By Kim Briggeman
Missoulian
If you’d like to discuss real estate matters, contact Rose Law Group Founder Jordan Rose, jrose@roselawgroup.com
Say “mortgage exemption” and most eyes turn glassy. But the interpretation and application of the state statute are bubbling topics in Missoula County right now.
So much so, in fact, that the county has taken a couple of its residents to the Montana Supreme Court in an attempt to overturn a ruling that District Judge Ed McLean issued late last year.
Final briefs were filed and the case went to the high court on Nov. 2. There’s no sure way to predict, but a decision could be rendered by year’s end.
Meanwhile, the Missoula Organization of Realtors held their first “tele-town hall” last week on the topic. More than 2,000 landowners were invited to dial in to learn if and how the case could affect them.
“We actually had so many in the feed we couldn’t take them all,” MOR spokesman Austin James said.
At issue is an interpretation of the transfer of mortgage exemptions – pieces of land broken off from larger properties for financing purposes.
They’re perfectly legal, but they aren’t parcels that can be sold unless the bank or other lending institution forecloses on them.
Because of some hazy language in the state statute, for years Missoula County and others in Montana recorded mortgage exemptions as legal parcels. Many still do, though an act by the 2003 Legislature removed all doubt of the intent.
