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Rent-to-Own Rights

Rent-to-Own Laws in Wyoming: Your Rights

Wyoming's Consumer Rental Purchase Agreement Act bars a store from unlawfully entering your home or breaching the peace to repossess, and, like Ohio, it forbids treating a simple failure to return the item as probable cause for a criminal charge. You can reinstate after a missed payment (longer if you'd returned the item), end the agreement without penalty by returning it, and buy it early. Missing payments is a civil matter, not a crime.

What Wyoming's rental-purchase law generally provides

Can you be charged with a crime?
No. Missing payments is civil, and keeping the item is not treated as theft here either.
Can they enter your home?
No home entry without your permission
Getting it back (reinstatement)
Yes
Paid enough to own it?
Your agreement has to disclose your option to purchase, including the right to an early purchase option and the price, formula, or method for buying the item early (Wyo. Stat. §40-19-107). A store can't require a larger final 'balloon' payment to own it, or make you pay more than the disclosed amount necessary to acquire ownership (§40-19-108).
Fee caps
A reinstatement fee can only be charged if a payment is more than 5 days late on a monthly agreement (or more than 2 days on a more frequent one), and reinstatement and pickup/redelivery fees can't exceed the maximum set by state rule (Wyo. Stat. §40-19-108). No extra late charge or penalty may be added for reinstating, beyond that reinstatement fee.
Owe a balance after repossession?
Not allowed

These describe what the statute says. Your own contract and the facts of your situation can affect how they apply.

Verified against Wyoming Consumer Rental Purchase Agreement Act (Wyo. Stat. §§ 40-19-101 to 40-19-120) on .

Wyoming regulates rent-to-own through its Consumer Rental Purchase Agreement Act (Wyo. Stat. §§40-19-101 to 40-19-120). It blocks the harshest contract terms, tackles the criminal-charge fear head-on, and gives you real rights when you fall behind.

Can I be arrested for not paying?

No. Falling behind is a civil matter. The act’s criminal penalties (a felony for obstructing the state’s examination, a misdemeanor for disobeying the administrator’s order) are aimed at a store, not a customer (§40-19-118). If a store breaks the rules and you’re harmed, you can recover the greater of your actual damages or 25% of the total payments needed to own the item, at least $100 and up to $1,000, plus costs and attorney’s fees (§40-19-119).

Can I be charged with theft for keeping the item?

No, and Wyoming is direct about it, the same kind of protection Ohio offers. A rental-purchase agreement may not provide that merely failing to return the property is probable cause for a criminal action (Wyo. Stat. §40-19-108). So a simple failure to return the goods cannot be turned into a criminal charge against you.

That makes Wyoming one of the safer states on this question. Even so, returning the item is the clean way to end the matter if you decide to walk away.

Can the store come into my home?

No. A rental-purchase agreement may not authorize the store, or anyone acting for it, to enter your premises unlawfully or to commit any breach of the peace in repossessing the property (Wyo. Stat. §40-19-108). That same section also blocks a confession of judgment, a wage assignment, and a waiver of your defenses. After you’ve been in default at least three business days, the store can give you a written notice of default and a right to cure before moving to repossess (§40-19-109).

Reinstatement after a missed payment

If your only problem is a missed payment, you can reinstate the agreement without losing any rights or options you’d earned. Within 7 days of the renewal date, you pay the past-due rental charges, the reasonable pickup and redelivery costs if the item was picked up, and any applicable reinstatement fee (Wyo. Stat. §40-19-110). A reinstatement fee can only be charged once a payment is more than 5 days late (monthly) or 2 days (more frequent), and it’s capped by state rule.

If you returned the item within that 7-day window, you get more time:

  • at least 21 days after the return if you’d paid less than two-thirds toward ownership; or
  • at least 30 days if you’d paid two-thirds or more.

On reinstatement, the store must give you back the same item if it’s available, or a comparable substitute.

Returning it or buying it early

You can terminate the agreement without penalty by voluntarily returning the property in good repair (ordinary wear and tear excepted) at the end of any rental period, along with any past-due payments (Wyo. Stat. §40-19-107). Or you can keep it: your agreement has to spell out your purchase options, including an early purchase option and the price or formula for buying it early, and a store can’t tack on a bigger final payment to make you own it. The ownership calculator can help you compare.

Wyoming rent-to-own questions

Can a rent-to-own store in Wyoming have me arrested for missing payments?
Falling behind on payments is a civil matter, not a crime. The act's criminal penalties (a felony for obstructing the state's examination, a misdemeanor for disobeying the administrator's order) apply to a store, not a customer (Wyo. Stat. §40-19-118). A consumer harmed by a violation can recover the greater of actual damages or 25% of the total payments to own the item, at least $100 and up to $1,000, plus costs and attorney's fees (§40-19-119).
Can I be charged with theft for keeping rent-to-own property in Wyoming?
Wyoming protects rent-to-own customers here, like Ohio. A rental-purchase agreement may not provide that merely failing to return the property is probable cause for a criminal action (Wyo. Stat. §40-19-108). So a simple failure to return the goods cannot be turned into a criminal charge against you. Returning the item is still the clean way to end the matter.
Can a rent-to-own store enter my home in Wyoming to take the item back?
A rental-purchase agreement may not authorize the store, or anyone acting for it, to enter your premises unlawfully or to commit any breach of the peace in repossessing the property (Wyo. Stat. §40-19-108). After you've been in default at least 3 business days, the store can give you a written notice of default and a right to cure (§40-19-109). The same prohibited-provisions section also bars a confession of judgment, a wage assignment, and a waiver of your defenses.
Can I get rented rented merchandise back after it is repossessed in Wyoming?
If your only default is a missed payment, you can reinstate without losing any rights or options. Within 7 days of the renewal date, you pay the past-due rental charges, the reasonable pickup and redelivery costs if the item was picked up, and any applicable reinstatement fee (Wyo. Stat. §40-19-110). If you returned the item within that 7-day window, you get more time: at least 21 days after the return if you'd paid less than two-thirds toward ownership, or at least 30 days if you'd paid two-thirds or more. On reinstatement the store must give you back the same item if available, or a comparable substitute.
In Wyoming, can I owe money after the item is repossessed?
You may terminate the agreement without penalty by voluntarily returning the property in good repair (ordinary wear and tear excepted) at the end of any rental period, along with any past-due payments (Wyo. Stat. §40-19-107). Because it renews one period at a time, returning the item stops future payments.

Sources

Every statement about the law on this page links to the official statute itself, so you can read the law, not just our summary of it. Notice something out of date? Let us know.

Consumer information, not legal advice. For your situation, consider speaking with a licensed Wyoming attorney or a local legal-aid office.