City of Missoula Development Services, Building Division

City of Missoula, Montana

city

Missoula, Montana

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Roofing permits are applied for online through the City's Accela Citizen Access portal (ci.missoula.mt.us/3300/portal) by selecting "Roofing Permit" as the permit type. Per the City's own step-by-step guide, the applicant enters the site address (which must be within Missoula city limits) and the parcel and owner information auto-populate. Per the City's October 2025 news release, most roofing permits are now issued immediately upon application and payment, and underlayment inspections can be scheduled right away once the permit issues.

The City of Missoula adopts building codes by a FLOATING reference. Missoula Municipal Code 15.04.010(A), as currently codified (Ord. 3783, 2026; Prior Code and Ord. 1814), reads: "The current and future editions of the following model technical building construction codes, including, but not limited to the International Building Code, International Residential Code ... and all accompanying appendices, amendments, and modifications adopted or required to be adopted by the Montana Department of Labor Building Codes Bureau ... as amended from time to time by the Building Codes Bureau, are adopted by reference." Under 15.04.010(C), state amendments "become effective upon execution of an Administrative Rule by the Mayor as authorized by Section 50-60-301 MCA." Under 15.04.010(E), the adopted codes "are applicable within the corporate limits of the City of Missoula." The City's own Building Division page states the 2021 International Residential Code and 2021 International Building Code took effect September 1, 2022, consistent with the state's current edition under ARM 24.301.154. Title 15 was read in full (roughly 198,000 characters) and amends nothing in IRC Chapter 8 or Chapter 9; its only building-code amendments concern an unrelated 1997 Uniform Housing Code appeals-board section. This general, floating adoption does not itself state that it is "specifically applicable" to residential buildings containing fewer than five dwelling units, the language ARM 24.301.201(1) and MCA 50-60-102(1)(a) require to bring a house under the state building code; this record does not conclude either way on that point from the ordinance text alone. Because that applicability question is undetermined, this record omits the state-default roofing fields that depend on it (ice barrier, drip edge, impact resistance, deck sheathing, roof layer limit) rather than stamping them. Independent of that question, the City's own permit materials (see roofing_permit_required and repair_permit_threshold) confirm the City in fact issues and fees residential roofing permits.

The City treats "Residential or commercial roofing - replacement or re-cover" as permit work with no stated dollar-value exemption, per the City's own "Do I need a Building Permit?" page. As of a City news release dated October 9, 2025, the City created a dedicated "Roofing" permit type that "automatically issues the permit at the time of application," in response to the summer 2024 storm; the release states 1,300 roofing permits were processed the prior year. The City's FY26 Building/MEP fee schedule carries a dedicated line item, "Residential Re-roof permit flat fee," at $150.00 (then-current) rising to a proposed $281.00, marked "100% cost recovery rate" -- a flat fee rather than a valuation-based calculation. The City's valuation and plan-review packet confirms roofing is handled outside the standard valuation method ("In the case of remodels, repairs, roofing, fascia, and similar projects where new square footage is not added, an estimated valuation of the work must be used") and states "A Plan Review Fee will not be applied to roofing and siding permits."

Montana has no general sales or use tax. The Department of Revenue states plainly: "Montana does not have a general-use sales tax." A residential reroof in Missoula carries no state or local sales tax. Missoula is not one of the ten Montana communities that levy a local resort tax (Red Lodge, Virginia City, West Yellowstone, Whitefish, Big Sky, Cooke City, Craig, Gardiner, St. Regis, Wolf Creek), and even in those communities the resort tax (capped at 3%, statutorily up to 4% since Ch. 425, L. 2025) reaches only lodging, restaurants, alcohol-serving establishments and destination recreation facilities, and excludes "hardware supplies and tools" and "necessities of life" (MCA 7-6-1501(3)) -- it would not reach a roofing contract regardless. Montana also imposes a 1% Contractor's Gross Receipts Tax on public construction contracts over $80,000 (MCA 15-50-205(1), 15-50-101(3)(a)), which does not apply to an ordinary private residential reroof.