Summers v. Crestview Apartments, 2010 MT 164 (2010)

Citation: Summers v. Crestview Apartments, 2010 MT 164 (2010)
Parent Document: Summers v. Crestview Apartments, 2010 MT 164 (2010)
Jurisdiction: Montana (state)
Effective Date: 2010-07-27
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/889353/summers-v-crestview-apartments/ ↗

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¶43 I reach this conclusion for a number of reasons. First, it bears noting that the parties here entered into a 1-year lease which obligated Summers to pay 12 monthly installments of rent. Two months into the lease, Summers notified Crestview that he was terminating his lease and did not intend to pay the balance of the rent due. While I believe we rightly conclude that future unpaid rent may not be deducted from a security deposit, the provision of § 70-25-201(1), MCA, on this point is not as clear as it could be. As we note at ¶ 13 of the Opinion, this provision permits a landlord to deduct from the security deposit “unpaid rent... and other money owing to the landlord at the time of deduction.” As Crestview knew by August 2006 that Summers was not going to pay any more rent, it may well have believed in November 2006 when it made the deductions that the unpaid rent was owing to it “at the time of deduction.” Again, I am not disputing the correctness of the Court’s conclusion that the deduction was wrongful and the clause is void; what I am saying is that without the benefit of a clear *136statutory or judicial declaration that such a deduction is not permitted, Crestview was arguably entitled to its interpretation of the statutory language.

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