Real Property Ownership, Estates, Encumbrances, and Land Use Controls
Estates and forms of ownership
Freehold estates are fee simple absolute (the fullest bundle, inheritable), defeasible fees (determinable, condition subsequent), and the life estate, whose holder pays taxes and interest but must not commit waste, and holds nothing left to convey at death. Leaseholds are estates for years, periodic tenancies, tenancy at will, and tenancy at sufferance. Co-ownership: tenancy in common (unequal shares, no survivorship), joint tenancy (four unities plus survivorship), and severalty. Montana is not a community property state; spouses typically take title as joint tenants or tenants in common.
Encumbrances and liens
Easements may be appurtenant or in gross, prescriptive, or by necessity; a license is revocable permission and not an interest in land. Covenants, conditions, and restrictions run with the land when the required elements are met. Lien priority usually follows recording order, but property tax liens and special assessments outrank private liens, and Montana's mechanic's lien relates back to the start of the work, which is why construction draws demand careful title searches.
Land use controls
Public controls are police power (zoning, building and health codes), eminent domain, taxation, and escheat. Montana layers on the Subdivision and Platting Act, county zoning and floodplain regulation, and the state's stream access law. A variance relieves a hardship peculiar to the parcel; a nonconforming use may continue but not expand; spot zoning is suspect.
Montana water
Montana follows prior appropriation - first in time, first in right - administered by DNRC. Riparian rights are not the rule here, and a water right does not automatically follow a deed.
Rule of thumb: name the estate, name the encumbrance, then ask who bears the burden before you pick an answer.