Free Wyoming Residential Lease Agreement
A configurable Wyoming residential lease agreement that generates a signable multi-page PDF. Built to W.S. 1-21-1201 through 1-21-1211 — no deposit cap, no entry statute, and the deposit deadline whose damage extension almost every source omits.
A Wyoming residential lease agreement is governed by the Residential Rental Property article at W.S. 1-21-1201 through 1-21-1211, together with the forcible entry and detainer article at 1-21-1001 through 1-21-1017, the Wyoming Safe Homes Act at 1-21-1301 through 1-21-1304, and two old but decisive property sections, 34-2-128 and 34-2-129. Taken together that is one of the thinnest landlord-tenant regimes in the United States — eleven substantive sections where most states have sixty — and that thinness is the single most important fact about renting in Wyoming. There is no security deposit cap. There is no landlord-entry statute of any kind. There is no late-fee cap and no grace period. There is no rent-increase notice. There is no notice period at all for ending a month-to-month tenancy. There is no retaliation statute. There is no repair-and-deduct and no rent-withholding right. And there is no prohibited-provisions section — instead W.S. 1-21-1202(d) expressly lets the parties reassign or modify the statutory duties themselves. A thin statute is not a reason for a thin lease. It is the reason the lease matters more here than almost anywhere, and this page is written to state precisely what Wyoming does not regulate so that you can decide it deliberately rather than discover the gap during a dispute.
Wyoming Lease Rules at a Glance
Security Deposit Cap
None
Deposit Accounting
30 Days*
Entry Notice
No Statute
Month-to-Month Notice
No Statute
How We Established That This Page Is Current, Since Wyoming’s Statutes Carry No Currency Stamp
The Wyoming Legislative Service Office publishes each title of the Wyoming Statutes as a text-layer PDF. Those official compilations carry no per-section history line and no “current through” date, so the usual staleness check — compare the stamp against the last session — is simply unavailable. We therefore proved currency the other way round, positively. The 2025 General Session created an entirely new Article 14 of Title 1, Chapter 21 (2025 Wyoming Session Laws chapter 41, Original Senate File No. 6, effective 1 July 2025, which became law without the Governor’s signature on 24 February 2025). Article 14 is present in full in the compilation we extracted, which proves the text post-dates that session. We then downloaded and swept the complete 2026 Budget Session volume — 107 chapters — and it contains zero references to any section of Title 1, Chapter 21 and zero to 34-2-1 anything. The 2023 and 2024 volumes were swept the same way and returned nothing touching this page. Four complete session-law volumes, read for what they changed and for what they did not. No commercial mirror was used for any figure below.
How to Fill Out This Wyoming Lease Agreement
1. Name the parties and an address for notices
Wyoming requires no landlord identification disclosure. An address still matters, because the repair notices under W.S. 1-21-1203(b) and 1-21-1206(b) must be served by certified mail or in the manner specified by 1-21-1003. Note also that under 1-21-1201(a)(i) an “owner” includes a managing agent, leasing agent or resident manager for notice purposes unless the agent specifies otherwise in writing in the rental agreement.
2. Describe the premises and choose the term
A “residential rental unit” under W.S. 1-21-1201(a)(iv) is the renter’s principal place of residence and expressly excludes a mobile home lot and recreational property rented occasionally. A lease of real estate for more than one year must be in writing and subscribed by the party to be charged under the statute of frauds at W.S. 1-23-105(a)(v).
3. Decide what a holdover becomes, because Wyoming will not decide it for you
W.S. 34-2-128 provides that no landlord and tenant relation exists in Wyoming by implication or operation of law except a tenancy by sufferance, and that holding over — even with the landlord accepting rent — creates no renewal for any period whatever. W.S. 34-2-129 then requires an express written contract signed by the parties to renew an expired lease. The form asks you to choose.
4. Set rent, the late fee, the grace period and the increase notice
Wyoming caps no late fee, grants no grace period and requires no rent-increase notice. All four figures are yours. One caution: a contractual grace period is a concession, not a safe harbour, because W.S. 1-21-1002(a)(i) makes an eviction proceeding available once rent is three days late.
5. Set the deposit, the nonrefundable notice and any utilities deposit
There is no cap to worry about. What the statute does require is W.S. 1-21-1207: the agreement must state whether any portion of a deposit is nonrefundable and separate written notice of that fact must be given when the deposit is taken. If you take a utilities deposit, it must be “held and separately identified” as such to get the different timetable in 1-21-1208(b).
6. Set the entry notice, because there is no statutory one
Wyoming has no landlord-entry statute. The only entry provision in Wyoming law, W.S. 1-21-1205(a)(iii), runs the other way and prohibits the renter from unreasonably denying access for repairs, inspection and showings. Whatever notice the tenant receives before entry is created here or nowhere.
7. Decide the cure right and the fee clause, then generate and sign
The W.S. 1-21-1003 notice is a notice to quit, not a notice to cure, so a cure right is a lease term. And W.S. 1-21-1008(b) awards attorney fees in a rent judgment only “as provided by the lease” — no clause, no fees, for either side. Download the multi-page PDF and sign. Wyoming requires no witnesses and no notary.
Build Your Wyoming Residential Lease Agreement
Complete the fields below to generate a Wyoming residential lease agreement as a signable multi-page PDF. Every field you fill is written into the document, and the generated lease cites the controlling Wyoming section at each point — including the ten or more places where the statute is silent and the lease has to supply the rule itself. Before handing over keys, run proper tenant screening. Pair the signed lease with a Wyoming move-in / move-out checklist, which does unusually heavy lifting in this state: Wyoming requires no condition report at all, yet W.S. 1-21-1208(a) measures the cleaning deduction against the condition at the beginning of the rental agreement, so the move-in record is the only evidence of the benchmark the statute uses.
Wyoming Residential Lease Agreement Builder
1. Parties
Wyoming requires no landlord identification disclosure. It still matters that this Lease carries an address, because the notices under W.S. 1-21-1203 and 1-21-1206 must be served by certified mail or in the manner specified by 1-21-1003. Under 1-21-1201(a)(i) an “owner” includes a managing agent, leasing agent or resident manager for notice purposes unless the agent says otherwise in writing in the rental agreement.
2. Premises
W.S. 1-21-1201(a)(iv) defines a “residential rental unit” as the renter’s principal place of residence, including appurtenances, grounds, common areas and facilities held out for renters generally — and it excludes a mobile home lot and recreational property rented on an occasional basis.
3. Term & Holdover
This is where Wyoming differs from almost every other state. W.S. 34-2-128 says no landlord and tenant relation exists in Wyoming by implication or operation of law except a tenancy by sufferance — holding over, even with the landlord accepting rent, creates only a tenancy by sufferance and no renewal. W.S. 34-2-129 adds that an expired lease may be renewed only by express contract in writing signed by the parties. And Wyoming prescribes no notice period at all for ending a periodic tenancy, so the period below exists only because this Lease creates it.
4. Rent, Late Fees & Increases
Wyoming caps no late fee, grants no grace period and requires no notice of a rent increase. Nothing in Titles 1, 34, 35 or 40 of the Wyoming Statutes says otherwise. Separately, note that a forcible entry and detainer becomes available under W.S. 1-21-1002(a)(i) once rent is three days late, so a contractual grace period longer than three days is a real concession worth setting deliberately.
5. Security & Utilities Deposits
Wyoming sets no maximum deposit, requires no interest, no trust account and no receipt. What it does require is W.S. 1-21-1207: the rental agreement must state whether any portion of a deposit is nonrefundable, and separate written notice of that fact must be given when the deposit is taken. A separately identified utilities deposit gets its own timetable under 1-21-1208(b).
6. Condition, Maintenance & Utilities
W.S. 1-21-1202(d) is the sentence no competitor template carries: “Any duty or obligation in this article may be assigned to a different party or modified by explicit written agreement signed by the parties.” Wyoming’s habitability duties are contractually variable. Separately, W.S. 1-21-1203(a)(iv) makes the owner responsible for other appliances and facilities only as specifically contracted in the rental agreement — so list them.
7. Entry, Disclosures & Abandoned Property
Wyoming has no landlord-entry statute of any kind. The only entry-related section, W.S. 1-21-1205(a)(iii), runs the other way: it prohibits the renter from unreasonably denying access for repairs, inspection and showings. Whatever notice a Wyoming tenant gets before entry exists only because this Lease creates it.
8. Default, Fees & Other Provisions
W.S. 1-21-1003 requires a notice to leave the premises at least three days before an eviction action — it is a notice to quit, and nothing in the statute gives the tenant a right to cure and stay. If you want a cure right, this Lease has to create it. And under W.S. 1-21-1008(b) a Wyoming court awards attorney fees in a rent judgment only “as provided by the lease” — no clause, no fees.
Is There a Security Deposit Limit in Wyoming?
No. Wyoming sets no statutory maximum on a residential security deposit, and no minimum either. W.S. 1-21-1208 is the deposit section and it is worth being precise about its shape. It says what a deposit may be applied to, it requires a written itemization, it sets a deadline for returning the balance, it gives a separate timetable to a utilities deposit, and it sets out what happens if the owner does not comply. It contains no cap of any kind — not a number of months, not a fixed sum, not a formula, and no separate ceiling for pets.
