The Roofing Book

Permitting Authorities / City of Bozeman Building Division

City of Bozeman Building Division

Adopted code

The building permitting authority for the City of Bozeman, Montana, one of the 42 jurisdictions in the state certified to enforce a building code, and certified for the widest scope on the Bureau's own list (Building, Plumbing, Electrical, Mechanical, Pool, and Wildland-Urban Interface). This record is WEAKER on one point than most Montana records in this corpus and says so: Bozeman's own "Adopted Codes" page (read via an archived capture; the live page returns HTTP 403 to every fetch method tried) states the current residential code is the 2021 International Residential Code per state rule ARM 24.301.154, under the heading "Residential Building Codes (Single-Family, Two-Family, & Townhouse)" -- but that heading matches the state's own code-category label, names no Bozeman ordinance number, and nowhere uses ARM 24.301.201(1)'s "specifically applicable" language. So this record does NOT conclude the City has made the state building code applicable to one- and two-family dwellings by the ordinance or resolution MCA 50-60-102(1)(a) requires; it states what the page says and what it omits. The permit answer instead rests on the City's own permit materials, read directly: its Building Checklists, Forms, and Guides page lists "Residential Residing / Re-Roof" as one of a fixed set of stand-alone permit application types, supplies a dedicated "Residential Re-roof Guide," and reviews single-family and duplex construction generally under a "Residential (IRC Code)" track distinct from the "Commercial (IBC Code)" track used for 3-or-more-unit projects. That is direct, first-party evidence the City issues its own residential roofing permits and applies IRC-based review to houses in practice, independent of the unresolved ordinance question above. Because that ordinance question was not resolved, this record OMITS the five code-content pack fields the Montana lever would otherwise default (roof_layer_limit, deck_sheathing_requirements, drip_edge_required, ice_water_shield_required, impact_resistant_required) rather than stamping them; only the permit answer and the two fields the lever supports regardless of local applicability (sales_tax_rate, contractor_registration_required) are published.

