Wyoming Eviction Process: Notice Periods, Timeline, and Costs

Wyoming uses a single pre-suit notice for every ground. Wyo. Stat. § 1-21-1003 requires that the party bringing a forcible entry and detainer action notify the occupant to leave the premises, and that the notice be served at least three days before commencing the action by leaving a written copy with the defendant, or at the defendant's usual place of abode or business if the defendant cannot be found. The statute does not create a separate pay-or-quit notice and does not require you to give the tenant a chance to pay, so the three-day notice is a demand for possession rather than a cure notice. Your lease may impose more, and if it does the court will enforce it.

The same three-day notice to quit under § 1-21-1003 applies to lease violations, breaches of a renter's duties under the Residential Rental Property Act, and holding over past the term. Wyoming's statutes do not distinguish curable from incurable violations or mandate a statutory cure period, so whatever cure rights exist come from your lease.

Wyoming has no statute setting a notice period for ending a month-to-month or other periodic tenancy without cause. The lease governs, and where the lease is silent the common practice is written notice of one full rental period, usually 30 days, before the next rent due date. Whatever period applies, you still must serve the separate three-day notice to quit under § 1-21-1003 before filing an FED action. There is no just-cause restriction.

Forcible entry and detainer actions are filed in the circuit court for the county where the property is located. The filing fee is approximately $70, plus sheriff or process server fees for serving the summons and complaint and later the writ of restitution.

A Wyoming tenant may file a written answer but is not required to; what matters is appearing at the trial date. The summons and complaint must be served not less than three nor more than 12 days before the trial date the circuit court judge sets.

Three days of notice, service three to 12 days before trial, and then a writ of restitution whose move-out deadline the judge sets anywhere from zero to 30 days depending on the circumstances. Because the back end is discretionary rather than fixed, the same uncontested case can finish in two weeks in front of one judge and take five in front of another.

Wyoming is one of the few states with no statute expressly prohibiting landlord lockouts or utility shutoffs, and the Residential Rental Property Act at Wyo. Stat. §§ 1-21-1201 through 1-21-1211 imposes only limited duties and does not address self-help. That absence is not permission. The forcible entry and detainer statutes exist precisely because forcible removal is actionable, and a landlord who changes the locks or cuts utilities instead of getting a writ of restitution invites a damages claim and gives the tenant a defense in the eviction case. Only a sheriff enforcing a court-issued writ can lawfully put a tenant out.

Wyoming's landlord-tenant statutes are thin, and the gaps are the story. There is no statutory notice period for ending a month-to-month tenancy, no statutory right to cure a lease violation, and no statute banning lockouts, so several popular sites simply assert a '30-day notice' or cite Residential Rental Property Act sections that say nothing of the kind. Treat the written lease as your primary source of obligations and rights, and where it is silent expect a judge to apply common-law expectations rather than a statute. Two practical points: the three-day notice to quit under § 1-21-1003 is required before every FED filing regardless of the ground, and because the writ's move-out window is set at the judge's discretion between zero and 30 days, you cannot promise yourself a fixed lockout date when you file.

• Wyo. Stat. § 1-21-1003
• Wyo. Stat. §§ 1-21-1201 to 1-21-1211 (Residential Rental Property Act)