Wyoming law, for title research

Is Wyoming a community property state? No: equitable division, a spouse's signature on homestead deeds and a law for property from elsewhere

Every rule below is quoted from the Wyoming Statutes or another official source, linked and checked on the date shown. General information, not legal advice.

How does Wyoming classify a married couple's property?

Not as community property. IRS Publication 555 lists nine community property states, and Wyoming is not among them. Under W.S. 20-1-201, property belonging to a married person as separate property, owned at marriage or acquired during marriage in good faith by descent or otherwise, with its rents, issues, increase and profits, is that person's sole and separate property, held as though single. Necessary family expenses and the children's education are chargeable on the property of both. Section 20-1-202 lets a married person transfer separate property as if unmarried, and section 34-1-108 lets a married woman convey her real estate by deed or mortgage as if unmarried. The homestead is the main exception, covered below.

We searched Titles 1, 2, 20 and 34 for the phrase community property. Titles 1, 20 and 34 had no hits. In Title 2, the hits are the act at sections 2-7-720 through 2-7-729, which handles community property from other jurisdictions at death, and section 2-16-103, a security registration section that mentions owners of community property held in survivorship form. We did not search the other titles.

How is property divided in a Wyoming divorce?

The statute uses just and equitable, and it sets no starting fraction. Section 20-2-114(a) says that in granting a divorce, the court makes such disposition of the property of the parties as appears just and equitable. It looks to the respective merits of the parties, the condition in which the divorce leaves them, the party through whom the property was acquired, and burdens imposed on the property for a party and children. The section does not say inherited or premarital property is excluded, and the source of the property is one of the things the court regards.

The decree can reach real estate. The same subsection lets the court order as much of the other party's real estate, or its rents and profits, as is necessary to be assigned to either party for life as part of reasonable alimony. Under subsection (b), the court may not consider a veteran's federal service-connected disability benefits, or award listed substitutes for a waiver or reduction in military pay. In a judicial separation proceeding under section 20-2-106, the court may make just orders, including disposition of the parties' properties.

Section 20-2-109 addresses any act that could undercut a later order. After a complaint is filed, if it appears probable that either party is about to do an act that would defeat or lessen a later property order, an order is made to prevent it. It does not say what happens to a deed given in violation. Section 1-6-108 separately lets a party, in an action between husband and wife, file a notice of pendency with the county clerk describing the property affected, and from filing a subsequent purchaser or encumbrancer has constructive notice of the action.

Does a spouse have to sign a Wyoming deed?

For a homestead, yes, with one stated exception. Section 34-2-121, headed conveyance and encumbrance of homesteads void unless spouse joins, lets an owner or occupant sell, mortgage or encumber a homestead, provided the instrument contains in substance the words releasing and waiving all rights under and by virtue of the homestead exemption laws of this state, and is freely and voluntarily signed and acknowledged by the owner and the owner's spouse. Those requirements do not apply to a conveyance directly from husband to wife, and the section does not mention a conveyance from wife to husband. Section 34-1-129 lets a husband or wife appoint the other attorney-in-fact to control or dispose of that spouse's property, or any inchoate or other interest in it.

Time can close some of these questions. Section 34-5-113 says that if a recorded conveyance has no release or waiver of homestead, or does not set out the grantor's marital status, and has been of record for ten years in the county, the land is conclusively presumed not to have been used, occupied or claimed as a homestead at conveyance. Sections 34-8-103 and 34-8-104 separately validate an instrument of record for ten years despite defects in execution, attestation, acknowledgment or recording, whether or not the land is homestead, and including where the grantor's marital status is not given. By its words, section 34-5-113 does not reach a deed that has release words and states marital status but lacks a spouse's signature, and section 34-8-103 does not name a missing signature, so that case needs an attorney's reading.

Section 34-2-121 speaks of a homestead as established herein and does not cross-refer to the exemption article, so our reading, for an attorney to confirm, is that the exemption sections describe it. Section 1-20-101 entitles every resident to one not exceeding $100,000 in value, exempt from execution and attachment. Section 1-20-102 limits that to while it is occupied by the owner or person entitled to it or family, and joint owners occupying the same residence are each entitled. Section 1-20-104 includes a house on a lot or other lands, or a house trailer or other movable home on a lot. Section 1-20-108 says the exemption does not reach purchase money and requires a bona fide resident. Dower and curtesy are abolished by section 2-4-101(b).

What does a deed to spouses create in Wyoming?

Usually a tenancy by the entirety. Section 34-1-140(b) says that, unless the deed specifies another form of ownership, designating tenants as husband and wife, spouses or similar language on a conveyance of real property is deemed to establish a tenancy by the entirety. Under subsection (a), an owner can establish a joint tenancy or a tenancy by the entirety by naming the tenants, including the owner, in the instrument, with no transfer through a third person.

Divorce changes that. Section 2-6-125(b)(ii) says a divorce or annulment immediately severs the former spouse's interests in property held as joint tenants with the right of survivorship or as tenants by the entirety, and they become tenancies in common, unless a governing instrument, governing law, court order or contract says otherwise. A separation decree that does not end the status of spouses is not a divorce for that section.

Subsection (c) protects a third party who acquires an interest for value and in good faith reliance on an apparent title by survivorship, unless a writing declaring the severance was recorded in the appropriate records before that interest arose. The same section revokes revocable dispositions to a former spouse or a former spouse's relative, on the same terms, and revives them on remarriage to that spouse unless a signed agreement prohibits it.

