Land Records

The Butte-Silver Bow Land Records Office was established as a result of the Local Government Study Commission and subsequent public vote for the creation of the Land Records Office in November 1996. For more information, refer to Butte-Silver Bow Municipal Code, Title 2, Chapter 2.14.

Modernization & Maintenance of Land Records

The Butte-Silver Bow Land Records Office is responsible for the modernization and maintenance of all land records and tracking of property ownership through GIS (Geographic Information System) in Butte-Silver Bow County. All land-related work, including cadastral mapping, property ownership transfers, delinquent property tax parcel management, property ownership codes, property addressing, SID (Special Improvement Districts) management, and the sale of county-owned property under the Council of Commissioners' Adjacent Landowner Policy are done by the Land Records Office.

To access Butte-Silver Bow Records online, please visit Idoc Market

Cadastral Mapping

Cadastral mapping comes from the word cadastre, which means tax rolls. This information is publicly available via the Montana State Library's Cadastral website. Cadastral mapping is based on fee ownership of land, so that a cadastral map is actually an ownership map showing property boundaries in relationship to other geographical features such as roads, streams, or any other physical element that may affect ownership. The ownership mapping in Butte is incredibly difficult, considering the mining history of the city. Mining claims are overlaid by city lots and blocks, road right-of-ways, railroad right-of-ways, and an assortment of metes and bounds surveys, making the mapping of Butte area property boundaries one of the most difficult in the northwestern United States.

Conversion

In the fall of 1994, the first section of land (1 square mile) of the uptown area of Butte was converted to GIS. Linking CAMA (Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal) data from the Silver Bow Appraisal / Assessment Office with the cadastral map showed unlimited potential to the data queries that could be done. In early 2002, cadastral mapping of the entire county was completed, making county-wide data queries possible. Now, with the Montana State Library's Cadastral website, this information is available to the public.

Butte-Silver Bow Examining Land Surveyor Review Process

Read the process.

Realty Transfer Certificates

The Realty Transfer Certificate (RTC) assists the State of Montana in providing fair and equitable taxation to all its citizens, as well as providing the ability to improve compliance by nonresidents and out-of-state companies.

It is important that all information requested on the RTC is accurately furnished by the preparer in order for an ownership to be changed on real property for property tax purposes. That includes the disclosure of the last four numbers of a Social Security Number or Federal Employment Identification Number of those individuals or entities involved in the transfer. If the transfer of real property involves foreign nationals, an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number needs to be provided.

Use link below to find more information about RTCs, and to download forms, or call the Montana Department of Revenue Forms Distribution Center at (406) 444-6900.