Land · Wyoming tax sale guide

Wyoming tax lien sales by county

Verified

Wyoming is a tax lien state with a twist most lien states do not have: the price is fixed. When taxes go delinquent, the county treasurer advertises the parcels and sells the lien at a public sale in the summer, and the buyer pays exactly the taxes, interest, penalties and costs due, not a dollar more. What the buyer takes home is a certificate of purchase that pays 15 percent interest plus a 3 percent penalty if the owner redeems within four years, and that ripens into a treasurer deed, on application between the fourth and sixth year, if nobody does.

Because the price cannot move, everything that decides a Wyoming sale is local: the day each treasurer picks, the room, the registration form, and the rule that sorts out two buyers who want the same parcel. Parcels nobody buys are bid in for the county, and the commissioners can sell those certificates, or the land itself after a county deed, later on. The ten counties below are the largest in the state, and each page carries that county day, rules, and record, which in Wyoming is what a buyer actually plans around.

Verify before you go: a city or town can move a date, change terms, cancel a sale, or pull parcels at any time. The official sale list is the final word.

The 10 counties

Each row links to that jurisdiction's own page: selling office, venue or platform, deposit, payment terms, leftover channel, and sources. Where a jurisdiction has not posted a dated sale, the row says so instead of projecting a pattern onto it.

How Wyoming tax lien sales work

• Taxes fall delinquent in halves. Half the tax is payable November 10 and the rest the following May 10; a balance left unpaid bears interest at 18 percent per annum until paid or collected, and taxes on real property are a perpetual lien against everyone but the United States and the state (W.S. 39-13-108(b) and (d)(i)).
• The treasurer advertises the sale. Notice of the sale runs by publication once a week for three weeks in a legal newspaper in the county, the first publication at least four weeks before the day of sale and before the first week in September; where the county has no legal newspaper, the notice is posted at the courthouse door and in three public places at least 30 days ahead (W.S. 39-13-108(e)(ii)(A)).
• The sale is held at the courthouse. Sales run at the county courthouse or county building between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. and continue from day to day, Sundays excepted, until all the land is sold. There is no bidding on price: any person who offers to pay the whole amount of taxes, interest, penalties and costs due on a parcel is the purchaser, and the purchaser pays on the spot or is disqualified and the parcel is offered again (W.S. 39-13-108(e)(iii)(A) and (B)).
• A certificate of purchase issues. On payment of the certificate fee the treasurer makes out and delivers a certificate of purchase describing the property and the taxes and costs paid; the certificate may be assigned by endorsement, and the holder takes subject to any special assessments for local or public improvements (W.S. 39-13-108(e)(iii)(C) and (E)).
• Redemption runs four years. The owner redeems at the treasurer by paying the amount for which the property sold, a penalty of 3 percent, interest at 15 percent per annum, and a redemption fee; a purchaser who pays later taxes on the parcel earns the same 15 percent on those payments (W.S. 39-13-110).
• The deed window opens at four years and closes at six. A holder applies to the treasurer for a tax deed not less than four nor more than six years from the date of the original sale, proving the statutory notice: personal service at least three months before the application on anyone in actual possession and on the person in whose name the property was taxed, or publication once a week for three weeks on the statutory timing, plus certified or registered mail to the record owner and any mortgagees (W.S. 39-13-108(e)(v)).
• The county path runs beside the private one. Property nobody buys is bid in for the county; the commissioners may sell and assign a county certificate at public or private sale at any time, and four years after the sale the treasurer deeds unredeemed county parcels to the county itself, on at least 60 days notice from the county clerk, after which the commissioners may sell the land at private sale (W.S. 39-13-108(e)(iii)(D) and (e)(iv)).

Wyoming at a glance: the treasurer sells the lien at the full amount due, the certificate pays 15 percent interest plus a 3 percent penalty on redemption, and the deed application window runs from year four to year six after the sale (W.S. 39-13-108 and 39-13-110).

Research the parcels before you bid

A sale list gives you the parcel, the date, and the opening terms. It does not give you the owner, the value, or the rest of the picture: liens, foreclosure status, and parcel history. PropertyRadar is the data platform for that layer. It carries owner records, assessed and market values, foreclosure and tax data, and property history for parcels across the country, searchable by address, owner, or county, including parcels that never reach a sale list.

Open a PropertyRadar accountSee plans and pricing

Pine and Brass is a PropertyRadar partner. If you open an account through these links, we may earn a commission; it does not change the price you pay.

Get the alert, not just the calendar.

The dates on these pages are the free layer. The Pine membership is the paid layer, proven in New York: members pick their counties, get alerts when a sale is scheduled or a list posts, and receive the full property list with the analysis already done. Wyoming jurisdictions open from the interest list first, in the order readers join it.

Keep going

Once a deadline puts you in a sale, the Land Investor Due Diligence Toolkit is the checklist and bid worksheet to run on each parcel before you bid.