How to avoid foreclosure in Wyoming

How foreclosure works in Wyoming, step by step

1. Missed payments

   Federal rules generally stop your servicer from starting foreclosure until you are more than 120 days behind. Contact your servicer, a housing counselor and legal aid early.

   12 C.F.R. § 1024.41(f)

2. Notice of intent to foreclose

   The lender must send a written notice of intent to foreclose by certified mail to the record owner, and to the person living in the home if different, at least 10 days before it starts publishing the notice of sale.

   Wyo. Stat. § 34-4-103(a)(iv)

3. Notice of sale

   The notice of sale is published at least once a week for four weeks in a row in a newspaper in the county. Before the first publication, a copy must be sent to you by certified mail. The notice lists the amount claimed and the time and place of the sale.

   Wyo. Stat. §§ 34-4-104, 34-4-105

4. Foreclosure sale

   The home is sold at public auction between 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. A sale can be postponed by publishing a notice of the new date. If the sale brings more than the lender is owed, you must be sent the sale results within 10 business days.

   Wyo. Stat. §§ 1-18-101, 34-4-104(b), 34-4-109

5. Redemption period

   You have three months from the sale date to redeem by paying the sale price plus 10 percent yearly interest and any taxes, assessments or prior liens the buyer paid. You are entitled to stay in the home during these three months. For agricultural real estate the period is 12 months.

   Wyo. Stat. §§ 1-18-103, 1-18-104(e)

6. Deed and move-out

   If no one redeems, the buyer becomes entitled to a deed after the redemption periods end, including a further 30 days for creditors and lienholders. Your right to possession ends three months after the sale.

   Wyo. Stat. § 1-18-104

Wyoming foreclosure deadlines to know

These are the periods written into the law. Your own dates are on the notices you received. If a notice and this page disagree, trust the notice and ask a counselor or lawyer.

Your rights as a homeowner in Wyoming

Other Wyoming protections

• Notice of intent to foreclose

  The lender must mail you a written notice of intent to foreclose by certified mail at least 10 days before the first newspaper notice.

  Wyo. Stat. § 34-4-103(a)(iv)

• Three months to redeem and stay

  After the sale you keep the right to redeem, and the right to live in the home and collect any rents, for three months.

  Wyo. Stat. §§ 1-18-103, 1-18-104(e)

• Notice of excess proceeds

  If the sale brings more than the foreclosing lender is owed, the lender must send you the sale results within 10 business days.

  Wyo. Stat. § 34-4-104(b)

Wyoming mortgage assistance programs

If the home is sold for more than you owe

Sale money is paid in this order: the lender's reasonable collection costs and legal fees, the foreclosed mortgage, then junior mortgages and liens that make a timely demand. Any surplus is paid to you on demand. If the sale brings more than the lender is owed, you must be sent the sale results within 10 business days, so make a written demand for the surplus to the lender or the officer who held the sale. If no demand is made, the money can be held for you or handled under the state's unclaimed property law.

Wyo. Stat. §§ 34-4-104(b), 34-4-113

Ways to avoid foreclosure

Most of your options come from federal rules and from whoever owns or insures your loan, so they work the same way in Wyoming as anywhere else. What changes by state is how much time you have to use them.

• Repayment plan
• Forbearance
• Payment deferral or partial claim
• Loan modification
• Reinstatement
• Short sale
• Deed in lieu of foreclosure
• Chapter 13 bankruptcy