Mechanic's lien Wyoming. The 2026 filing guide for contractors and subs

You finished a remodel in Cheyenne three months ago. The owner ghosted on the last $42,000. Your invoices are unanswered, the email thread is dead, and the bank statement is making faces at you.

Wyoming gives you a hard mechanic's lien remedy if you set it up correctly from day one. The catch is "from day one." If you didn't send a preliminary notice within 30 days of starting work, the lien rights are already gone. No amount of paperwork on day 90 brings them back.

This is the full Wyoming mechanic's lien process under Wyoming Statutes Title 29 (Wyo. Stat. §29-2-101 et seq.), with the three deadlines that decide whether you get paid or eat the loss.

The legal anchor: Wyoming Statutes Title 29, Chapter 2

Wyoming's lien framework for construction work lives in Title 29, Chapter 2 of the Wyoming Statutes. The operative sections:

• §29-2-101: who has the right to a lien
• §29-2-106: when the lien statement must be filed
• §29-2-109: enforcement period (180 days after filing)
• §29-2-112: preliminary notice requirements
• §29-10-101: form of the preliminary notice and statutory lien waivers

The official codified text is on the Wyoming Legislature site at wyoleg.gov/statutes. Read the sections that govern your job before you record anything. What follows is a plain-English walkthrough, not legal advice.

Who can file a mechanic's lien in Wyoming

Wyo. Stat. §29-2-101 grants lien rights to any contractor, subcontractor, materialman, or laborer who performs work or furnishes materials that improve real property, at the request of the owner or someone the owner authorized.

In practice, that covers:

• General contractors with a direct contract with the owner
• Subcontractors of any tier
• Material suppliers
• Equipment rental companies (if the equipment was used on the project)
• Design professionals: architects, engineers, surveyors (with their own additional notice rules)
• Laborers and tradesmen

Wyoming does not recognize lien rights for parties without a contractual chain back to the owner. Free volunteer work doesn't create a lien. Speculative work without a contract doesn't either.

The 30-day preliminary notice. Skip this and you have nothing

Wyo. Stat. §29-2-112 is the single most-missed step in Wyoming lien practice. Every claimant has to serve a Preliminary Notice of Right to Lien within 30 days of first providing labor or materials to the project.

The notice has to identify the claimant, the project, the owner, the contractor, and contain the statutory language laid out in §29-10-101. It's not a courtesy. The statute says:

Failure to send the notice required under this section within the time specified shall bar the right of a contractor, subcontractor or materialman to assert a lien.

Read that twice. There is no good-faith exception. No "but I called the owner and told them." If your preliminary notice didn't go out by day 30, day 90 is too late for everything that follows.

Send it certified mail, return receipt requested. Keep the green card. The recorded notice goes to the county clerk, but the served copies have to reach the owner and the prime contractor (if you're a sub). This is the part where a lien waiver software tool earns its keep, because the same compliance discipline that gets a waiver signed on time gets a preliminary notice served on time.

The 150 / 120 day filing deadline

Once the preliminary notice is out, you have a filing clock to watch.

• General contractors with a direct contract with the owner: 150 days from the last day of work
• Subcontractors, materialmen, and other claimants: 120 days from the last day of work

The deadline runs from the earlier of: the last day labor or materials were furnished under the contract, or the date of substantial completion. Wyo. Stat. §29-2-106 is the controlling section.

Two traps:

• Punch-list work doesn't reset the clock. If you went back on a Tuesday to swap one outlet cover three months after substantial completion, that visit does not restart the 120-day window. Courts in Wyoming have repeatedly held that incidental warranty or correction work doesn't count as "last work." Plan around your real last day on the job.
• The clock doesn't pause for payment negotiations. If you're in good-faith settlement talks with the owner on day 95 and they're stringing you along, the lien clock keeps ticking. File the lien anyway. You can release it after you get paid. You can't bring it back to life after the deadline.

This is where Wyoming differs from neighbors like Idaho's 90-day filing window and Louisiana's 30 / 60 day rule for subs. Wyoming is more generous on the back end but unforgiving on the preliminary notice up front.

The 20-day notice of intent to lien

Before you record, Wyo. Stat. §29-2-112 also requires a separate Notice of Intent to File a Lien served on the owner at least 20 days before the lien is recorded.

This is not the same as the 30-day preliminary notice. The preliminary notice goes out at the start of the job. The notice of intent goes out 20 days before you record. Two separate documents, two separate deadlines, both required.

Practically, that means if you're closing in on the 120-day filing deadline as a sub, you need to serve the intent notice by day 100 at the latest. Same delivery rules: certified mail with return receipt, separate copies to the owner and (if you're a sub) the prime contractor.

The intent notice gives the owner one last chance to cut the check. About a third of Wyoming intent notices result in payment before the lien gets recorded. That's worth knowing if you've been writing this off as bureaucratic theater.

Where to file: the county clerk

Wyoming mechanic's liens get recorded with the county clerk in the county where the property sits, not the district court and not the Secretary of State.

