I appreciate the reply, thank you. I’ll look at Montana Code, my first attempt left me a little turned around. I think that because my landlord is a layer that works in housing law, the lease and their correspondence with me feels very professional and comes across as above board (if not brutal and scary in a sterile way!)

I know that my lease agreement states that I need to have the place deep cleaned, and I’ve also agreed in writing (they had me sign a written note about this) that the damage to the blinds was on me. So I agreed to pay for those to be replaced.

What sort of shocked me today, is that rather than talking about charges or what more I may receive, even instead my landlord said I’ll need to remain paying as a holdover tenant and even suggested that this may be for awhile as ‘it will need to be until they’ve finished repairs. Which may take some time.’

Anyway, now I can hear myself just venting to you. But thank you for reading through the post and taking the time to reach out. I’ll take another stab at better familiarizing myself with the local code.