Wyoming goes further into silence than most states. There is no requirement to hold the deposit in a separate account, no trust-account rule, no escrow requirement, and no obligation to pay interest — W.S. 1-21-1208(a) says in terms that the balance is delivered or mailed “without interest”. There is also no requirement to give the tenant a receipt, no requirement to disclose where the money is held, and no requirement to conduct or document a move-in inspection. Every one of those is a rule some other state has and Wyoming does not.
What Wyoming does require about a deposit is a single, easily missed disclosure, and it has two limbs. W.S. 1-21-1207 provides that any rental agreement shall state whether any portion of a deposit is nonrefundable, and that written notice of this fact shall also be provided to the renter at the time the deposit is taken by the owner or the owner’s designated agent. Satisfying one limb does not satisfy the other: a clause buried in the lease is not the separate written notice at collection, and a receipt handed over at collection is not the term in the agreement. Note too that the duty to state whether applies either way — a lease that is silent because nothing is nonrefundable has still not stated whether, which is why the generator prints the notice in both directions.
One more provision the ranking pages skip: W.S. 1-21-1209 binds the holder of the owner’s interest at the time of termination to both 1-21-1207 and 1-21-1208. If a Wyoming rental is sold mid-tenancy, the buyer inherits the deposit obligations, and a buyer who never received the money from the seller still owes the accounting. Our Wyoming security deposit laws guide goes further into the section.
How Long Does a Wyoming Landlord Have to Return the Deposit?
The later of thirty days after termination or fifteen days after the landlord receives the renter’s new mailing address — and a further thirty days on top of that if there is damage. This is the most misreported figure in Wyoming coverage, and it is misreported in a way that favours nobody. The text of W.S. 1-21-1208(a) reads that the balance of any deposit and prepaid rent, together with a written itemization of any deductions and the reasons for them, shall be delivered or mailed without interest to the renter within thirty days after termination of the rental agreement or within fifteen days after receipt of the renter’s new mailing address, whichever is later. Then, in its own sentence: “If there is damage to the residential rental unit, this period shall be extended by thirty (30) days.”
Three consequences follow, and they matter to both sides. First, a tenant who moves out and starts counting thirty days is often counting the wrong clock. Second, a landlord facing a genuine damage repair has sixty days, not thirty, which is enough time to get real estimates rather than guess. Third — and no ranking page states this — the same subsection puts a duty on the tenant: “The renter shall within thirty (30) days of termination of the rental agreement, notify the owner or designated agent of the location where payment and notice may be made or mailed.” A tenant who never gives a forwarding address has not started the fifteen-day leg at all. Build the accounting itself with our Wyoming security deposit itemization form and send it with a Wyoming security deposit return letter.
What may be deducted is a closed list of four things. Under W.S. 1-21-1208(a), property or money held as a deposit may be applied to accrued rent, damage to the unit beyond reasonable wear and tear, the cost to clean the unit to the condition at the beginning of the rental agreement, and other costs provided by any contract. Read the third and fourth items carefully. The cleaning standard is the condition at the start of the tenancy, not some general standard of cleanliness — which is precisely why a dated, photographed move-in record is worth more in Wyoming than in a state with a statutory checklist, because Wyoming has no checklist to fall back on. And the fourth item, other costs provided by any contract, is an open door: in Wyoming the lease can create deposit deductions that the statute never mentions, which cuts both ways and is a reason for a tenant to read the deposit clause rather than assume it mirrors the statute.
What Is a Wyoming Utilities Deposit, and Why Does It Have Its Own Deadline?
Because W.S. 1-21-1208(b) gives it one, and it looks nothing like the ordinary deposit rule. Only one page in the entire Wyoming search results attempts this subsection, and it gets the final step wrong. Here is what the statute actually does.
The trigger is narrow. The subsection applies to “property or money held and separately identified as a utilities deposit”. A single undifferentiated security deposit is not a utilities deposit no matter what the parties call it in conversation; the money has to be held and separately identified as such. Where it is, the sequence runs like this:
- Ten days. After termination, the utilities deposit shall be refunded within ten days of a satisfactory showing that all utility charges incurred by the renter have been paid. The clock starts on the tenant’s proof, not on move-out.
- Forty-five days, then fifteen. Absent such a showing within forty-five days of termination, the owner shall — the statute is mandatory — within fifteen days thereafter apply the utilities deposit to the outstanding utility debt incurred by the renter. This is a duty, not an option, and a landlord who simply keeps the money without applying it has not complied.
- Seven days. Any refund then due to the renter shall be paid within seven days after the utilities deposit has been applied to the debt, or within fifteen days after receipt of the renter’s new mailing address, whichever is later.
The practical drafting point is the one the form above makes: if a landlord intends to hold money against unpaid utility bills, it must be identified as a utilities deposit in the lease and held separately, or the whole of 1-21-1208(b) is unavailable and the money is governed by the ordinary thirty-day rule instead. And a tenant who has closed the utility accounts should ask for a final zero-balance statement immediately, because ten days from that proof is by far the fastest refund route Wyoming offers.
What Happens if a Wyoming Landlord Keeps the Deposit?
The tenant recovers the full deposit and court costs — but only where the failure was “unreasonable”, and the same subsection can send costs the other way. W.S. 1-21-1208(c) is short and worth quoting in substance because published summaries describe it as double damages, as forfeiture, or as damages equal to the deposit, and it is none of those.
The section provides that if the owner or the owner’s agent unreasonably fails to comply with subsection (a) or (b), the renter may recover the full deposit and court costs. There is no multiplier. There is no forfeiture-of-the-right-to-withhold provision of the kind many states have. And the trigger is unreasonable failure, not mere lateness, so a landlord who itemizes honestly and is a few days late sits in a different position from one who keeps the money without explanation.
The reciprocal limb appears in no ranking Wyoming page at all: “In an action by a renter pursuant to this section, if the owner is the prevailing party and the court finds the renter acted unreasonably in bringing the action, the owner may be awarded court costs in addition to any other relief available.” Wyoming built a two-way unreasonableness test into its deposit section. Note that neither limb awards attorney fees — both speak only of court costs, which is a distinction that matters when the sum in dispute is smaller than a lawyer’s retainer. Wyoming’s small claims procedure in circuit court covers claims not exceeding six thousand dollars exclusive of costs, under W.S. 1-21-201, and most deposit disputes will sit inside that ceiling.
What Must a Wyoming Landlord Maintain?
A safe and sanitary condition fit for human habitation, plus four enumerated duties — and one of those four points straight back at the lease. W.S. 1-21-1202(a) sets the baseline: each owner and the owner’s agent shall maintain that unit in a safe and sanitary condition fit for human habitation, and each unit shall have operational electrical, heating and plumbing, with hot and cold running water, unless otherwise agreed upon in writing by both parties. The section expressly excepts seasonal rental units such as summer cabins which are not intended to have such amenities — a Wyoming-specific carve-out that matters in a state with a large seasonal rental stock.
W.S. 1-21-1203(a) then lists the four duties: (i) not to rent the unit unless it is reasonably safe, sanitary and fit for human occupancy; (ii) to maintain common areas in a sanitary and reasonably safe condition; (iii) to maintain electrical systems, plumbing, heating and hot and cold water; and (iv) to maintain other appliances and facilities as specifically contracted in the rental agreement.
Paragraph (iv) is the one to notice, and it is why the form above asks you to list appliances. In most states a landlord who supplies a refrigerator must keep it working as a matter of law. In Wyoming the statutory duty over other appliances and facilities — the range, the refrigerator, the dishwasher, the washer, the garage door opener, the well pump serving a rural property — extends only as specifically contracted in the rental agreement. If it is not written down, the statutory duty does not reach it, and the tenant is left with the general safe-and-sanitary duty in 1-21-1202(a), which only bites where the item materially affects health or safety.
Two limits complete the picture. Under W.S. 1-21-1202(c) the whole article does not apply to breakage, malfunctions or other conditions which do not materially affect the physical health or safety of the ordinary renter — so cosmetic and minor items are contractual, not statutory. And under W.S. 1-21-1203(c) the owner is not required to correct any condition caused by the renter, the renter’s family, guests or invitees by inappropriate use or misuse. There is also a damages limit that no competitor template carries: W.S. 1-21-1203(e) provides that the owner is not liable under the article for claims for mental suffering or anguish. Our Wyoming habitability laws guide covers the duty in more detail.
Can the Parties Change Wyoming’s Statutory Duties by Agreement?
Yes — and this is the single most important sentence in Wyoming landlord-tenant law, carried by no ranking page we examined. W.S. 1-21-1202(d) reads, in full: “Any duty or obligation in this article may be assigned to a different party or modified by explicit written agreement signed by the parties.”
Most states do the opposite. The Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, which around half the country adopted in some form, contains an anti-waiver rule voiding any lease term by which the tenant gives up a statutory right. Wyoming adopted no uniform act and wrote the reverse: its habitability duties, its maintenance duties, its notice machinery and its deposit-handling duties are contractually variable so long as the variation is explicit, in writing, and signed by the parties. Two of those three conditions are easy to satisfy accidentally. “Explicit” is not: a general waiver-of-all-rights clause is unlikely to qualify, and a duty-shift buried in a paragraph of boilerplate is exactly the kind of term a court would be asked to read narrowly.
