Class-action lawsuit alleges illegal property assessments across Montana
A class-action lawsuit filed by two Montana property owners accuses the Montana Department of Revenue of using illegal methods to artificially inflate property valuations across the state, causing many people to pay more in taxes than required.
Attorneys from Silverman Law Office and Edwards & Culver filed the lawsuit Feb. 2 in Madison County’s Fifth Judicial District Court. Plaintiffs Lance and Lorissa Coyle and Homestead YC, LLC allege they are among many Montana property owners affected by the DOR’s unlawful appraisal practices.
Montana law requires the Department of Revenue to appraise properties every two years using comparable sales from the six months before or after a set assessment date when using the sales comparison approach to market value.
For the 2025–2026 appraisal cycle, Jan. 1, 2024 was designated as the assessment date. The lawsuit alleges the department violated this requirement by using sales data outside the 12-month window and applying the rule inconsistently, in some cases using data spanning up to five years.
For the Coyles’ property in Belgrade and Homestead YC, LLC’s property in Big Sky, the department relied on sales spanning from 2019 to 2023.
An independent appraiser licensed by the Montana Board of Real Estate Appraisers determined the Belgrade property should have been assessed at $2,296,000, but the DOR valued it at $3,833,800, causing an estimated tax overpayment of $12,285.
An independent appraiser concluded the Big Sky property should have been assessed at $17,509,024, but the DOR assigned a value of $33,578,400, resulting in an estimated tax overpayment of $55,804.
Although Montana law allows property owners to provide independent appraisals as evidence when appealing the state’s valuations, those appraisals are not taken into consideration unless they adhere to the same 12-month valuation window the department itself violated.
“The Department of Revenue’s conduct is outside their legal authority,” said Joel Silverman, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys. “Taxpayers are confined to a strict 12-month valuation period while the department fails to follow its own rules, effectively stripping many Montanans of any meaningful ability to challenge inaccurate property valuations.”
The complaint asks the court to order the DOR to reassess properties statewide using correct data, refund any overpaid taxes to taxpayers, allow taxpayers the opportunity to appeal the corrected reappraisals, and stop using unlawful appraisal practices. If certified, the class would include all affected Montana property owners unless they opt out.
Property owners with questions may email [email protected] or visit https://mttaxlaw.com/.
Frequently Asked Questions
Class-Action Montana Property Tax Lawsuit
What is the lawsuit about?
The Montana Department of Revenue (“DOR”) assesses properties across the state every two years to determine their value.
One way the DOR determines the value of a property is by looking at the sales prices of similar properties, but DOR can only consider sales within a certain time period (July 1, 2023 to July 1, 2024) for the 2025-2026 tax cycle. We’ve found that the DOR has been considering sales from outside that allowed time period when valuing properties, resulting in assessed values that are higher than the actual property values.
Because property taxes are based on the assessed value, many Montana property owners have been overpaying on their taxes. This lawsuit seeks to correct those valuations so property owners will pay only what they should.
How do I sign up for the property tax class action?
For most class action lawsuits, there is nothing you need to do to join a case. Here, the situation may be different depending on how the court rules on a preliminary matter.
Montana law requires challenged taxes in a court action to be paid under protest when due as a condition of continuing the court action. The class action lawsuit is challenging that requirement as unconstitutional. Should the Court rule that the protest requirement is unconstitutional, taxpayers will be eligible to be class members regardless of whether the taxpayer paid taxes under protest and will not need to do anything to join the class action lawsuit.
If the Court rules that the protest requirement is constitutional and a taxpayer believes or suspects that DOR considered sales from outside the allowed time period when valuing the taxpayer’s property resulting in an overvalue, the taxpayer would need to timely pay their taxes under protest to be eligible to be a plaintiff in this lawsuit. Payments for the second half of 2025 tax year are due June 1, 2026. Because this protest requirement varies from county to county, we recommend that you contact Silverman Law Office about this process.
What will it cost me to join?
There is no cost to join this lawsuit. The attorneys are paid only from any winnings or settlements, so property owners do not pay anything out of pocket.
How does a taxpayer know if the valuation of their property was subject to sales from outside the time period?
Short of filing a uniform dispute review, tax appeal, or a declaratory judgment action, there is no way of knowing whether DOR has utilized illegal data outside of the 12-month valuation period in its valuations because DOR does not voluntarily release its comparable sales data to taxpayers. Property owners who did not file appeals may never know whether they were impacted.
One of the remedies requested in the class action lawsuit is for DOR to disclose the properties for which DOR has considered sales from outside that allowed time period when valuing properties. Once this information is received, we intend to notify these similarly situated taxpayers of this lawsuit and the potential remedy for an unlawfully imposed tax pursuant to MCA § 15-1-407(3)(a).
What if a taxpayer believes their property is overvalued?
Any property owner who believes their property was overvalued can file a request for an informal classification and appraisal review or file an appeal, or hire an attorney to file an appeal on their behalf. However, there are short deadlines in which to do so – 30 days from the date on the Property Classification and Appraisal Notice and 90 days from the date the County Tax Bill that was sent to the taxpayer. Because this process is complicated, we recommend that you contact Silverman Law Office about this process.
Do you have evidence that taxpayers, aside from the plaintiffs mentioned in the suit, have been similarly impacted?
As part of the 2025 appeal cycle, we filed appeals with the Montana Department of Revenue for 183 properties across the state. After an appeal is filed, the DOR provides an information packet detailing how they determined the property’s value, including any comparable sales used in the calculation. These packets revealed that many of the sales relied upon were outside the legally allowed time period for that assessment cycle.
What is the goal of the lawsuit?
To require DOR to follow the law. If our lawsuit is fully successful, the court would require the Department of Revenue to reassess properties statewide using the correct data and issue refunds to anyone who overpaid their taxes because of this issue.
How can I take action?
If you think your property may have been affected, please contact us in one of the ways below.
- Email us at [email protected]
- Call us at 406-449-4829
- Fill out an intake form at https://mttaxlaw.com/contact/