Wyoming HOA fine rules

What this means for homeowners

• Wyoming has no homeowners association act and no statute governing HOA fines. No Wyoming statute requires an association to give notice before levying a fine, sets a cure period, guarantees a hearing, or caps the amount of a fine. Whether a Wyoming homeowners association may fine at all, how much, and what steps it must take first are set by the recorded declaration, covenants, conditions and restrictions, bylaws and rules, together with the Wyoming Nonprofit Corporation Act, Wyo. Stat. Ann. Title 17, Chapter 19, for an association incorporated under it, which supplies corporate mechanics rather than fine procedure.
• Where Wyoming statutes mention association fines at all, they treat them as a creature of the recorded documents rather than of statute. The private transfer fee chapter excludes from its prohibition "Any fee, charge, assessment, fine or other amount payable to a homeowners', condominium, cooperative, mobile home or property owners' association or to a nonprofit land trust pursuant to a declaration or covenant or law applicable to the association or nonprofit land trust" (Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 34-28-101(a)(ii)(H)). The Uniform Mortgage Modification Act likewise refers to "liability owned by a unit owner to a condominium association, owners' association or cooperative housing association for association dues, fees or assessments" without creating or limiting any such liability (§ 34-30-102). Neither provision confers a power to fine or attaches any procedure to one.
• The only place Wyoming statutes address the creation of homeowners associations is the county subdivision permit process, and it says nothing about fines. A county board's minimum requirements for a subdivision permit include "Evidence that all parcels of land created by the subdivision will be subject to written and recorded covenants or other instruments creating an entity, binding on subsequent owners of the land within the subdivision. The entities that may be used include, but are not limited to, special improvement districts, homeowners associations and mutual benefit corporations. The board shall not mandate the creation of an entity with the ability to interfere with any owner's ability to use his private property, except to collect any assessment. The entity shall have the ability to address the following topics: (A) Maintenance and responsibility for common areas, roads and water supply systems and assessments against all parcels of land in the subdivision to defray the costs thereof; (B) Continued management of the entity" (Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 18-5-306(a)(xii)). Materially identical language appears in the large acreage subdivision requirements at § 18-5-316. These are conditions a county places on a developer, not rights an owner can assert against an association later.
• The condominium statute is short and contains no fine provision either. "This act shall be known and may be cited as the 'Condominium Ownership Act'" (Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 34-20-101), and the whole act is four sections: the short title; recognition of condominium ownership (§ 34-20-102); definitions of "individual air space unit," "general common elements," "limited common elements," "condominium unit" and "declaration" (§ 34-20-103); and a section on tax assessment, recording the declaration and covenants running with the land (§ 34-20-104). The act does not create an association, list association powers, or mention fines, notice of a violation, a cure period, a hearing, or any right of an owner to inspect records. What it does is make the declaration binding: "To the extent that any such declaration shall contain a mandatory requirement that all condominium unit owners shall be members of an association or corporation, or provide for the payment of charges assessed by the association upon condominium units, or the appointment of an attorney-in-fact to deal with the property upon its destruction or obsolescence, any rule of law to the contrary notwithstanding, the same shall be considered as covenants running with the land binding upon all condominium owners and their successors in interest" (§ 34-20-104(c)). For records, an owner of an incorporated Wyoming association falls back on the Nonprofit Corporation Act, under which "a member is entitled to inspect and copy, at a reasonable time and location specified by the corporation," the records described in § 17-19-1601(e) "if the member gives the corporation written notice or a written demand at least five (5) business days before the date on which the member wishes to inspect and copy," and may reach accounting records and the membership list on the same notice if the demand "is made in good faith and for a proper purpose," describes the purpose and records "with reasonable particularity," and the records "are directly connected with this purpose" (§ 17-19-1602(a), (b), (c)).