The practical effect runs both ways, which is why the form treats it as a deliberate election rather than a default. A landlord and tenant may agree in writing that the tenant handles snow and ice clearance, or that the tenant maintains a well or septic system on a rural property, or that a seasonal cabin will not have hot running water for part of the year — the last of which W.S. 1-21-1202(a) separately contemplates by allowing a different arrangement where “otherwise agreed upon in writing by both parties”. Equally, a tenant signing a Wyoming lease should read the maintenance clause as though it were the law, because in this state it very nearly is.
There is exactly one thing the parties may not vary, and it is not in this article at all. W.S. 1-21-1304, in the Wyoming Safe Homes Act, provides that “the provisions of this act shall not be waived or modified in any lease or separate agreement between a landlord and tenant.” That is the only express non-waiver rule in Wyoming residential landlord-tenant law. The contrast — everything variable except the Safe Homes Act — is the spine of a well-drafted Wyoming lease.
Can a Wyoming Tenant Withhold Rent or Repair and Deduct?
No, on both counts, and the deepest-ranking Wyoming page in the search results tells readers otherwise. This is the most consequential error in the Wyoming SERP, because acting on it gets a tenant evicted.
Wyoming has no repair-and-deduct statute and no rent-withholding statute. Neither remedy appears anywhere in the Residential Rental Property article, and neither appears anywhere else in the Wyoming Statutes. What Wyoming provides instead is a two-notice sequence ending in court, and it is conditional on the tenant staying current.
The first notice (W.S. 1-21-1203(b)). A renter who is current on all payments required by the rental agreement and who has reasonable cause supported by evidence to believe the unit does not comply with the article’s health and safety standards shall advise the owner in writing of the condition and specify the remedial action requested. Within a reasonable time after receipt, the owner must either commence action to correct or notify the renter in writing that the owner disputes the claim. The notice must be served by certified mail or in the manner specified by W.S. 1-21-1003.
The second notice (W.S. 1-21-1206(b)). If a reasonable time has elapsed and the owner has neither responded nor corrected, the renter may serve a “notice to repair or correct condition”. The statute prescribes five contents and all five are mandatory: it shall (i) recite the previous notice; (ii) state the number of days that have elapsed and that this period constitutes the reasonable time allowed; (iii) state which conditions remain uncorrected; (iv) demand that they be corrected; and (v) state that if the owner fails to commence reasonable corrective action within three days the renter will seek redress in the courts.
Then court (W.S. 1-21-1206(c) and (d)). The renter may commence a civil action in circuit court, and the court endorses on the summons a period of not less than three nor more than twenty days for the owner to appear and defend. On a showing of an unreasonable refusal to correct or a failure to use due diligence, the court may award costs, damages and affirmative relief. Damages may include rent improperly retained or collected — which is how Wyoming gets to a rent adjustment, through a judge rather than through self-help. Affirmative relief may include a declaration terminating the rental agreement or an order directing the owner to make reasonable repairs. If the court terminates the agreement, the renter is entitled to the balance of the rent and the deposit back within thirty days and must vacate no sooner than ten nor later than twenty days after termination.
Now the trap. W.S. 1-21-1206(a) makes the entire remedy available only to “a renter in compliance with all provisions of W.S. 1-21-1204 and 1-21-1205”, and W.S. 1-21-1204(a)(vi) requires the renter to “be current on all payments required by the rental agreement”. A Wyoming tenant who stops paying rent to force a repair therefore does two things at once: forfeits the only statutory remedy available, and hands the landlord a ground for a forcible entry and detainer under W.S. 1-21-1002(a)(i). Advice to withhold rent in Wyoming is not merely unsupported; it is actively harmful.
Can a Wyoming Landlord Refuse to Repair and End the Lease?
Yes, in defined circumstances — and no free Wyoming template we examined carries this provision at all. W.S. 1-21-1203(d) gives the owner a right that most states’ statutes do not contemplate.
Where the cost of repairs exceeds an amount which would be reasonable in light of the rent charged, the nature of the rental property or the rental agreement, the owner may refuse to correct the condition and terminate the rental agreement. The right is not unconditional. If the owner takes it, the owner shall notify the renter in writing within a reasonable time after receipt of the notice of noncompliance, and shall provide the renter with sufficient time to find substitute housing, which shall be no less than ten days nor more than twenty days from the date of the notice. On termination, the rent paid shall be prorated to the date the renter vacates and any balance refunded along with any deposit due under W.S. 1-21-1208.
This provision explains something about Wyoming’s structure that is otherwise puzzling. The statute gives the tenant a genuine route to a court order compelling repairs, and simultaneously gives the owner a route out of a repair that is uneconomic against the rent. Both routes are notice-driven and both end quickly. For a landlord of an older, low-rent property in a small Wyoming market, 1-21-1203(d) is a real option; for a tenant, it is a reason to understand that a repair demand can produce a termination notice rather than a repair, with as little as ten days to find somewhere else.
How Much Notice Must a Wyoming Landlord Give Before Entering?
None. Wyoming has no landlord-entry statute of any kind, and this is a proved negative rather than an assumption. We extracted the full text layer of four complete titles of the official Wyoming Statutes — Title 1 (366 pages), Title 34 (229 pages), Title 35 (954 pages) and Title 40 (401 pages) — and swept every one of them for every formulation of entry, access, notice before entering, and right of entry. The only sections in any of them titled or dealing with a right of entry concern mine reclamation, environmental inspection and mortgage foreclosure. None concerns a dwelling.
There is exactly one entry-related provision in Wyoming landlord-tenant law, and it points the opposite way. W.S. 1-21-1205(a)(iii) is headed Prohibited acts by renter, and it provides that no renter shall unreasonably deny access to, refuse entry to or withhold consent to enter the residential rental unit to the owner, agent or manager for the purpose of making repairs to or inspecting the unit, and showing the unit for rent or sale. It imposes a duty on the tenant. It grants the landlord no notice obligation, because it creates none — and it does not, on its face, authorise entry at any hour without warning either. It simply says a tenant may not unreasonably refuse.
What follows is not that a Wyoming landlord may enter whenever they like. It is that the terms of entry are entirely a matter of contract, and that the word doing the work in 1-21-1205(a)(iii) is “unreasonably”. A tenant who refuses access at two in the morning with no notice is on much stronger ground than one who refuses a scheduled inspection agreed a week earlier. Because reasonableness is measured against the parties’ arrangements, a lease that sets a notice period and permitted hours actually makes the statutory standard easier to apply for both sides — which is exactly why the form above asks for both. Pair the lease with a Wyoming notice to enter property form so the notice you agreed to give is documented, and see our Wyoming landlord entry laws guide for the wider position.
One correction is worth making explicitly, because two ranking pages get it wrong in a way that reads like law. Statements that a Wyoming landlord “should provide notice before entering, generally twenty-four hours”, or that twenty-four hours is “generally accepted”, describe a custom, not a rule. There is no Wyoming source for twenty-four hours. If your lease says twenty-four hours, twenty-four hours is the rule between you; if it says nothing, nothing is.
When Is Rent Due, and What Late Fee Can a Wyoming Landlord Charge?
Rent is due when the lease says, and Wyoming caps no late fee, sets no grace period and requires no rent-increase notice. A sweep of Titles 1, 34, 35 and 40 for “late fee”, “late charge” and “grace period” returns four sections and not one of them is about rent: a controlled-substance registration fee, a clandestine-laboratory penalty, a storage-tank fee, and W.S. 40-19-108 in the Consumer Rental-Purchase Agreement Act — the rent-to-own statute for household goods, which has nothing to do with a residential tenancy. A sweep for “rent increase” returns nothing at all.
So the late fee, the grace period and the increase notice are all yours to set. One caution deserves emphasis, because it is where a well-meant grace period misleads a tenant. A contractual grace period is a concession, not a safe harbour. W.S. 1-21-1002(a)(i) permits a forcible entry and detainer proceeding against tenants “after a failure to pay rent for three (3) days after it is due”. A landlord who has promised a five-day grace period has contracted away the right to start on day four, but the statutory ground exists at day three regardless, and a tenant relying on a grace period in a lease that does not contain one has no statutory protection whatever. Our Wyoming late fee laws guide and Wyoming rent increase laws guide cover both silences in more detail.
What Can a Wyoming Landlord Charge for a Bounced Rent Check?
Not simply thirty dollars, and the way this is reported across the Wyoming SERP is materially wrong. One ranking page presents W.S. 1-1-115(b) as an “NSF fee maximum” of thirty dollars that a Wyoming landlord “may charge”. Section 1-1-115 is not a fee schedule. It is a civil liability statute with a mandatory procedure, and it lives in the general provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure, not in landlord-tenant law at all.
Here is the actual sequence. Under W.S. 1-1-115(a), a person who issues a check that is dishonoured for any reason has thirty days following the date of a written demand to pay the amount of the check plus a collection fee not to exceed thirty dollars. The demand is not informal: it must be mailed by United States postal service certificate of mailing to the address shown on the check or the last known address, or personally served under the Wyoming Rules of Civil Procedure. The demand itself must state that the drawer is required to pay the value of the check and the collection fee demanded, and must state the collection fee provided for in the section.
