MISSOULA — Some Montana property owners have filed a class-action lawsuit challenging how the Montana Department of Revenue (DOR) assesses property values.
The suit, brought by the Silverman Law Office, alleges the DOR used illegal methods to assess property values, specifically in the Big Sky area.
The plaintiffs allege the DOR used values outside the legal range instead of sale values between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024. They argue the department used data from outside those dates, leading to an overevaluation.
The class-action lawsuit has over 200 different property owners who went through the appeal process due to overevaluations. Silverman Law Office CEO Joel Silverman says their independent expert estimated that 90% of the properties were overvalued.
"It's a little more difficult in places like Big Sky or Whitefish or other recreational areas that are very popular. So the department has to try and maybe broaden its scope to find the sales data that it would like to utilize but when they do that, the state law is very clear that the department is only supposed to use data within that time range, and they went way out of it,” said Silverman.
Montana Department of Revenue Deputy Director Scott Mendenhall told MTN that the department does not comment on ongoing litigation.
