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The Court Can Stop the Eviction Clock for Three Months — and Rewrite the Payment While You Serve

Where a Montana National Guard member on active duty, or a dependant, is sued over non-payment on the mortgage, lease or rental agreement for their primary residence, the court may stay the action for up to three months, may reduce the payment to a reasonable amount given the active duty, and may order the arrears paid over a period beginning after release from active duty. A separate section lets a member ask for any civil action to be stayed.

Verified August 23, 2026

What this benefit is

Where a Montana National Guard member on active duty, or a dependant, is sued over non-payment on the mortgage, lease or rental agreement for their primary residence, the court may stay the action for up to three months, may reduce the payment to a reasonable amount given the active duty, and may order the arrears paid over a period beginning after release from active duty. A separate section lets a member ask for any civil action to be stayed.

What it's worth: Up to a three-month stay, a court-adjusted payment, and arrears deferred until after active duty

  • No sum is claimed. What the sections buy is time and a reset payment schedule, not money, and the debt itself is not cancelled.
  • The three months is a ceiling on a single stay, not a guarantee. The court may decline it where the ability to pay is not materially affected.
  • The weight reflects avoided eviction or foreclosure costs during a deployment rather than any transfer.

Who is entitled to it

  • The relief runs to the service member.
  • A dependant is named in §10-1-903 alongside the member, and the part defines a dependant as the spouse or minor child or another person legally dependent for support.
  • You are in this state.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

How to claim it

Deadline: Raise it as soon as the action is filed
  1. 1The court may act ON ITS OWN MOTION under §10-1-903(2). Tell the court about the active duty even if no application has been drafted yet — that alone can open the relief.
  2. 2Three things are available and they stack: a stay of up to three months; an adjustment of the mortgage, lease or rental payment to an amount the court thinks reasonable given the active duty; and an order to pay a court-set amount over a court-set period beginning on release from active duty.
  3. 3The test that defeats the stay is stated in the section: the court need not grant it where in its opinion the ability of the member or dependant to make the payments is NOT materially affected. Evidence of the income drop is what carries the point.
  4. 4The relief is limited to the primary residence. A rental property or a second home is outside §10-1-903.
  5. 5A dependant may claim it too. §10-1-902 defines a dependant as the spouse or minor child of a service member, or any other person legally dependent on the member for support — so a spouse left holding the lease is inside the section in their own right.
  6. 6For anything other than housing, use §10-1-904. If a service member is a plaintiff or a defendant in a civil action under Title 25, chapter 1, part 1, the court may stay the proceedings on a written request made by the member or by someone on their behalf.
  7. 7The §10-1-904 request must be IN WRITING, and the court may refuse it only by determining on the record that the ability to prosecute or defend is not materially affected by the military service. Ask for that determination to be made on the record.
  8. 8Check the definitions before relying on either. The part covers a member of the Montana Army or Air National Guard on active duty, meaning at least 14 consecutive days of full-time state military duty or full-time National Guard duty under federal law.
Form
No form — an application to the court, or the court acts on its own motion
File with
The Montana district court hearing the action
No renewal
Once granted it does not need renewing.
CorrectionThe Montana National Guard Civil Relief part contains no interest rate cap. The federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act’s six percent rule is the one everybody quotes, and it is federal — §10-1-903 was read in full this session and caps nothing. A Guard member who asks a Montana lender to cut the rate to six percent under state law is citing a provision that does not exist.
CorrectionA stay is not forgiveness. The same subsection that grants the delay lets the court order the amount paid over a period after release from active duty. The debt survives the deployment; only its timing moves.
Worth knowingThe state part and the federal act overlap rather than replace one another, and the state one is narrower on who is covered but is available in a Montana district court without arguing federal law. Where both apply, the member picks whichever is more generous on the point in issue.
Known gapWhether a §10-1-903 stay may be renewed beyond three months, and whether §10-1-904 reaches administrative proceedings as well as the civil actions described in Title 25, chapter 1, part 1, are not answered on the face of the sections and were not researched further this session.

Sources

This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.