Only if that thirty-day window passes unpaid does W.S. 1-1-115(b) engage, and then the liability is not thirty dollars: it is three times the amount of the check, in no case less than one hundred dollars, plus the thirty-dollar collection fee and court costs. Attorney fees are available under 1-1-115(c) only “in extraordinary cases”, including where the court determines the party who wrote the check has raised dilatory or bad faith defences. The section also preserves criminal prosecution and sets off any criminal restitution against a civil judgment on the same facts.
The practical point for a Wyoming lease is that the statutory route is better than the fee most landlords write into a lease, and it requires paperwork most landlords skip. A landlord who follows the demand procedure has a treble-damages claim; a landlord who adds thirty dollars to the ledger has a contract term and nothing else. This is a recurring pattern in template pages nationally — a bad-check statute reported as though it were a rental fee cap — and Wyoming’s is a clean example of it.
How Does a Wyoming Tenancy End, and What Happens on Holdover?
Wyoming prescribes no notice period at all for ending a periodic tenancy, and a holdover creates only a tenancy at sufferance. These two facts together make the termination clause one of the most important paragraphs in a Wyoming lease, and they are the two most consistently misreported points in the SERP.
On the first: a sweep of Titles 1, 34, 35 and 40 for “month-to-month”, “month to month”, “periodic tenancy” and “tenancy at will” produces exactly one hit in the entire body of law, and it is a pawn transaction renewal provision at W.S. 40-14-360(e). There is no Wyoming statute requiring thirty days, or any days, to end a month-to-month residential tenancy in either direction. Several ranking pages print thirty days as though it were law. It is not; it is a lease term, and if the lease is silent Wyoming supplies nothing to fill the gap.
On the second, Wyoming has a rule almost no other state has, and it is nearly a century and a half old. W.S. 34-2-128 provides: “In this state there shall not exist the relations of landlord and tenant, by implication or operation of law, except a tenancy by sufferance. Upon the expiration of a term created by lease, either verbal or written, there shall be no implied renewal of the same, for any period of time whatever, either by the tenant holding over or by the landlord accepting compensation or rent for or during any period of such holding over. Such holding over by the tenant and acceptance of rent by the landlord shall constitute only a tenancy by sufferance, with the rights, duties, obligations and incidents of such tenancy.”
Read what that displaces. In most states, a tenant who stays past the end of a fixed term and keeps paying rent, with the landlord accepting it, becomes a month-to-month tenant by operation of law. In Wyoming that does not happen. Accepting the rent does not renew anything for any period whatever. The tenant is a tenant at sufferance, and W.S. 1-21-1002(a)(i) makes a forcible entry and detainer available against “tenants holding over their terms”. One ranking page states the opposite — that Wyoming fixed-term leases “may automatically transition to a month-to-month arrangement unless renegotiated” — which is the precise inverse of the statute.
W.S. 34-2-129 completes the picture: “No lease which shall have expired by its own limitation shall be again renewed except by express contract in writing, signed by the parties thereto, whether the original lease be written or verbal. Nor shall any other tenancy than that by sufferance exist after the termination of the original lease, unless created as aforesaid, by express contract in writing.”
Whether an automatic-renewal clause contained in the original signed lease satisfies that requirement is a question of Wyoming case law which the statutory text does not answer, and this page does not decide it. What we can say with confidence is what the statute says, and what the safe course is: a signed written extension, or a new lease. The generator defaults to exactly that, and offers an express month-to-month holdover tenancy as the alternative election — because if the parties want one in Wyoming, the lease has to create it in terms. Our Wyoming lease termination laws guide and Wyoming breaking a lease guide cover the practical mechanics, and a Wyoming notice of non-renewal documents the landlord’s side of it.
What Notice Comes Before a Wyoming Eviction?
A three-day notice to leave the premises — and for nonpayment there is a second, separate three-day period that most coverage collapses into it. Getting this right matters, because the two periods run in sequence rather than in parallel.
First, the ground. W.S. 1-21-1002(a) lists when a forcible entry and detainer proceeding may be had. For a residential tenancy the relevant limbs are (a)(i) — against tenants holding over their terms or after a failure to pay rent for three days after it is due — and (a)(vi), against renters in violation of any terms imposed under W.S. 1-21-1204 or 1-21-1205, which are the tenant duties and prohibited acts. So for nonpayment, the rent must actually be three days late before the ground exists at all.
Second, the notice. W.S. 1-21-1003 provides that the party desiring to commence the action must notify the adverse party to leave the premises involved, and that the notice shall be served at least three days before commencing the action, by leaving a written copy with the defendant or at his usual place of abode or business if he cannot be found.
Two things follow that the ranking pages get wrong. The first is arithmetic: for nonpayment the tenant has three days of lateness and then a three-day notice period, so the earliest an action can be filed is meaningfully later than day three. The second is more important. Several pages describe the Wyoming notice as a “cure or quit” notice. It is not. The statute requires notice to leave the premises. Nothing in W.S. 1-21-1003 gives the tenant a right to pay, remedy the breach and stay — the notice is unconditional on its face. Any right to cure in a Wyoming tenancy is a term of the lease, which is why the form above offers one as a deliberate election. If you serve one, our Wyoming three-day notice to pay rent or quit, Wyoming notice to cure or quit and Wyoming unconditional quit notice are all drafted to the section, and our Wyoming eviction notice laws guide covers service.
What Happens After a Wyoming Eviction Is Filed?
A fast, tightly-timed process in circuit court, with several details no template carries. The forcible entry and detainer article, W.S. 1-21-1001 through 1-21-1017, runs as follows.
The summons states the cause of complaint and the time and place of trial, and must be served not less than three nor more than twelve days before the day of trial set by the judge. Wyoming adds a sentence many states lack: the defendant is not required to file a written answer to the complaint as a condition of being allowed to participate fully in the trial (W.S. 1-21-1004). If the defendant does not appear, the court tries the action as though present, and the plaintiff must still sustain the complaint by proof or the action is dismissed (W.S. 1-21-1005) — there is no automatic default possession in Wyoming.
A continuance longer than two days is not granted to the defendant without a bond with sufficient surety, conditioned for payment of accruing rent and costs (W.S. 1-21-1007). If the case is based on failure to pay rent, the court finds the amount due and the terms of the agreement and renders judgment for the rent together with costs and attorney fees as provided by the lease, issuing execution for that amount separately from the writ of restitution (W.S. 1-21-1008(b)). Either party may demand a jury (W.S. 1-21-1009).
On a judgment of restitution the court issues a writ of restitution at the plaintiff’s request (W.S. 1-21-1012), and unless the defendant appeals, the officer executes it within two days of receiving it, Sundays excepted (W.S. 1-21-1013). An appeal does not stay the judgment unless the appellant files a bond with two or more sufficient sureties within forty-eight hours after judgment, Sundays excepted (W.S. 1-21-1014(b)); and on an appeal from a money judgment for rent, the appellant must also deposit the rent specified in the judgment with the court, failing which the appeal is not perfected, and must keep depositing rent as it falls due during the appeal (W.S. 1-21-1015). The pendency of a forcible entry and detainer does not bar an action of ejectment (W.S. 1-21-1016).
Two further provisions belong here. Under W.S. 1-21-1211(a), if the renter does not vacate as required by a court order, the sheriff may remove the renter’s possessions and prevent the renter from reentering without further action by the court. And under W.S. 1-21-1211(b), where the renter has damaged the property, the owner may apply the deposit and the renter remains liable for damages beyond what the deposit paid, plus interest at 10% per annum on any unpaid amounts. That statutory ten per cent appears in no ranking Wyoming page and in no competitor template.
Can a Wyoming Landlord Handle an Eviction Without a Lawyer?
An individual owner always could; since W.S. 1-21-1017 a business entity can too, within limits. This section appears in none of the ranking pages and it is directly useful to the small Wyoming landlord who holds property through a limited liability company.
W.S. 1-21-1017 provides that notwithstanding any other provision of law, a business entity may represent itself without an attorney in any forcible entry and detainer proceeding it commences or must respond to, and that doing so shall not be deemed the unauthorized practice of law, provided four conditions are met: the entity is represented by an owner, shareholder, member or partner; the entity owns a majority interest in the lands or tenements concerned; if an attorney later appears for the entity, the opposing party is entitled to a continuance to obtain one of its own; and the entity gives written notice to the court and all parties that it is being represented by an owner, shareholder, member or partner, signed by every owner, shareholder, member or partner of the entity.
There is a ceiling. The section does not apply to any business entity seeking a judgment exceeding the amount specified in W.S. 1-21-201 — that is, six thousand dollars, the Wyoming small claims threshold. A company chasing possession and a modest rent arrears can appear through its member; a company seeking a larger money judgment cannot use the section.
What Can a Wyoming Landlord Do With Property Left Behind?
Rather a lot, rather quickly — and the statute contains a contradiction on its own face that nobody in the search results has noticed. W.S. 1-21-1210 is unusually favourable to the owner, and tenants should understand how favourable.
The starting presumption is severe. On regaining lawful possession after termination, the owner may immediately dispose of any trash or property the owner reasonably believes to be hazardous, perishable or valueless and abandoned. Then the sentence that does the work: “Any property remaining within the rental unit after termination of the rental agreement shall be presumed to be both valueless and abandoned.” That is a presumption in the owner’s favour over everything left behind. It pairs with W.S. 1-21-1204(a)(viii), which makes it a statutory duty of the renter to remove all property and garbage before termination and clean the unit to its condition at the beginning of the agreement.
