Wyoming Disclaimer of Interest (Individual)

A Wyoming disclaimer of interest is the instrument by which a person who would otherwise receive real property refuses it. This form prepares that refusal for one individual disclaimant acting in that person's own right under Wyoming Statutes 2-1-401 through 2-1-405: a single signer, a single notarial certificate, and a written description of the interest being refused and the Wyoming land it attaches to. Nothing in the form names who takes the refused interest, because under Wyoming law that is the statute's decision, not the disclaimant's.

A refusal, not a transfer

Wyoming defines a disclaimer as an irrevocable and unqualified refusal by a person to accept an interest in property. The interest may come by gift, bequest, devise, inheritance, beneficiary designation, the exercise of a power of appointment, or right of survivorship, and W.S. 2-1-402 treats an undivided portion of an interest as an interest in its own right, so a disclaimer may refuse all of what would otherwise come or a stated fraction of it. The disclaimant never conveys anything. Once the refusal is made in writing and received as the statute requires, W.S. 2-1-404 sends the interest where it would have gone had the disclaimant not been there: back to a living donor, under the residuary clause of a will or by intestacy as though the disclaimant had not survived, or, for a survivorship interest, as though the disclaimant were not a survivor. A disclaimer that tries to steer the interest to a chosen person is a different act under W.S. 2-1-403, and this form contains no sentence of that kind.

One disclaimant, one signature, one certificate

This form recites exactly one disclaimant, an individual who signs in the disclaimant's own right and not as a fiduciary, agent, or guardian for anyone else. That capacity is fixed text in the disclaimer section; the only entries about the signer are a name and a mailing address. The instrument carries one DISCLAIMANT signature block and one acknowledgment certificate in the Wyoming short form of W.S. 32-3-115. The remaining entries are factual: the transferor and the date of death or date of transfer, the will, deed, designation, or survivorship title by which the interest would pass, any recording reference, the interest refused, and the county, legal description, parcel number, and street address of the land. An heir refusing a devised house, a surviving joint tenant refusing the survivorship share, a grantee beneficiary refusing what a recorded transfer on death deed would carry, and a donee refusing a lifetime gift of land all present the single disclaimant pattern this form recites. A disclaimer by two persons on one instrument, by a personal representative or trustee, by an agent under a power of attorney, or by a guardian for a minor or incompetent ward follows a different pattern with a different signer and, in the fiduciary and guardian cases, a different statutory basis under W.S. 2-1-401(b) and 2-1-405.

Nine months and no acceptance

Signing is only part of what W.S. 2-1-403 asks for. The writing is received by the transferor, the transferor's legal representative, or the holder of legal title to the property within nine months after the later of the day the transfer creating the interest is made and the day the disclaimant turns twenty-one. For an interest passing at the transferor's death, the transfer creating the interest is made at the death, and the period is measured by receipt rather than by mailing or by recording. The disclaimant also must not have accepted the interest or any of its benefits, so the refusal comes before rents, sale proceeds, or possession are taken, and the form carries the disclaimant's statement to that effect. Federal law, 26 U.S.C. 2518, sets its own requirements for a disclaimer that is qualified for tax purposes; the form does not state whether any particular disclaimer meets them, and W.S. 2-1-403(d) describes a separate route for a disclaimer intended to be effective under Wyoming law without tax qualification, which rests on a prior or contemporaneous written acknowledgment the form does not carry.

Where the refused interest goes

Because the disclaimer passes the interest by statute rather than by conveyance, the instrument has no grantee and no vesting clause. W.S. 2-1-404 reads the will or deed of gift first; where that instrument expressly says what happens on a disclaimer, it controls. Otherwise the interest reverts to a transferor who is still living, passes under the residuary clause of a deceased transferor's will, passes by descent and distribution for an intestate transferor, and, where the transferor has died, passes as though the disclaimant had not survived. A grantee beneficiary under a Wyoming transfer on death deed has the same right of refusal under W.S. 2-18-106 and takes on no liability under that chapter by reason of the designation; the disclaimer does not revoke the deed, which remains of record.

Recording in the county where the land lies

The Wyoming disclaimer statute does not require recording; delivery is its measure. The form is nonetheless built for the county clerk's record, because W.S. 34-1-102 treats every written instrument by which title to land may be affected as a conveyance for recording purposes, and W.S. 34-1-118 entitles an acknowledged instrument to record in the county where the land is located. Of record, the disclaimer explains to the title examiner, the personal representative, and later purchasers why the interest passed as it did. Wyoming sets its recording fee by statute at twelve dollars for the first page and three dollars for each page after it, imposes no transfer tax, and sets no point size or page size for an ordinary instrument; the form is letter size in twelve point type with a two inch top reserve on the first page for the clerk's recording information. The sworn Statement of Consideration that accompanies deeds and other transfer instruments under W.S. 34-1-142 is written for instruments that transfer title, and whether a particular clerk's office asks for one with a recorded disclaimer is a matter of that office's practice.

The package includes the fillable disclaimer of interest form, a completed example filled in for a realistic Laramie County fact pattern, and a guide that walks through each numbered section, the delivery and acceptance rules, the acknowledgment, and recording. The materials are informational and are not legal advice.