Wyoming Release and Satisfaction of Mortgage

When a Wyoming mortgage is paid off, the county records still show it as an open lien until a release reaches the county clerk. This Wyoming Release and Satisfaction of Mortgage is the certificate of release that Wyoming Statutes Section 34-1-130 describes: an instrument signed and acknowledged by the mortgagee of record, or the mortgagee's assignee, specifying that the mortgage has been paid or otherwise satisfied, which the county clerk records and then discharges the mortgage upon the record. The form is built for one or two mortgagees who hold the mortgage in their own names, the pattern that appears when a seller financed the sale of a home or land, or when a private lender took a mortgage on Wyoming property.

A thirty-day clock with a daily price

Wyoming gives the mortgagee a deadline and attaches a cost to missing it. Under Section 34-1-132, a mortgagee who receives a written request for release by certified or registered mail has thirty days to execute and acknowledge a certificate or deed of release, provided the condition of the mortgage has been fully performed and no other written agreement between the parties encumbers the property. A mortgagee who lets the thirty days pass is liable to the mortgagor for all actual damages and for special damages of one-tenth of one percent of the original principal amount for each further day, up to one hundred dollars per day, until the release is made. The statute also keeps the mortgagee of record on the hook after an assignment unless, within sixty days of the request, the mortgagee tells the requesting party who now holds the mortgage. A release executed and acknowledged promptly after payoff is the instrument the section describes, delivered before any request is made.

What the county clerk does with a recorded release

Section 34-1-130 ties the discharge of the mortgage to the recording of the release. Once a certificate or deed of release executed by the mortgagee or assignee, acknowledged as the law prescribes for conveyances, and specifying that the mortgage has been paid or otherwise satisfied or discharged is recorded in the office of the county clerk where the mortgage is recorded, the clerk discharges the mortgage upon the record and makes a reference to the release in the record. The form carries each of those three elements. Section 1 identifies the mortgagee or mortgagees who sign. Section 2 identifies the mortgage being released by its mortgagor, its date, its original principal amount, and the recording reference the county clerk assigned to it, the reception or document number and, where the county uses them, the book and page. Section 3 identifies any recorded assignment under which the signer holds, so that an assignee's release connects to the mortgagee of record through the chain the county's records show. Section 4 carries the property description copied from the mortgage. Section 5 then certifies that the indebtedness has been paid in full and that the mortgage has been paid and otherwise satisfied and discharged, and releases, satisfies, and discharges the mortgage and its lien. A closing sentence confines the release to that one mortgage, so nothing else of record is touched.

One or two mortgagees, signing in their own right

The form recites one or two natural persons who hold the mortgage in their own names and sign in their own capacity. Its Mortgagee(s) block is free-form, receiving one name or two with mailing addresses and nothing preprinted about marital status, ownership form, or capacity, and it carries two signature blocks and two acknowledgment certificates, one for each mortgagee who signs. A single mortgagee completes the first block and leaves the second blank. Two mortgagees who financed a sale together, whether spouses or co-lenders, each sign and each acknowledge, and because each certificate stands on its own, the two may appear before different notarial officers on different days, including in different states. The form is not set up as a release by a bank, company, or other entity signing through an officer, by a trustee or personal representative, by a loan servicer or attorney-in-fact, by a title insurer or title agent using the separate statutory release of Section 34-1-146, or by three or more mortgagees of record, and it is not a partial release or a reconveyance of a deed of trust.

Acknowledgment in Wyoming's own words

Section 34-1-130 requires the release to be acknowledged as the law prescribes to entitle conveyances to be recorded, and the form's certificates carry the Wyoming short form of Section 32-3-115(a)(i), This record was acknowledged before me on a stated date by the named person, with lines for the venue, the officer's signature, printed name, and commission expiration, and room for the official stamp Section 32-3-116 describes. An acknowledgment taken in another state before that state's notary has the same effect in Wyoming under Section 32-3-106, so a mortgagee living in another state may acknowledge the release there.

Recording a release in a Wyoming county

The release is recorded with the county clerk of the county where the mortgage is recorded, for the statewide fee Section 18-3-402(a)(xvi) sets, twelve dollars for the first page and three dollars for each additional page. The form reserves the top two inches of its first page for the clerk's recording label, keeps one-inch margins elsewhere, and prints its body in twelve point type, which meets the first-page margin and minimum type size that Natrona, Sweetwater, and Campbell Counties publish. The Statement of Consideration that accompanies a Wyoming deed under Section 34-1-142 is written for documents transferring title to real property; a release of mortgage transfers no title and names no grantee, and the package includes no such statement. The instrument is presented as an originally signed document under Section 34-1-119(a), on paper or through the electronic recording vendors the larger counties use.

The package includes the fillable Wyoming Release and Satisfaction of Mortgage form, a completed example filled in for a realistic Laramie County fact pattern, and the guide that walks through every numbered section, the acknowledgment certificates, and the recording process. This description and the guide describe the form and the governing Wyoming statutes in general terms; they are not legal advice.