Valuable property gets a procedure. It may be removed from the unit and then must be dealt with by written notice describing the property and stating that it will be disposed of after seven days from the date of service unless the renter takes possession or gives written notice of an intent to do so. Service is deemed to occur on one of three dates: the date the notice is mailed by certified mail to an address furnished to the owner by the renter in writing specifically for this purpose; the date of personal service under Rule 4 of the Wyoming Rules of Civil Procedure; or the date the notice is published in a newspaper published in, or widely circulated in, the county where the unit is located.
That first limb deserves attention from both sides, and it is why the form above records an address for the purpose. The certified-mail route works only where the renter furnished an address in writing specifically for this purpose — not merely a forwarding address given for the deposit. Where no such address exists, an owner may end up relying on newspaper publication, which a former tenant is very unlikely to see, and which starts the seven days running all the same.
If no written response arrives within seven days, the property is conclusively deemed abandoned and the owner may retain or dispose of it. If the renter does respond in time, the property is held for a further period — and here is the defect. Paragraph 1-21-1210(a)(iii) says the property “shall be held for an additional period of seven (7) days after the written response is received”, and then, in the very next sentence, refers to the renter failing to take possession “within the additional fifteen (15) day period”. Seven and fifteen cannot both be right. The text reads identically in the official Legislative Service Office compilation, so this is a codification artefact rather than a transcription error on anyone’s part, and every mirror reproduces it. Our reading, and the one the generated lease adopts, is the conservative fifteen days — a landlord who holds the goods longer than the statute required has lost nothing, and one who disposed of them on day eight in reliance on the shorter figure has a problem. We have flagged the inconsistency for a Wyoming practitioner and for the Legislative Service Office rather than quietly picking a number.
Finally, storage. Under W.S. 1-21-1210(b) the owner is entitled to storage costs for the period the property remains in safekeeping plus the cost of removal to the place of storage — reasonable costs where the owner stores it personally, actual costs where it is stored commercially — and payment shall be made before the renter removes the property. Under 1-21-1210(c) the owner is not responsible for any loss to the renter resulting from storage. Wyoming imposes no duty of care in storage of the kind several states impose.
Does Wyoming Protect Tenants Against Retaliation?
No. Wyoming has no residential retaliation statute, and this is a proved negative. We swept the full extracted text of Titles 1, 34, 35 and 40 of the Wyoming Statutes for every form of the word “retaliate”. It appears in exactly one section: W.S. 35-2-1306, which concerns a resident’s installation and use of electronic monitoring in an assisted living or nursing facility and prohibits retaliation against a resident who requests it. That has nothing to do with a residential tenancy.
There is therefore no retaliation presumption in Wyoming, no protected-activity list, no retaliatory-eviction defence and no damages provision for retaliatory conduct in the landlord-tenant context. A ranking page that lists “protection from retaliation for reporting code violations or exercising legal rights” among a Wyoming tenant’s rights, and another that says a Wyoming rent increase “must not be discriminatory or retaliatory”, are describing law that does not exist in this state. Discrimination on a protected ground is a different matter and is covered below; retaliation as such is not regulated.
What a tenant does have is the Fair Housing Act route where the conduct is discriminatory, the two-notice repair remedy at W.S. 1-21-1203(b) and 1-21-1206 where the complaint is about condition, and whatever the lease itself provides. That is a short list, and it is another reason the lease matters.
Which Disclosures Does a Wyoming Lease Actually Require?
One under state law, and one under federal law. That is the entire list.
The state disclosure is W.S. 1-21-1207, and it is about the deposit rather than the property. Any rental agreement shall state whether any portion of a deposit is nonrefundable, and written notice of this fact shall also be provided to the renter at the time the deposit is taken by the owner or the owner’s designated agent. Two limbs, both mandatory, and the duty to state whether applies whichever way the answer falls. Under W.S. 1-21-1209 the holder of the owner’s interest at termination is bound by the section as well.
The federal disclosure is the lead-based paint rule at 42 U.S.C. 4852d and its implementing regulations, which applies to target housing built before 1978 and requires disclosure of known lead-based paint and hazards, delivery of any available records and reports, and provision of the federal pamphlet. Our Wyoming lead-based paint disclosure form handles it.
Nothing else is required, and we established that by reading rather than by assuming. Title 35, the public health and safety title, runs to 954 pages and was swept in full: it contains no lead-paint duty, no radon duty, no mould duty, no prior-infestation duty, no asbestos duty and no alarm-device duty attaching to a residential tenancy. Wyoming requires no flood-history statement, no methamphetamine-contamination statement, no offender-registry notice, no utility-sharing formula, no landlord or manager identification statement, no deposit acknowledgement, and no move-in condition report. Those are all requirements of other states, and a Wyoming template carrying them was written for somewhere else.
One nuance worth stating for landlords who are used to other states: because Wyoming imposes no property-condition disclosure duty, a voluntary disclosure of a known condition is exactly that — voluntary. The generator will print one if you enter it, labelled as voluntary, and it neither enlarges nor reduces the duties that W.S. 1-21-1202 and 1-21-1203 impose. Many Wyoming landlords will still want to make one, because a documented disclosure is a poor foundation for a later argument that the tenant was misled.
What Does the Wyoming Safe Homes Act Actually Give a Tenant?
An affirmative defence to a claim for rent — not a right to terminate the lease. Every ranking Wyoming page states it as a clean seven-day termination right, and the statute says something narrower and more conditional.
The Wyoming Safe Homes Act is W.S. 1-21-1301 through 1-21-1304. Its operative section, 1-21-1303, opens with the words “In any action brought by a landlord against a tenant to recover rent for breach of lease, the tenant shall have an affirmative defense and not be liable for rent for the period after which a tenant vacates the premises” if the court finds, by a preponderance of the evidence, one of two sets of facts. That is a defence the tenant must plead and prove in a case the landlord has brought. It is not a self-executing termination.
Route (a) — imminent threat. At the time the tenant vacated, the tenant or a member of the tenant’s household was under a credible imminent threat of domestic abuse or sexual violence at the premises, as demonstrated by medical, court or police evidence; and the tenant gave seven days written notice to the landlord before vacating, stating that the reason for vacating was that threat.
Route (b) — a completed act, with a limiter no ranker carries. The tenant or a household member was a victim of domestic abuse or sexual violence on premises that are owned or controlled by the landlord, and vacated as a result; the tenant gave seven days written notice before vacating stating the reason, the date of the violence, and that medical, court or police evidence was provided to the landlord supporting the claim; and the violence occurred not more than sixty days before the notice, or, where the tenant could not reasonably give notice in that time for reasons related to the abuse — the statute names hospitalization and seeking shelter or counselling — then as soon thereafter as practicable. The requirement that the violence occurred on premises owned or controlled by the landlord appears in no ranking page we examined. A tenant relying on route (b) after an incident elsewhere is relying on a limb that does not fit.
Two more provisions complete it. W.S. 1-21-1303(c) provides that a landlord may not terminate a tenancy based solely on the tenant’s, an applicant’s or a household member’s status as a victim of domestic abuse or sexual violence, while expressly not prohibiting adverse housing decisions based on other lawful factors within the landlord’s knowledge. And W.S. 1-21-1303(d) preserves the landlord’s position for the period before the tenant vacated and gave notice: the Act is no defence to an action for that earlier rent, and no defence to a forcible entry and detainer for failing to pay it.
Definitions matter here too. “Domestic abuse” takes its meaning from W.S. 35-21-102(a)(iii). “Sexual violence” is defined by W.S. 1-21-1302(a)(iii) as any act of sexual assault, sexual abuse or stalking of an adult or minor, including any nonconsensual sexual contact or intrusion — so stalking is inside the Act. And W.S. 1-21-1304 makes the whole Act non-waivable and non-modifiable in any lease or separate agreement, which, as noted above, makes it the only such provision in Wyoming residential landlord-tenant law.
What Is Wyoming’s Squatter Removal Law, and When Does It Not Apply?
New since 1 July 2025 — and it is expressly unavailable against a current or former tenant, which is the part a landlord most needs to understand. Article 14 of Title 1, Chapter 21 was created by 2025 Wyoming Session Laws chapter 41 (Original Senate File No. 6, “Residential Property — Removal of Unlawful Occupant”), which became law without the Governor’s signature on 24 February 2025 and took effect 1 July 2025.
Under W.S. 1-21-1402(a) an owner or the owner’s authorized agent may ask law enforcement in the county to immediately remove a person unlawfully occupying or possessing the owner’s residential dwelling, but only where all five of the following hold: the requester is the owner or authorized agent; the unauthorized person unlawfully entered and remains or continues to reside there; there is no known pending litigation about the dwelling between the owner and any known unauthorized person; the person is not a current or former tenant under a written or oral rental or lease agreement authorized by the owner, the owner’s predecessor or the owner’s authorized agent; and the person is not an immediate family member of, or cohabiting with, the owner.
The complaint is made under penalty of perjury and must contain ten specified statements, including a copy of the owner’s government-issued identification and an express acknowledgement that a person removed may bring a cause of action against the owner for any false statements in the complaint, or for wrongfully using the procedure, and that the owner may be liable for actual damages, penalties, costs and reasonable attorney fees. Law enforcement verifies record ownership before acting; if it cannot, it has no obligation to proceed. On verification it must, without delay, give notice to vacate to all unauthorized occupants — by hand delivery or by posting on the front door — and put the owner in possession, documenting the identities of those present and arresting where appropriate.
