How to fill out Wyoming Bond for Certificate of Title

The last document in the bonded chain, and the only one you do not fill in. WYDOT publishes it under the heading bond form for surety company use, and that is exactly what it is: a two-party instrument in which you are the principal and an insurance company authorised to do surety business in Wyoming is the surety, both bound to the State of Wyoming for the use and benefit of any person who suffers loss or damage because a certificate of title was issued on your affidavit rather than on a real title. It is one page of bond and one page of the department's own instructions, and those instructions are worth reading before you telephone a broker, because most of them are about how the paperwork gets rejected.

Written against Bond for Certificate of Title (no revision printed), issued under WYDOT Motor Vehicle Services under W.S. 31-2-105, executed by a surety authorised to do surety business in the State of Wyoming. Read whose signature goes where before you sign anything, because the layout invites the mistake. The left column is yours and the right is the insurance company's, and a principal who signs in the authorised-signature box has executed the surety's side of their own bond. The department's own instruction sheet spends most of its numbered paragraphs on rejections of exactly this kind - dates that do not match, a missing attorney-in-fact certification, correction fluid, the wrong form - so treat it as a list of things that have actually happened rather than boilerplate.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank Bond for Certificate of Title from the dot.state.wy.us copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our Bond for Certificate of Title guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.

Every line, in the order you meet it

1. 1
   You fill this in

   Confirm you need one at all

   Compare your documented value against the printed threshold. Below $2500 the department does not require a bond.

   Watch out: The value that counts is the one you evidenced on the affidavit, not what the vehicle might fetch once it is running. Bring the same documentation to the broker.

2. 2
   You fill this in

   Find a surety authorised in Wyoming

   A corporation organised under the laws of some state and authorised to do surety business in the State of Wyoming. The form asks for both facts on its face.

   Watch out: Ask the broker whether they will issue on this specific form. A surety that only writes on its own paper is the fastest way to the inappropriate bond form the instructions warn about.

3. 3
   You fill this in

   The principal's blanks

   Your legal name exactly as it appears on the affidavit, your address, then the surety's name and its state of organisation.

   Watch out: Exactly as it appears is the instruction's own phrase. A middle initial on one document and not the other is enough to send the file back.

4. 4
   You fill this in

   The penal sum and the vehicle

   Twice the affidavit value in words and in figures, then year, make, model, trim, identification number and value, and the title and licence numbers with their issuing state where they exist.

   Watch out: Everything except signatures must be typed or printed, and correction fluid is banned outright. Print a fresh sheet rather than tidy one up.

5. 5
   You fill this in

   Sign as principal, in front of a notary

   Signature of owner, printed name and title, with a second line where two applicants claim ownership from the same affidavit.

   Watch out: The execution date and the notary's date must be the same day. If the notary cannot see you today, do not date the bond today.

6. 6
   Somebody else fills this in

   Let the surety execute its own half

   The authorised signature, printed name and title, the corporate seal, and its own notarial acknowledgement - plus the attorney-in-fact certification where one is used.

   Watch out: Check the three dates the instructions care about before the envelope closes: the power of attorney, the acknowledgement of the surety's signature, and the execution of the bond.

7. 7
   You fill this in

   File it with the affidavit

   The bond form is submitted with the Affidavit of Vehicle Ownership at the county clerk's office where the title application is made.

   Watch out: Photocopy the executed bond before it goes. It is a one-time instrument and reissuing one because the original went astray means paying the premium twice.

What gets this one rejected

• •Whiting out a mistake. The instruction is explicit: do not use Whiteout on the bonds, and where a change is needed, strike the mistake through and have the notary initial it.
• •A bond dated a different day from the acknowledgement of your signature. The instructions say the executed-by-principal date must match the notary's, because that is what shows the notary actually witnessed the signature.
• •Signing without a notary because the surety already sealed it. All signatures must be before a notary public - both columns, both blocks.
• •An attorney-in-fact whose dates do not line up. Where the surety executes by an attorney-in-fact, the power of attorney, the acknowledgement of the surety's signature and the date of execution must all be the same date, and differing dates result in the bond being rejected.
• •Using the wrong bond form entirely. The instructions warn that completing an inappropriate bond form may delay issuance of a title - a generic surety bond a broker keeps on file is not this document.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •Twice the value, and no cash alternative. The bond is written in a dollar amount equal to two times the value of the vehicle as stated on the affidavit. Wyoming does not take a deposit instead.
• •Below $2500 there is no bond at all. The instructions say so in their own first paragraph, and the department's bonded-titles page says it again. If your documented value is under that line, this page is not part of your route.
• •It is one-time and non-refundable. The instruction sheet calls it a one-time, non-refundable instrument that allows issuance of a new title. The premium you pay the surety does not come back when the bond period ends quietly.
• •A duplicate title is one of the two reasons it exists. The recital covers both cases - a principal requesting a duplicate certificate of title, and one unable to furnish a prior certificate on a transfer. Most Wyoming bonds are the second, but the first is why a county might ask for a bond on what looked like a simple lost-title job.
• •The surety's exposure is capped. The bond provides that the aggregate liability of the surety for all transactions occurring shall not exceed the amount of the bond, whatever the number of claims or claimants.

Every line here was read off Bond for Certificate of Title (no revision printed) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Wyoming Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle Services pages. This is plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ, theirs governs.

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