag anything that isn't.
Possibly, but not automatically. Montana recognizes prescriptive easements when the use has been open, notorious, continuous, and adverse for the statutory period (generally five years). The burden of proof is on the user, and a written permission letter can defeat the “adverse” element. If you're seeing a long-standing use you'd rather not ripen into a permanent right, time matters.
It depends on how long the fence has been there, whether both sides have treated it as the boundary, and what the recorded documents actually say. Montana courts apply doctrines like acquiescence and agreed-boundary in addition to the record title. A boundary-line dispute almost always benefits from an early conversation with counsel and a current survey before positions harden.
A standard owner's policy insures against title defects that existed at closing — forged deeds, missed heirs, prior unpaid liens — subject to the exceptions listed in Schedule B. The exceptions are where the real work is: easements, restrictions, survey matters, and anything the title company refused to insure against. We walk through the commitment before closing so you know what's covered and what isn't.
If everyone agrees, a voluntary partition and lot-line adjustment through county planning is usually the fastest path. If someone refuses, a judicial partition action asks the court to either divide the land in kind or order a sale with proceeds divided by ownership interest. We've done both — family-friendly and contested — and the strategy depends on the land, the improvements on it, and what the co-owners actually want.
Montana requires disclosure of known material defects. The standard Seller's Property Disclosure Statement covers the common ones, but the legal duty is broader than any form — it extends to anything the seller actually knows and that a buyer would reasonably want to know. Silence on a known problem can expose the seller to rescission and damages well after closing, so the disclosure is worth taking seriously rather than checking boxes on autopilot.
Yes, if the property qualifies as investment or business-use real estate. The 45-day identification and 180-day closing windows are strict, and the replacement property rules require a qualified intermediary — we coordinate with the intermediary, the title company, and your tax advisor to keep the timeline clean. Primary residences and property held primarily for resale don't qualify.
The short answer: cost-sharing, maintenance responsibility, permitted uses, priority if capacity is short, and what happens when one of the parcels sells. In the Flathead, shared wells often serve two to six residences, and the original hand-shake arrangement rarely survives the first ownership change. A written, recorded shared-well agreement protects the water supply and the resale value of every parcel it serves.
Covenants, Conditions & Restrictions are recorded restrictions that run with the land — typical of subdivisions and planned communities. They're enforceable by the HOA and (usually) by any lot owner in the subdivision. Whether a particular CC&R will hold up depends on how it was drafted, whether it's been uniformly enforced, and whether conditions have changed since it was recorded. We review CC&Rs before purchase and defend or challenge them after.
We're licensed throughout Montana and regularly take real estate matters from Missoula, Helena, and the Swan and Mission Valleys. Our home base is the Flathead — where we understand the title companies, the county planning staff, and the local surveyors — but the transactional and litigation skillset travels statewide.
Based in Kalispell, Montana — representing clients throughout Flathead County and the surrounding Northwestern Montana region.
Whether you're under contract, defending a boundary, chasing a water-right transfer, or planning a 1031 exchange — a focused initial conversation is the fastest way to know what the deal or dispute actually looks like under Montana law.