The exposure for getting it wrong is deliberately large. W.S. 1-21-1403(c) allows a person harmed by a wrongful removal to be restored to possession and to recover actual costs and damages, statutory damages equal to triple the fair market value of renting the dwelling for the period of wrongful removal, court costs and reasonable attorney fees. The same 2025 act also created a felony at W.S. 6-5-309 for a person who unlawfully detains or occupies a residential dwelling and knowingly defaces, injures or destroys property in or on it, punishable by up to ten years, a fine of up to ten thousand dollars, or both, regardless of the value of the damage.
The bottom line for a landlord is simple and important: a holdover tenant is not a squatter. Someone who once held under a lease you or a predecessor authorised is outside Article 14 entirely, and must be removed through the forcible entry and detainer article. Using the law-enforcement route against a former tenant is the fact pattern 1-21-1403(c) was written to punish.
Who Is Protected From Discrimination in a Wyoming Rental?
Seven classes under the civil sections of the Wyoming Fair Housing Act — and, in a wrinkle no ranker carries, three more under the Act’s criminal provision. The Act is W.S. 40-26-101 through 40-26-145.
The civil prohibitions at W.S. 40-26-103 cover refusal to sell or rent, refusal to negotiate, otherwise making unavailable or denying a dwelling, and discrimination in the terms, conditions or privileges of a rental or in providing services or facilities in connection with it, because of race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status or national origin. Parallel sections cover discriminatory advertising (40-26-104), representing that a dwelling is unavailable for inspection when it is available (40-26-105), blockbusting (40-26-106), disability (40-26-107), real-estate-related transactions (40-26-108) and brokerage services (40-26-109).
Three definitions in W.S. 40-26-102 are worth knowing. Familial status means one or more minors domiciled with a parent or other person having legal custody, and the protection expressly extends to a person who is pregnant or in the process of securing legal custody of a minor. Disability excludes current illegal use of or addiction to a controlled substance, and the definition states that it does not apply to an individual because of sexual orientation or because that individual is a transvestite. And “dwelling” includes a lot leased for the purpose of placing a transportable home on it, which brings mobile-home lots inside the fair housing act even though W.S. 1-21-1201(a)(iv) puts them outside the residential rental article.
Disability duties under W.S. 40-26-107(c) mirror the federal pattern: a refusal to permit a reasonable modification at the disabled individual’s expense is discrimination, though the landlord may, where reasonable, condition permission on the renter agreeing to restore the interior to its previous condition, reasonable wear and tear excepted; a refusal to make a reasonable accommodation in rules, policies, practices or services is discrimination; and covered multifamily dwellings must meet adaptive design standards. “Covered multifamily dwellings” are buildings of four or more units (40-26-107(g)), and the accessible-route requirement does not apply to a building first occupied on or before 13 March 1991.
Two exceptions bear on small Wyoming landlords. W.S. 40-26-103(c) provides that the section does not prohibit discrimination against an individual convicted under federal or state law of the illegal manufacture or distribution of a controlled substance — and only that; it is not a general criminal-record exception. And W.S. 40-26-110(a) exempts the sale or rental of a single family house sold or rented by the owner where the owner owns no more than three such houses at any one time, no broker or agent is used, and no discriminatory advertisement is published; where the owner was not the most recent resident, the exemption reaches only one rental in a twenty-four month period.
Now the wrinkle. The criminal intimidation offence at W.S. 40-26-144 reaches interference with an individual because of race, color, religion, sex, disability, age, familial status, national origin or status with respect to marriage or public assistance. Age, marital status and receipt of public assistance appear there and nowhere in the civil sections. Wyoming’s civil fair-housing protections do not cover age, marital status or source of income. Anyone citing 40-26-144 for the state’s civil protected classes is citing the wrong section — and anyone assuming that Wyoming bans source-of-income discrimination in a rental decision is reading the criminal offence into the civil act. Attorney fees under the Act run to the prevailing party under W.S. 40-26-143. Federal fair housing law applies in addition, and our Wyoming tenant screening laws guide covers what may lawfully be asked at application; if animals are in issue see Wyoming pet and assistance animal laws.
Can a Wyoming Landlord Recover Attorney Fees?
Only if the lease says so — and Wyoming’s fee regime is unlike any other state in this library. Three facts define it, and no page in the Wyoming search results states any of them.
First, there is nothing to prohibit a fee clause. Wyoming has no prohibited-provisions section anywhere in its residential rental article. We read all eleven sections of W.S. 1-21-1201 through 1-21-1211 and there is no list of void terms, no anti-waiver rule and no bounty for a bad clause. W.S. 1-21-1202(d) goes the other way and expressly permits the parties to reassign or modify the article’s duties. So a fee clause is permitted.
Second, the eviction statute presupposes one. W.S. 1-21-1008(b) directs that where a forcible entry and detainer case is based on failure to pay rent, the court “shall render judgment in accordance with the findings for the amount of rent found due, together with costs and attorney’s fees as provided by the lease”. Read that phrase carefully. It is not a statutory entitlement to fees. It is a direction to award whatever the lease provides. In Wyoming the lease is the only source of a landlord’s fee award in a rent judgment — no clause, no fees, however clearly the landlord wins.
Third, every statutory fee entitlement that touches this area runs against the property owner. The deposit section, W.S. 1-21-1208(c), awards court costs only, in both directions, and never attorney fees. The wrongful-removal remedy at W.S. 1-21-1403(c)(iv) awards reasonable attorney fees to the person the owner removed. The Fair Housing Act at W.S. 40-26-143 awards them to the prevailing party in a discrimination case. And the dishonoured-check statute at W.S. 1-1-115(c) allows them only in extraordinary cases.
The drafting conclusion is straightforward. A Wyoming fee clause is worth having and it should be reciprocal — running to whichever party prevails. Wyoming supplies no statutory reciprocity of the Californian kind that would convert a one-sided clause into a mutual one by operation of law, so a landlord-only clause stands or falls on its own terms and is the kind of provision a court is invited to construe against its drafter. The generator’s clause is drafted both ways for that reason, and it can be switched off entirely, in which case the lease says plainly that neither party may recover fees.
Wyoming Lease Statute Reference Table
| Subject | Wyoming Rule | Citation |
|---|---|---|
| Definitions | Owner includes managing agent unless the agreement says otherwise; unit is the principal residence; excludes mobile home lots | 1-21-1201 |
| Habitability baseline | Safe and sanitary, fit for human habitation; operational electrical, heating, plumbing, hot and cold water; seasonal cabins excepted | 1-21-1202 |
| Duties are variable by agreement | Any duty may be assigned or modified by explicit written agreement signed by the parties | 1-21-1202(d) |
| Owner duties and repair notice | Four duties, the fourth only as specifically contracted; renter must be current to give notice; no liability for mental suffering | 1-21-1203 |
| Owner may refuse to repair | May terminate where repair cost is unreasonable against the rent; 10 to 20 days to find substitute housing; rent prorated | 1-21-1203(d) |
| Renter duties | Eight duties including being current on all payments and cleaning to the condition at the beginning of the agreement | 1-21-1204 |
| Prohibited acts by renter | No damage, no interference with peaceful enjoyment, no unreasonable denial of access for repairs, inspection or showings | 1-21-1205 |
| Renter remedy | Two notices with five prescribed contents and a 3-day final demand, then circuit court; available only to a compliant renter | 1-21-1206 |
| Nonrefundable deposit notice | Must be stated in the agreement AND given as separate written notice when the deposit is taken | 1-21-1207 |
| Security deposit | NO cap, no interest, no trust account; 30 days or 15 days from the new address, whichever is later, plus 30 more where there is damage | 1-21-1208(a) |
| Utilities deposit | 10 days from proof of payment; apply to the debt within 15 days after 45 days without proof; refund within 7 days after application | 1-21-1208(b) |
| Deposit penalty | Unreasonable failure to comply: full deposit and court costs; owner gets court costs if the renter sued unreasonably | 1-21-1208(c) |
| Successor owner bound | Holder of the owner’s interest at termination is bound by the deposit sections | 1-21-1209 |
| Abandoned property | Everything left is presumed valueless and abandoned; 7-day notice for valuables; storage costs payable before removal | 1-21-1210 |
| Owner remedies | Sheriff removal without further court action; damages beyond the deposit carry interest at 10% per annum | 1-21-1211 |
| Eviction grounds | Holding over, or rent unpaid three days after due; also violation of the renter duties or prohibited acts | 1-21-1002 |
| Notice to quit | Notice to LEAVE the premises at least three days before the action; no statutory right to cure | 1-21-1003 |
| Attorney fees in a rent judgment | Costs and attorney fees AS PROVIDED BY THE LEASE — the lease is the only source | 1-21-1008(b) |
| Writ of restitution | Issued at the plaintiff’s request; executed within two days of receipt, Sundays excepted | 1-21-1012 |
| Business self-representation | An entity may appear without an attorney in an eviction, up to the small claims amount | 1-21-1017 |
| Small claims ceiling | Six thousand dollars exclusive of costs | 1-21-201 |
| Safe Homes Act | Affirmative defence to a rent claim on seven days written notice; route (b) needs violence on premises the landlord owns or controls | 1-21-1303 |
| The only non-waivable rule | The Safe Homes Act may not be waived or modified in any lease or separate agreement | 1-21-1304 |
| Unauthorized occupants | Law-enforcement removal since 1 July 2025; NOT available against a current or former tenant; triple fair market rent for wrongful use | 1-21-1401 |
| Wrongful removal remedy | Restoration to possession, actual damages, triple fair market rent, court costs and attorney fees | 1-21-1403 |
| No implied tenancy or renewal | Only a tenancy by sufferance arises by implication; holding over plus accepting rent renews nothing | 34-2-128 |
| Renewal must be written | An expired lease is renewed only by express contract in writing signed by the parties | 34-2-129 |
| Statute of frauds | A lease of real estate for more than one year must be in writing and subscribed by the party to be charged | 1-23-105(a)(v) |
| Limitation period | Ten years on a written contract; eight years on an oral one or a liability created by statute | 1-3-105(a)(i) |
| Dishonoured checks | Written demand, thirty days to pay plus a collection fee; only then treble the check, minimum one hundred dollars | 1-1-115 |
| Fair housing | Seven civil classes; the criminal offence at 40-26-144 adds age, marital status and public assistance | 40-26-103 |
| Landlord entry | NO statute anywhere in Wyoming law — set by the lease | none |
| Late fee, grace period, rent increase | NO statute of any kind — set by the lease | none |
| Retaliation and periodic-tenancy notice | NO statute of any kind — the only Wyoming section using the word retaliate is 35-2-1306, on care facilities | none |
Where Wyoming Is Silent, This Lease Governs
It is worth collecting the silences in one place, because in Wyoming they are not footnotes — they are most of the law. On each of the following the Wyoming Statutes supply no rule at all, and whatever the parties end up with is whatever the lease says. Each was established by reading four complete statute titles, not by inference from an absence of search results:
- The maximum security deposit. No cap in 1-21-1208 or anywhere else, and no separate pet ceiling.
