Wyoming’s new mortgage modification act carves association liens out by name
Wyoming’s new mortgage modification act carves association liens out by name
2026-09-19 · Wyoming · Legislation
What happened. Wyoming adopted the Uniform Mortgage Modification Act, effective July 1, 2026. It protects a mortgage’s lien priority when the loan is modified — and it says, in the definition section, that an instrument securing what a unit owner owes an association is not a mortgage for this purpose.
The act
SF0031, Senate Enrolled Act No. 3, became chapter 6 of the 2026 session laws. Governor Gordon signed it on February 27, 2026. The votes were unanimous at every stage that counts: Senate introduction 31–0, Senate third reading 31–0, House third reading 59–0. It creates W.S. §§ 34-30-101 through 34-30-107.1
The carve-out
The definition at W.S. § 34-30-102(a)(iv) is the paragraph that names community associations:
“‘Mortgage’: (A) Means an agreement that creates a consensual interest in real property to secure payment or performance of an obligation, regardless of: (I) How the agreement is denominated, including a mortgage, deed of trust, trust deed, security deed, indenture or deed to secure debt; and (II) Whether the agreement also creates a security interest in personal property. (B) Does not include an agreement that creates a consensual interest to secure liability owned by a unit owner to a condominium association, owners’ association or cooperative housing association for association dues, fees or assessments.”
This is one of only two places in the whole body of Wyoming session law from 2024 through 2026 where a homeowners or condominium association is named at all.
What the act gives, and therefore what the exclusion withholds
The protection sits at W.S. § 34-30-104(a):
“For a mortgage modification described in subsection (b) of this section: (i) The mortgage continues to secure the obligation as modified; (ii) The priority of the mortgage is not affected by the modification; (iii) The mortgage retains its priority regardless of whether a record of the mortgage modification is recorded; and (iv) The modification is not a novation.”
The qualifying modifications in subsection (b) are the ordinary workout list: extending maturity, lowering the rate, capitalising unpaid interest, forgiveness or forbearance, and changes to escrow, insurance or financial covenants.
The act applies to a modification made on or after July 1, 2026 “regardless of when the mortgage or obligation was created” (§ 34-30-107).
Reading the exclusion precisely
It is worth being exact about what subparagraph (B) does and does not do, because a definitional exclusion is easy to over-read.
- It is a definition, not a priority rule. It says an association-assessment security instrument is not a “mortgage” for purposes of this act. It does not rank association liens against mortgages, and it does not alter any priority that a recorded declaration or Wyoming’s recording statutes already establish.
- It reaches consensual instruments. The words are “an agreement that creates a consensual interest.” A lien arising automatically under a declaration is not an agreement signed to secure a debt; a security agreement a delinquent owner signs as part of a payment plan is.
- It names three entity types — “condominium association, owners’ association or cooperative housing association” — which is broader than Wyoming’s own statutory vocabulary. Wyoming has a four-section Condominium Ownership Act at W.S. §§ 34-20-101 through 34-20-104 and no planned-community or cooperative statute at all.
- The practical consequence is narrow. Where an association takes a consensual security instrument from a delinquent owner and later modifies it, the act’s no-loss-of-priority rule does not apply to that instrument. Whatever the general law of priority on modification is in Wyoming continues to govern it.
Why the uniform act contains the exclusion
The Uniform Mortgage Modification Act exists to stop a routine loan workout from accidentally subordinating a lender to a junior lienholder. Association assessment obligations are treated separately in the uniform drafting because they arise from a governing document rather than from a negotiated loan, and their priority is a question the states answer very differently. Wyoming, having no comprehensive common-interest-community act, answers it through recorded declarations and general recording law.
Where it sits in Wyoming’s collection framework
Nothing else in the 2024, 2025 or 2026 sessions changed association collections. No enacted act in those three sessions cites any section of the Condominium Ownership Act, and none amends the foreclosure statutes at W.S. § 34-4-101 et seq. or the redemption statute at W.S. § 1-18-103 as they bear on association liens. The definitional exclusion in chapter 6 is the whole of the legislative activity on the subject — a carve-out that leaves association liens exactly where they already were.
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