After a death, section 2-9-101 lets anyone interested petition the district court for a decree that an estate by the entireties remains in the surviving spouse, with a copy of the decree recorded with the county clerk. The decree and record are presumptive evidence of the estate and survivorship. Section 2-9-102 instead allows recording an affidavit of survivorship with a copy of the death certificate, and section 2-9-103 makes it prima facie evidence of the facts recited. Section 2-13-105 splits the property in half if there is no sufficient evidence that two such tenants died other than simultaneously, and section 2-14-101 addresses benefits to a person who kills the decedent.

What does a surviving spouse take at death?

Without a will, and unless limited by a marriage settlement, section 2-4-101(a) gives one-half of the estate if the intestate leaves a husband or wife and children or their descendants. It gives all of the real and personal estate if the intestate leaves a husband or wife and no child or descendant of a child.

With a will, section 2-5-101 applies when a married person domiciled in the state deprives the spouse of more than the elective share of the property subject to disposition under the will, as reduced by listed expenses, allowances and claims. The elective share is one-half if there are no surviving issue or the spouse is also a parent of any of them, and one-fourth if the spouse is the parent of none. Section 2-5-105 calls for the petition within three months after the will is admitted to probate, or within thirty days after the court advises the spouse of the right, whichever expires last. Otherwise the will governs. If the decedent was domiciled elsewhere, that domicile's law governs an elective share in Wyoming property.

Section 2-5-103 keeps homestead allowance, exempt property and family allowance whether or not the spouse elects, unless the will clearly makes a provision in lieu of them and the spouse does not renounce it. Section 2-7-501 entitles a spouse or minor children to a homestead when a person dies seized of one. Section 2-7-508 sets the Probate Code limit at $30,000. Section 2-7-504 has the court set exempt property, including the homestead, over to the spouse, and if none the minor children, as absolute property. It is not subject to the decedent's debts, except administration or funeral expenses when other property is insufficient. If the spouse is not the parent of all or any minor children, one-half goes to the spouse and one-half to minors who are not the survivor's children. Liens are a separate matter: under section 2-7-506, liens or encumbrances are paid from estate funds when adequate, and otherwise proportionately with other claims, and can be enforced against the homestead for any deficiency. Section 2-7-507 says a homestead appraised above the limit is divided if that causes no material injury, and otherwise the court may order a sale and distribute the proceeds. Section 2-5-102 allows a signed waiver after fair disclosure, before or after marriage.

What about community property from another state?

Wyoming has an act for it. The Disposition of Community Property Rights at Death Act, sections 2-7-720 through 2-7-729, applies at the death of a married person to personal property acquired as or that became, and remained, community property under another jurisdiction's laws, with all or the proportionate part of property acquired from it or traceable to it. It also applies to all or the proportionate part of Wyoming real property acquired with rents, income or proceeds of property of that kind, personal or not, in exchange for it, or traceable to it. Rebuttable presumptions run both ways under section 2-7-722. Property acquired during marriage while domiciled where community property could be acquired is presumed covered. Property acquired while domiciled where it could not, titled with survivorship rights, is presumed not covered.

Section 2-7-723 makes one-half of covered property the surviving spouse's, outside the decedent's will and succession, and the other half the decedent's, outside the survivor's right to elect against the will. Section 2-7-724 has a surviving spouse claiming covered property titled in the decedent file in writing, in duplicate, with the clerk of court within the time in the notice to creditors, or the claim is barred. Title may be perfected by court order or by an instrument the court approves. Section 2-7-725 has a matching demand rule for an heir, devisee or creditor when title is in the survivor.

A buyer has protection. Under section 2-7-726, if the surviving spouse has apparent title, a purchaser for value or a lender taking a security interest takes free of the rights of the personal representative, heirs and devisees. If one of those has apparent title, the purchaser or lender takes free of the surviving spouse's rights. Neither need inquire whether the vendor or borrower acted properly. Proceeds are treated in the same manner as the property. Section 2-7-728 lets spouses sever or alter their interests, and section 2-7-727 leaves creditors' rights alone.

What a title search checks on a married Wyoming owner

For each deed and mortgage in the chain, the grantor's marital status, whether the property was a homestead, and whether the instrument has release words signed and acknowledged by the owner and spouse. Note how long it has been of record, because of the ten-year rules in sections 34-5-113 and 34-8-103. A conveyance not recorded as required is void under section 34-1-120 against a later purchaser in good faith and for valuable consideration whose conveyance is first duly recorded.

Then look for a notice of pendency under section 1-6-108, and for a recorded affidavit under section 34-11-101 on marital or homestead status. Then read how the deed describes the owners. If it says husband and wife or spouses, section 34-1-140(b) applies unless the deed specifies another form. If there was a divorce, look for a court order and for a recorded writing declaring severance. If a tenant died, look for a decree under section 2-9-101 or an affidavit under section 2-9-102. Where a decedent came from a community property state, a claim under section 2-7-724 can matter. Whether a spouse's rights survive in a parcel is a legal question for a Wyoming attorney, and the report shows the record it turns on.

The Wyoming marital property rules on this page, with their sources

Sources: IRS Publication 555, Community Property; WS 20-1-201; WS 20-1-202; WS 34-1-108; WS 20-2-114; WS 20-2-109; WS 1-6-108; WS 20-2-106; WS 34-2-121; WS 34-5-113; WS 34-8-104; WS 1-20-101; WS 1-20-104; WS 2-7-508; WS 2-7-504; WS 34-1-140; WS 2-6-125; WS 2-9-101; WS 2-13-105; WS 34-1-120; WS 34-11-101; WS 34-1-129; WS 2-4-101; WS 2-5-101; WS 2-5-105; WS 2-5-102; WS 2-5-103; WS 2-7-721; WS 2-7-723; WS 2-7-722; WS 2-7-724; WS 2-7-726; WS 2-7-728. Each row links the section it summarizes.

Questions people ask

More on how Wyoming property law shapes a title search: title research in Wyoming.