- Where the deposit is held. No trust account, no escrow, no separate account, no interest, no receipt.
- Landlord entry. No entry statute in any title. No notice period, no permitted hours, no emergency rule, no bar on abuse.
- Late fees and grace periods. No cap and no grace period — but remember that eviction becomes available at three days late under 1-21-1002(a)(i).
- Rent increases. No notice period and no limit on the amount.
- Ending a periodic tenancy. No statutory notice period in either direction. The thirty days most sources print has no Wyoming source.
- Retaliation. No statute, no presumption, no defence, no damages.
- Repair and deduct, and rent withholding. Neither exists. The only route is the two-notice sequence at 1-21-1203(b) and 1-21-1206, and only for a tenant who is current.
- Move-in and move-out condition reports. Not required — yet the cleaning deduction is measured against the condition at the beginning of the agreement, so the record is the evidence.
- Lease disclosures. Only the nonrefundable-deposit notice at 1-21-1207, plus the federal lead-based paint rule.
- Prohibited lease provisions. There is no such section. W.S. 1-21-1202(d) does the opposite. The Safe Homes Act at 1-21-1304 is the only thing the parties may not vary.
- Attorney fees. Neither prohibited nor granted — 1-21-1008(b) awards only what the lease provides.
- A statutory servicemember termination right. Wyoming has none of its own; the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act applies on its own terms and this page does not paraphrase it.
- Self-help eviction. Wyoming has no statute expressly prohibiting a lockout or a utility shutoff. The eviction article contemplates a court judgment and a sheriff-executed writ, and we have flagged the absence of an express prohibition for a Wyoming practitioner rather than asserting a rule that is not in the statute.
- The duty to mitigate after abandonment. The statutes say nothing either way. One ranking page asserts there is no such duty; that is a case-law question and this page does not decide it.
Every one of those is either an election in the form above or a figure the form asks you to set. That is the design principle here. Where the statute speaks, the generated lease quotes it and cites the section. Where the statute is silent, the lease says on its face that Wyoming is silent and then makes the choice explicit — so that neither party discovers the gap for the first time in a courtroom.
Do Wyoming Cities Add Rules the State Does Not?
They can, and this page states state law only. Wyoming’s statutes contain no general preemption clause forbidding a municipality from regulating residential tenancies, and at least one ranking page reports a Jackson municipal provision requiring notice of non-renewal in some residential rentals. We have not fetched Wyoming municipal codes in primary form for this build, so we neither confirm nor repeat that provision here — it is recorded in our verification notes as something to check against the municipal code itself.
The practical instruction is simple. Everything on this page is Wyoming state law, verified from the official statute text and the session laws. Before signing in Jackson, Teton County, Cheyenne, Casper or Laramie, check the municipal code for anything the state does not cover — which, given how much the state does not cover, is where a local rule is most likely to sit. Our Wyoming landlord-tenant laws hub is the starting point for the state-level position.
Common Mistakes on Wyoming Lease Agreements
- Assuming the deposit deadline is thirty days. It is the later of thirty days from termination or fifteen days from receipt of the forwarding address, plus thirty more where there is damage. Counting one clock instead of three is how both sides get this wrong.
- Taking a “utility deposit” without separately identifying it. W.S. 1-21-1208(b) applies only to money “held and separately identified as a utilities deposit”. Money folded into one deposit is governed by the ordinary rule instead.
- Putting the nonrefundable clause in the lease and stopping there. W.S. 1-21-1207 has two limbs. The separate written notice at the time the deposit is taken is the one landlords skip.
- Printing a twenty-four hour entry notice as though it were Wyoming law. It is not. If you want twenty-four hours, put it in the lease, where it becomes binding as a contract term.
- Leaving appliances off the lease. W.S. 1-21-1203(a)(iv) reaches other appliances and facilities only “as specifically contracted in the rental agreement”. An unlisted refrigerator is outside the statutory duty.
- Relying on a holdover becoming month-to-month. W.S. 34-2-128 says it does not, whatever rent the landlord accepts. If you want a month-to-month holdover, create it in the lease.
- Relying on an automatic-renewal clause. W.S. 34-2-129 requires an express written contract signed by the parties to renew an expired lease, and whether a pre-agreed clause satisfies it is unsettled. Sign an extension.
- Serving a “cure or quit” notice and expecting the statute to back it. W.S. 1-21-1003 is a notice to leave. A cure right has to come from the lease.
- Adding a bounced-check fee to the ledger. W.S. 1-1-115 requires a written demand and a thirty-day window before the collection fee or treble liability arises.
- Withholding rent to force a repair. It forfeits the tenant’s own remedy under 1-21-1206(a) and creates an eviction ground under 1-21-1002(a)(i). Serve the two notices instead.
- Using the squatter-removal route against a former tenant. W.S. 1-21-1402(a) excludes any current or former tenant, and 1-21-1403(c) prices the mistake at triple the fair market rent plus fees.
- Disposing of a former tenant’s goods on day eight after a written response. The statute contradicts itself between seven and fifteen days. Hold for fifteen.
- Omitting the fee clause. Wyoming gives a landlord no fee entitlement at all in a rent judgment except “as provided by the lease”. A missing clause is a real cost.
- Carrying a template from another state. Every disclosure block, deposit cap, entry notice and thirty-day termination clause in a generic template is another state’s law wearing a Wyoming label.
Tenant Screening — the First Line of Defense
A well-drafted lease decides who wins a dispute; screening decides whether there is one. That trade is sharper in Wyoming than almost anywhere, because the statutory floor beneath the lease is so low that the parties are, in practice, governed almost entirely by what they signed — and because the tenant’s own statutory remedy evaporates the moment rent goes unpaid, a tenancy that goes wrong here tends to go wrong quickly. Verifiable income, a clean payment history and no prior eviction filings remain the strongest predictors of a quiet tenancy. Our tenant screening report covers credit, eviction filings, criminal background and employment verification, and Wyoming tenant screening laws covers what you may and may not ask, including the narrow controlled-substance exception at W.S. 40-26-103(c). Screen first, then paper the tenancy with this lease. If rent is running late, a Wyoming late rent notice documents the demand before the statutory clock is engaged.
Bottom line
Wyoming leases are governed by W.S. 1-21-1201 through 1-21-1211, one of the thinnest schemes in the country, and the thinness is the point. There is no deposit cap, no interest and no trust account; the accounting under 1-21-1208(a) is due within thirty days of termination or fifteen days of the forwarding address, whichever is later, plus thirty more where there is damage, and an unreasonable failure costs the landlord the full deposit and court costs. There is no entry statute, no late-fee cap, no rent-increase notice, no periodic-tenancy notice period and no retaliation statute. There is no repair-and-deduct and no rent withholding — a tenant must be current to use the two-notice remedy at 1-21-1206 at all. Eviction runs on a three-day notice to leave under 1-21-1003 after rent is three days late under 1-21-1002(a)(i), and there is no statutory right to cure. W.S. 1-21-1202(d) lets the parties reassign the statutory duties by explicit signed writing, and the Safe Homes Act at 1-21-1304 is the only thing they may not touch. In Wyoming, the lease is the law.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a security deposit limit in Wyoming?
