Foreclosure in Wyoming

How a Wyoming foreclosure works, step by step

1. Generally, the legal foreclosure process can't start until you're at least 120 days behind.
2. At least 10 days before the newspaper notice starts, the lender must send a written notice of intent to foreclose by advertisement and sale. It goes by certified mail to the record owner, and to the person living in the home if that's someone else.
3. Before the first newspaper notice runs, a copy of the notice of sale goes by certified mail to the record owner, anyone else in possession, and lienholders behind the lender. It shows the amount the lender says is due, a description of the home, and the time and place of the sale.
4. The notice is printed in a newspaper in your county at least once a week for 4 weeks in a row.
5. The home is sold at a public auction between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., at the front door of the courthouse or where the district court meets in your county. The sheriff, a deputy, or the person named in the mortgage sells it to the highest bidder.
6. Instead of a deed, the buyer gets a written certificate that describes the home and the price paid. It says the buyer gets a deed when the redemption period ends, unless the home is redeemed first.
7. For 3 months after the sale, you can redeem the home, and you keep possession of it. For a mortgage on agricultural real estate, the redemption period is 12 months.
8. If you don't redeem, lienholders and judgment creditors get 30 more days to redeem. If no one redeems in that time, the buyer is entitled to a sheriff's deed.
9. If the buyer has demanded possession and you're still there, the buyer can bring a forcible entry and detainer case against you. Before filing, the buyer must serve you a notice to leave at least 3 days ahead.

Catching up before the sale

The courts' guide says that, generally, you cure a default by paying the payments that are past due. But in Wyoming, no statute requires your lender to give you that chance.

If your loan is with the Wyoming Community Development Authority (WCDA) and you're having trouble paying, contact its servicing department right away. Its staff may be able to work out a loss mitigation option that works for you, WCDA and the mortgage insurer.

Under federal rules, if your servicer gets your complete application for help more than 37 days before a sale, it must review it.

Ask your servicer in writing what it would take to catch up, and ask early. The number can grow as the sale gets closer.

The sheriff's sale

The sale is run by the sheriff or a deputy, or by the person the mortgage names, and the highest bidder wins. The lender can bid on your home at the sale, as long as it does so fairly and in good faith.

A sale can be put off by printing a notice of the delay in the same newspaper that ran the original notice.

A lender can also foreclose through the courts. That route means filing a complaint, serving papers, giving notice and holding a hearing.

How long it takes

Foreclosure generally can't legally start until you're at least 120 days behind. Once it starts, how long you have until the sale depends on your state.

For FHA loans, HUD's time frame runs from the first legal action until the lender has clear title to the home and possession of it. In Wyoming, that's 7 months, and the first legal action is publishing the notice of sale.

Without a court case, the notices set the pace: the notice of intent comes at least 10 days before the newspaper notice, which then runs weekly for 4 weeks. After the sale, you have 3 months to redeem, and lienholders get 30 days after that.

These are official markers, not a forecast. Your case can move faster or slower, so don't count on extra time.

Shortfall, extra money and your right to redeem

Wyoming law allows deficiency judgments. That's a judgment against you for the unpaid balance if the foreclosure sale doesn't bring in the full amount of the debt. The statute says you're liable for any deficiency, and the lender must account to you and pay you any surplus.

Sale money pays the lender's loan, then any junior mortgages and liens, and the surplus goes to you when you ask for it. If the sale brings in more than the lender is owed, the lender must send you the sale results within 10 business days. They show what the lender was owed on the sale date, who won the bid, and how much the winning bid was. If no one asks for the surplus, the person who ran the sale can hold it for you or handle it under the state's Uniform Unclaimed Property Act.

To redeem, you pay the sale price, plus 10% yearly interest from the sale date, plus any taxes, assessments and prior liens the buyer paid, with interest. Once you pay, the sale and the certificate are void, and you get a certificate of redemption.

The 12-month period applies to agricultural real estate, which includes a single parcel of more than 80 acres outside any city, town or recorded subdivision. For other land, the buyer gets possession and the rents once 3 months have passed since the sale, until someone redeems.

Protections when you sell, lease or get offers

• The Wyoming Consumer Protection Act bars businesses from taking advantage of you through misrepresentations and unfair or deceptive acts.
• Companies that offer foreclosure help can't charge you up front. They can charge only after they get you a deal from your lender that you want to accept.
• A warning sign of a scam is a push to sign over title to your home, sometimes called a "rent to buy" scheme. Another is being told to stop paying your mortgage, which can hurt your credit and limit your options.
• Under Wyoming's Real Estate License Act, it's against the law to do real estate activity without a license. That includes dealing in options on real estate when someone does it for another person and for pay.
• If you have a WCDA loan, you can't rent your home without WCDA's written approval first.

Two of these touch how I buy: the license rule on dealing in options, which matters for a lease option, and the WCDA rule on renting, which matters if I take over your payments or lease your home on a WCDA loan. And don't stop talking to your lender while you weigh any offer, including mine.

Free help in Wyoming

• WCDA: help for homeowners. If you have a WCDA loan and are having trouble paying, its servicing staff may be able to work out a loss mitigation option.
• Wyoming courts: foreclosure legal help. Points you to HUD's list of approved housing counseling and foreclosure avoidance agencies in Wyoming.
• Wyoming courts: find legal services. A county-by-county directory of legal help.
• Wyoming Attorney General: other agencies that can help. Lists the Wyoming Housing Network, which offers foreclosure prevention counseling.
• Wyoming Attorney General: consumer protection. Where to learn about the state's consumer protection law.
• CFPB: find a housing counselor. Search HUD-approved counseling agencies in Wyoming.