Surplus Funds in Wyoming: Who Holds the Money and How to Claim It

Wyoming allows both. A mortgage that contains a power of sale can be foreclosed out of court by advertisement and sale. Before publication starts the lender must send a written notice of intent to foreclose by certified mail with return receipt to the record owner, and to whoever is in possession if that is someone else, at least ten days ahead. Notice of the sale is then published once a week for four consecutive weeks and mailed to the owner, the occupant and every recorded junior lienholder. The same mortgage can instead be foreclosed by a court decree, and the sheriff then advertises and conducts the sale.

Wyo. Stat. §34-4-102(a); §34-4-103(a)(iv); §34-4-104(a); §1-18-101(a); §1-18-111(a)

Wyoming pays out foreclosure sale money in a fixed order: the reasonable costs of collection and enforcement including any attorney fees the law allows, then the debt being foreclosed, then any junior mortgage or lien, and then surplus proceeds to the former owner on demand. The same order applies whether the sale was by advertisement or under a court decree. If the former owner makes no demand, the foreclosing lender or the officer who made the sale may keep the surplus for the owner or may turn it over to the State Treasurer as unclaimed property. The lender has to account to the former owner for any surplus. Where there is surplus, the lender must mail the sale results, including the winning bid and the amount it was owed, to the record owner within ten business days after the sale.

Wyo. Stat. §34-4-113(a), (c); §1-18-113; §34-4-104(b)

Wyoming sets no deadline for the former owner to demand foreclosure surplus. The statute only says what the lender may do if no demand comes in: keep the surplus for the owner, or hand it to the State Treasurer under the Unclaimed Property Act. Junior lienholders are the ones on a clock, with thirty days after the sale results are served to make their demand. Money held in the ordinary course of a business is treated as abandoned five years after it became payable, holders report to the Treasurer by November 1 each year, and once the money reaches the Treasurer the statutes put no time limit on the owner's claim.

Wyo. Stat. §34-4-113(a)(iv), (b); §34-24-103(a); §34-24-118(d); §34-24-125

Wyoming counties sell the delinquent taxes rather than the land, and there is no competitive overbid at that sale: whoever offers to pay the taxes, interest, penalties and costs is the purchaser and receives a certificate of purchase. The owner can redeem at any time after the sale until a tax deed application has been filed and accepted, and no application can be accepted sooner than four years after the sale. Surplus money only appears at a later stage. The certificate holder can sue in district court to enforce the tax lien, the sheriff then sells the property at public auction to the highest bidder for cash, and after the costs of the action and the lienholder are paid the balance goes to people who held prior interests in the property. That balance has to be claimed within two years from the date the court confirms the sale, or it is credited to the county sinking fund. A person under a legal disability gets one year from the removal of the disability.

Wyo. Stat. §39-13-110(d); §39-13-108(d)(ii)-(iv), (e)(iii)(B), (e)(v)(A); §39-13-109(e)(i)

Wyoming gives the former owner a statutory right to redeem after the foreclosure sale. The buyer receives a certificate of purchase instead of a deed and is only entitled to a deed once the redemption period runs out. For most property the owner, or the owner's heirs, assigns or guarantors, has three months from the date of the sale to redeem by paying the purchase price plus ten percent interest a year, along with any taxes, assessments or prior liens the buyer paid after the sale. For agricultural real estate, meaning a single parcel over eighty acres outside a city, town or recorded subdivision or land used substantially for agriculture, the period is twelve months. If the owner does not redeem, judgment creditors and lienholders get a further thirty days.

Wyo. Stat. §1-18-103(a), (b), (c); §1-18-102; §1-18-104(a)

Wyoming does not cap what a third-party researcher may charge and does not require one to register with the state. What Wyoming law does instead is make the agreement unenforceable at certain times. An agreement to pay someone to recover property that has been reported to the state is unenforceable if it was signed within twenty-four months after the holder paid or delivered the property to Wyoming, and after that twenty-four month period it is enforceable only if it is in writing. An agreement about property that is still in the holder's hands is unenforceable if it was signed within the twelve months before the holder's scheduled reporting date. The Treasurer's office will work with a researcher only if a signed and notarized limited power of attorney and a copy of the researcher's own agreement with the owner are filed, and checks are issued only in the owner's name and sent to the owner.

Wyo. Stat. §34-24-136(a), (b), (c)