Each county has its own filing fee (usually $12 to $30 for the first page and a few dollars per additional page) and accepts paper or in-person filings. A growing number of Wyoming counties accept e-recording through providers like CSC and Simplifile. Call ahead if your project sits in a county you've never filed in.

If the project crosses county lines (a road, a pipeline, a fence line on a ranch), record in every county the improvement touches. One filing in the wrong county won't cure the omission in the right one.

What the lien statement has to contain

A valid Wyoming lien statement under §29-2-107 contains:

• The name and address of the claimant
• The amount claimed, net of all just credits and offsets
• The name of the owner of record
• The name of the contractor (if the claimant is a sub or supplier)
• A description of the property sufficient to identify it (legal description, not just a street address)
• The dates of first and last work or materials
• A statement that the claimant is asserting a lien on the property
• The claimant's signature, verified under oath

That last item matters. Wyoming requires the lien statement to be notarized. A claim filed without a notary block gets rejected at the counter and you lose the day.

Some claimants also attach the original contract and invoices. The statute doesn't require it, but it cleans up the foreclosure suit later if you have to file one.

The 180-day enforcement clock

Recording the lien doesn't get you paid. It puts a cloud on the property's title. To actually collect, you have to file a foreclosure lawsuit in the district court of the county where the property sits.

Wyo. Stat. §29-2-109 gives you 180 days from the date of filing to bring that suit. After day 180, the lien expires by operation of law. Wyoming does not allow extensions. You do not get to renew it. You do not get to amend a previous filing to restart the clock.

This is the deadline that catches the most claimants flat-footed. They file the lien on day 150, the owner promises to pay "in a few weeks," nothing happens, and by the time the claimant calls a lawyer on day 200 the remedy is gone. The lien stays on title until it's released, but it's a paper tiger.

Mark your calendar the day you record. Add a 30-day-before reminder. Talk to a construction attorney by day 120 if the check hasn't shown up.

What to do if you're on the receiving end

If you're the GC and a sub records a lien against one of your projects, breathe. A lien is a notice, not a judgment. You have three working options:

• Pay the claim. If the underlying invoice is valid, releasing the lien is cheaper than litigating it. Get a signed release recorded with the county clerk the same day the check clears.
• Bond around it. Wyo. Stat. §29-2-103 lets you record a surety bond for 150% of the claim amount, which substitutes the bond for the lien on title and frees the property for sale or refinance.
• Fight it. If the underlying claim is bogus (wrong amount, work not performed, no contractual chain), you defend the foreclosure suit when the sub files it. The discharge isn't automatic, but a baseless claim often gets dropped once the sub realizes they have to swear to the work in court.

The cleanest preventive control is to never let it get this far. If you're running lien waiver software that captures a signed conditional waiver every pay period and an unconditional waiver after each check clears, the universe of subs who could file a valid lien against your project shrinks to almost zero. Compare that to the California statutory framework where the four Civil Code forms are doing the same job, and the workflow looks identical from the GC's side.

How LienDone handles Wyoming

When you pick Wyoming in the form selector, LienDone uses the lien waiver form that matches Wyo. Stat. §29-10-101 (Wyoming has a statutory lien waiver form, separate from the lien claim itself). Conditional or unconditional, progress or final. The owner, claimant, property description, and amount pre-fill from your project and pay app data.

Your sub clicks the link, reviews the form, signs from phone or laptop, and submits. The signed PDF lands in your dashboard with the timestamp and IP logged for the audit trail. For state-specific deadlines and statutory references, the Wyoming lien waivers page has the per-form breakdown.

For neighboring states, see the guides for Arizona lien waivers, Idaho mechanic's liens, and New Jersey mechanic's lien law.

The takeaway for Wyoming GCs and subs

Wyoming lien rights live or die on three deadlines. Preliminary notice within 30 days. Lien statement within 120 or 150 days. Foreclosure suit within 180 days of recording. Miss any one and the remedy is gone.

The mechanical part is easy. The hard part is having a system that makes sure the 30-day preliminary notice goes out on every job, every time, without anyone remembering. Most missed liens in Wyoming are missed in the first 30 days, not the last.

FAQ

How long do I have to file a mechanic's lien in Wyoming?

Contractors with a direct contract with the owner have 150 days from their last day of work. Subs and suppliers have 120 days. The clock runs from the last day labor or materials were furnished, or substantial completion, whichever comes first.

Does Wyoming require a preliminary notice before I file?

Yes. The 30-day preliminary notice of right to lien under §29-2-112 is mandatory. Miss it and your lien rights are barred.

Where do I record a Wyoming mechanic's lien?

With the county clerk in the county where the property sits.

How long do I have to enforce a Wyoming lien?

180 days from the filing date. After that the lien expires.

Do I need to send a notice of intent to lien?

Yes. Serve it at least 20 days before you record. It's a separate document from the 30-day preliminary notice.