Jurisdiction
City of Bozeman, Montana
Jurisdiction type
city
Address
20 East Olive Street (Professional Building), Bozeman, MT 59715
Contact
  • url: https://www.bozemanmt.gov/departments/community-development/building
  • phone: 406-582-2375
  • email: [email protected]
Roofing permit required
Required
Contractor registration required
Required
Registration details
  • state_level: A CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTOR LICENSE, NAMED FOR ROOFING, AND THE WHOLE REGIME CHANGED ON JANUARY 1, 2026. Montana's contractor law moved out of the old "registration" chapter (MCA Title 39, chapter 9, now entirely repealed or renumbered) into a new licensing chapter, MCA Title 37, chapter 45, Construction Contractors, enacted by House Bill 239 (Ch. 644, L. 2025), effective January 1, 2026. MCA 37-45-102(1)(a) defines "construction contractor" to include a person who, in the pursuit of an independent business, undertakes to construct, alter, repair, or improve a building for another, "including... the installation or repair of roofing or siding." MCA 37-45-201(1) then states plainly: "An individual or business entity may not engage in business as a construction contractor without a current license from the department." Contractors with an active registration as of December 31, 2025 were converted to the new license. Two statutory exemptions exist and are quoted rather than applied to any reader: MCA 37-45-104(8) exempts "work or operation on one undertaking or project... of a casual, minor, or inconsequential nature... the aggregate contract price of which... is less than $2,500 a job," with an anti-evasion clause against splitting a larger job into smaller contracts; and MCA 37-45-104(24) exempts "an independent contractor who has no employees," while allowing that contractor to register voluntarily. This record does not decide whether a given Bozeman job or contractor falls inside either exemption.
  • city_level: PREEMPTED BY STATE STATUTE, SO NO SEPARATE BOZEMAN CREDENTIAL EXISTS OR COULD EXIST. MCA 37-45-204 provides that the state licensing, bonding and fee scheme for construction contractors "are exclusive for registered construction contractors. A political subdivision of the state may not require or issue any registrations, licenses, or bonds for the same or a similar purpose." The same section preserves only "a general and nondiscriminatory license fee levied upon all businesses," which is the ordinary city business-licence category this field already excludes from this field. This is a statewide preemption and does not depend on reading Bozeman's own municipal code.
Adopted code
THE 2021 IRC AS AMENDED BY THE STATE -- NAMED ON THE CITY'S OWN PAGE, BUT WITHOUT AN ORDINANCE NUMBER OR THE STATUTE'S "SPECIFICALLY APPLICABLE" LANGUAGE. Bozeman's own "Adopted Codes" page, under "Current Codes - State of Montana Adopted Building Codes," lists "Residential Building Codes (Single-Family, Two-Family, & Townhouse): 2021 International Residential Code (IRC), ARM Rule 24.301.154," and separately notes that rule "Deleted Chapters 11 thru 14 and Chapters 16 thru 43" and added Appendix Q (Tiny Houses). The same page's history of "Previously Adopted Codes" gives dates for earlier code cycles (e.g. "Adopted 3/1/2020" for the 2018 suite, "Adopted 1/12/2015" for the 2012 suite) but names no ordinance number for any cycle, including the current one. Separately, the City's Building Checklists page cites "Ordinance 2143 (August 2023) which amended building fee provisions included in Sec. 10.02.020 of the Bozeman Municipal Code" -- that ordinance amends the FEE schedule, not the code-adoption section, and is not evidence of a code-adoption or dwelling-applicability ordinance. THIS RECORD DOES NOT CONCLUDE THAT THE STATE BUILDING CODE HAS BEEN MADE APPLICABLE TO ONE- AND TWO-FAMILY DWELLINGS IN BOZEMAN BY THE INSTRUMENT MCA 50-60-102(1)(a) REQUIRES. That statute excludes "residential buildings containing less than five dwelling units" from the state building code "unless the local legislative body by ordinance or resolution makes the state building code applicable to these structures," and ARM 24.301.201(1) requires that the ordinance make the code "specifically applicable to those structures." Bozeman's own page describes state code categories; it does not quote or cite a local ordinance or resolution meeting that test. WHAT IS ESTABLISHED, INDEPENDENTLY: the City's own Building Checklists page reviews single-family and duplex ("Residential Single Family / Duplex") construction under an "IRC Code Review" track, distinct from the "Commercial (IBC Code)" track used for 3-or-more-unit projects, and lists "Residential Residing / Re-Roof" as a permit application type with its own "Residential Re-roof Guide." That is first-party evidence the City applies IRC-based review to houses in its own permitting practice, whatever the state of the underlying ordinance. THE CODE-CONTENT FIELDS THIS LEVER WOULD OTHERWISE DEFAULT (roof_layer_limit, deck_sheathing_requirements, drip_edge_required, ice_water_shield_required, impact_resistant_required) ARE OMITTED FROM THIS RECORD RATHER THAN STAMPED. Every one of those defaults, per the state lever, is conditioned on the same applicability predicate this field could not establish for Bozeman: the state-amended IRC reaches a one- or two-family dwelling only where the local legislative body has made it "specifically applicable" to those structures (MCA 50-60-102(1)(a); ARM 24.301.201(1)). Bozeman's own permitting PRACTICE treats houses as under IRC review, but practice is not the ordinance or resolution the statute requires, and this record does not infer one from the other.
Sales & use tax
NONE. Montana has no general sales tax, and the state's own tax authority says so without qualification: the Montana Department of Revenue's "Sales Tax Guidance for Montana Business and Residents" states "Montana does not have a general-use sales tax" and adds that "Montana does not have a sales tax exemption certificate." A residential reroof performed in Bozeman carries no state or local sales tax on materials or labor. Two things exist beside it and neither reaches a reroof here. First, a local resort tax (MCA 7-6-1503, capped at 3%, statutorily reachable to 4% since Ch. 425, L. 2025) applies only in ten named Montana resort communities (Red Lodge, Virginia City, West Yellowstone, Whitefish, Big Sky, Cooke City, Craig, Gardiner, St Regis, Wolf Creek) and only to lodging, food service, alcohol-serving and destination-recreation establishments and to "luxuries," a term the statute (MCA 7-6-1501(3)) expressly says excludes "hardware supplies and tools" and "necessities of life." Bozeman is not one of the ten listed communities. Second, Montana levies a 1% Contractor's Gross Receipts Tax (MCA 15-50-205(1)), but only on "public contractors" whose public construction contract exceeds $80,000 (MCA 15-50-101(3)(a)), which does not reach an ordinary residential roofing job.

Related guides

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Sources