Ejectment is a common law remedy an owner of a property may use to remove squatters from the property. Ejectment actions are not common in Montana and should be filed in District Court. Unlike landlord-tenant actions which are typically filed in Justice Court and move quickly, District Court cases may take a longer time due to the courts having large volumes of cases.

Prior to initiating an ejectment action, an owner should evaluate whether a squatter is actually a tenant or a guest. Tenants may only be evicted through an eviction action, also known as an unlawful detainer action. Owners of a property may only remove a tenant after winning an eviction case and receiving a “writ of execution”, a document they may present to the local authorities to request that the police remove a tenant. 

If an owner wants a tenant’s guests to leave a property, they may notify the Tenant that the guest should not be on the property. If after proper written notice a tenant does not remove an unauthorized guest, an owner of the property may be allowed to start an eviction (“unlawful detainer”) case against the tenant and the guest to evict both.