July 11, 2013
The Wyoming Legislature has recently enacted changes to the
Wyoming Lien statute. The most
significant changes include an extension to the time period for filing notice
of a lien, and an additional section about federal, state and local officials’
or employees’ right to discharge a lien.
Effective July 1, 2013, a lien claimant, in the case of
real property, now has thirty (30) days from the date the lien statement is
filed to send notice to the last record owner or his agent. This is a significant time extension for
filing notice as the prior statute required the lien claimant to send notice
within five (5) days of filing. In
addition, the statute now includes the following language about the validity of
liens: “Failure to send the notice required under this subsection shall not
affect the validity of the lien.” WY ST
§ 29-1-312. The notice of satisfaction
timeline under § 29-1-313(a) has also been extended from five (5) to thirty
(30) days. WY ST § 29-1-313.
Effective March 15, 2013, a federal, state or local
official or employee may discharge a lien under both subsections (b) and (d) of
Chapter 29-1-601. Subsection (b) is the
general provision that allows any person to discharge a lien against their
personal or real property after following the procedural steps within the
subsection. The added subsection (d)
applies only to federal, state, or local officials or employees and allows them
to discharge a lien by recording an affidavit with the county clerk. Once the public official or employee provides
notice of the affidavit the lien claimant is obligated to respond within twenty
(20) days by petitioning the district court in which the lien was filed and
stating why the lien was valid. If the
lien claimant does not appear in court or if the lien claimant fails to
convince the court that the lien was valid, the courts are authorized to impose
penalties and require the lien claimant pay the other party’s reasonable
attorney’s fees. WY ST § 29-1-601.
Additionally, the legislature
introduced a bill on January 8, 2013 that proposes changes to several
provisions of the Wyoming Lien statute that impose monetary penalties. If the bill is enacted into law, it would
replace the monetary penalties with class D misdemeanors. The changes would apply to the following
sections: 29-1-601, 29-3-108, 29-5-106, 29-7-102(b), and 29-7-207. (2013 Bill
Text WY H.B. 39).
The changes enacted in 2010 repealing several sections of
the old statute remain in effect.
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