No. Wyoming sets no statutory maximum on a residential security deposit and no minimum. W.S. 1-21-1208 governs what may be deducted, the written itemization, the return deadline and the consequences of non-compliance, but imposes no cap of any kind and no separate pet ceiling. Wyoming also requires no interest, no trust or escrow account, no separate account and no receipt. The amount is a matter of agreement, which is why the lease should state it precisely.
How long does a Wyoming landlord have to return a security deposit?
The later of thirty days after the rental agreement terminates, or fifteen days after the landlord receives the renter’s new mailing address — and W.S. 1-21-1208(a) then adds that if there is damage to the unit, that period is extended by a further thirty days. So the outer deadline where there is damage is sixty days. The same subsection puts a duty on the renter to notify the owner within thirty days of termination where payment and notice may be sent, and until that happens the fifteen-day leg cannot start running.
What happens if a Wyoming landlord wrongfully keeps a deposit?
Under W.S. 1-21-1208(c), if the owner or the owner’s agent unreasonably fails to comply with the return and itemization rules, the renter may recover the full deposit and court costs. There is no double or treble damages provision and no forfeiture rule. The same subsection also runs the other way: if the owner prevails and the court finds the renter acted unreasonably in bringing the action, the owner may be awarded court costs. Neither limb awards attorney fees, and Wyoming small claims covers up to six thousand dollars under W.S. 1-21-201.
Can a Wyoming landlord charge a nonrefundable fee?
Yes, and Wyoming’s only lease disclosure is about exactly that. W.S. 1-21-1207 requires any rental agreement to state whether any portion of a deposit is nonrefundable, and requires written notice of that fact to be provided to the renter at the time the deposit is taken. Both limbs are mandatory. Because the duty is to state whether, a lease should say so even where nothing is nonrefundable, and under W.S. 1-21-1209 a successor owner at termination is bound by the section too.
How much notice must a Wyoming landlord give before entering?
None by statute. Wyoming has no landlord-entry provision anywhere in its statutes — we swept Titles 1, 34, 35 and 40 in full, and the only sections dealing with a right of entry concern mining, environmental inspection and mortgage foreclosure. The single entry-related provision in landlord-tenant law is W.S. 1-21-1205(a)(iii), which prohibits the renter from unreasonably denying access for repairs, inspection and showings. Any notice period before entry exists only because the lease creates it, which is why this generator asks you to choose one rather than printing a figure with no Wyoming source.
What is the grace period for rent in Wyoming?
There is none by statute, and there is no late-fee cap either. Wyoming has no residential late-fee or grace-period provision anywhere in its statutes. Both are lease terms. Note that a contractual grace period is a concession rather than a protection: W.S. 1-21-1002(a)(i) makes a forcible entry and detainer available once rent has gone unpaid for three days after it was due, whatever the lease says about a fee.
How much notice ends a Wyoming month-to-month tenancy?
Whatever the lease says, because Wyoming prescribes nothing. A full sweep of Titles 1, 34, 35 and 40 for month-to-month, periodic tenancy and tenancy at will returns a single hit, and it is a pawn-transaction provision. The thirty days that several sources print is not Wyoming law. If the lease is silent, there is no statutory period to fall back on, which is a strong reason to state one.
Can a Wyoming lease renew automatically?
Wyoming law is unusually hostile to renewal by implication. W.S. 34-2-128 provides that no landlord and tenant relation exists by implication or operation of law except a tenancy by sufferance, and that holding over — even where the landlord accepts rent — renews nothing for any period whatever. W.S. 34-2-129 then requires an express contract in writing signed by the parties to renew a lease that has expired by its own limitation. Whether an automatic-renewal clause inside the original lease satisfies that is a question of Wyoming case law which the statute does not answer; the safe course is a signed written extension.
Can you withhold rent for repairs in Wyoming?
No, and doing so is actively harmful. Wyoming has no rent-withholding right and no repair-and-deduct right. W.S. 1-21-1203(b) gives the notice right only to a renter who is current on all payments, and W.S. 1-21-1206(a) makes the whole remedy available only to a renter in compliance with W.S. 1-21-1204, which requires the same thing. A tenant who withholds rent loses the statutory remedy and simultaneously creates an eviction ground under W.S. 1-21-1002(a)(i). The correct route is the two-notice sequence, then circuit court.
What notice comes before an eviction in Wyoming?
W.S. 1-21-1003 requires the party bringing a forcible entry and detainer to notify the other party to leave the premises, served at least three days before the action is commenced, by leaving a written copy with the defendant or at the defendant’s usual place of abode or business. For nonpayment there is a separate three-day period first: W.S. 1-21-1002(a)(i) requires the rent to have gone unpaid for three days after it was due. It is a notice to quit, not a notice to cure — nothing in the statute gives the tenant a right to remedy the breach and stay.
Does Wyoming protect tenants against retaliation?
No. Wyoming has no residential retaliation statute at all. A full sweep of Titles 1, 34, 35 and 40 finds the word retaliate in exactly one section, W.S. 35-2-1306, which concerns electronic monitoring by residents of assisted living and nursing facilities. There is no presumption period, no protected-activity list, no retaliatory-eviction defence and no damages provision. Discrimination on a protected ground under the Wyoming Fair Housing Act is a separate matter.
What disclosures does a Wyoming lease require?
One under state law and one under federal law. W.S. 1-21-1207 requires the rental agreement to state whether any portion of a deposit is nonrefundable and requires separate written notice of that fact when the deposit is taken. Federal law adds the lead-based paint disclosure for target housing built before 1978. Wyoming requires no radon, flood, mould, asbestos, prior-infestation, methamphetamine, offender-registry, utility-sharing, landlord-identification or alarm-device disclosure; Title 35 was swept in full to establish it.
Can a Wyoming landlord refuse to make a repair?
In defined circumstances, yes. W.S. 1-21-1203(d) lets the owner refuse to correct a condition and terminate the rental agreement where the cost of repairs exceeds an amount that would be reasonable in light of the rent charged, the nature of the property or the agreement. The owner must give written notice within a reasonable time of receiving the notice of noncompliance and must allow the renter no less than ten and no more than twenty days to find substitute housing, with rent prorated to the date of vacating and the deposit refunded. No free Wyoming template we examined carries this provision.
What can a Wyoming landlord do with property left behind?
W.S. 1-21-1210 presumes that any property remaining in the unit after termination is both valueless and abandoned, and lets the owner immediately dispose of anything reasonably believed to be hazardous, perishable or valueless. Valuable property requires a written notice describing it and stating that it will be disposed of after seven days from service, with service by certified mail to an address the renter furnished in writing specifically for that purpose, by personal service, or by newspaper publication. The statute is internally inconsistent about the extension where the renter responds — it says seven days in one sentence and fifteen in the next — so the conservative course is to hold for fifteen days.
Does the Wyoming Safe Homes Act let a victim break a lease?
Not quite, and this is widely misreported. W.S. 1-21-1303 gives the tenant an affirmative defence in an action by the landlord to recover rent — not a right to terminate. It requires seven days written notice before vacating, plus either a credible imminent threat of domestic abuse or sexual violence at the premises supported by medical, court or police evidence, or a completed act of such violence on premises owned or controlled by the landlord within the preceding sixty days, with the evidence provided to the landlord. Rent for the period before vacating and giving notice remains owed. W.S. 1-21-1304 makes the Act non-waivable in any lease.
Can a Wyoming landlord recover attorney fees in an eviction?
Only if the lease provides for them. W.S. 1-21-1008(b) directs the court in a rent case to render judgment for the rent found due together with costs and attorney fees as provided by the lease. Wyoming grants no fee entitlement of its own in a residential tenancy, so without a clause there is no fee award for either side. The deposit section, W.S. 1-21-1208(c), awards court costs only. Wyoming has no prohibited-provisions statute, so a reciprocal prevailing-party clause is permitted, and reciprocity is the safer drafting because Wyoming supplies no statutory reciprocity to rescue a one-sided clause.
Can a Wyoming LLC handle its own eviction?
Yes, within limits, under W.S. 1-21-1017. A business entity may represent itself in a forcible entry and detainer without an attorney, and it is not the unauthorized practice of law, provided it is represented by an owner, shareholder, member or partner; it owns a majority interest in the premises; the opposing party is entitled to a continuance if an attorney later appears for the entity; and it gives written notice to the court and all parties signed by every owner, shareholder, member or partner. The section does not apply where the entity seeks a judgment exceeding the small claims amount in W.S. 1-21-201, six thousand dollars.
Does a Wyoming lease need to be notarized or witnessed?
No. Wyoming requires no subscribing witnesses and no notarization for a residential lease. A lease of real estate for more than one year must be in writing and subscribed by the party to be charged to satisfy the statute of frauds at W.S. 1-23-105(a)(v); a lease of one year or less may be oral. In a state where the statutes set no deposit cap, no entry notice, no late-fee limit and no termination notice period, an oral lease leaves both sides with almost nothing to point at. An action on a written lease may be brought within ten years under W.S. 1-3-105(a)(i).
Screen the applicant before you sign the lease
Wyoming’s landlord-tenant statute is among the thinnest in the country, which puts almost all of the weight on your lease and on who you hand the keys to. Tenant Screening Background Check has been verifying Wyoming renters since 2004 — credit, eviction filings, criminal background, and employment verification, across all fifty states and DC, with no monthly fees.
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