Selective enforcement is the defense that an association cannot enforce a covenant against you while knowingly tolerating identical violations elsewhere. Wyoming has no statute naming it, and doesn't need one: restrictive covenants in Wyoming are creatures of contract enforced through equity, and equity has always conditioned enforcement on the enforcing party's own conduct. Waiver (non-enforcement so broad and prolonged that the covenant is abandoned), estoppel (owners reasonably relied on the association's inaction), and the principle that equitable relief goes to those with clean hands all put a cherry-picking board's conduct squarely at issue. The recorded declaration the association relies on under Wyo. Stat. § 34-20-104(c) binds it to the same document it invokes against you, including whatever enforcement process and standards that document promises.
The defense is won with documentation, and Wyoming gives members of incorporated associations a genuine discovery tool before any lawsuit exists. A records demand under Wyo. Stat. § 17-19-1602(b), with a stated proper purpose, investigating the association's enforcement of the covenant it has cited you under is a textbook one, reaches board minutes and accounting records, where fines and enforcement actions leave tracks. Pair the association's own ledger with dated photographs of comparable uncited conditions, identified by address or unit number and never by residents' names, and the pattern either exists on paper or it doesn't. If the board refuses the records, the fee-shifting enforcement in § 17-19-1604 (see the records guide) tends to concentrate minds.
Waiver versus selective enforcement
The two arguments travel together but aim differently. Waiver attacks the covenant itself: violations so widespread and so long unaddressed that the restriction has been abandoned community-wide and can't be revived against anyone. Selective enforcement concedes the covenant may live but says enforcing it against you, while identical violations sit ignored, is inequitable. You don't have to pick in advance. Build the record, the enforcement ledger, the comparables, the timeline, and let the pattern choose the frame. Either way, keep your own conduct clean: cure what you reasonably can, respond in writing, and never give the board a procedural default to point at instead of its own inconsistency.
The authority
The statutes behind this
Cited by name as authority, for your own reading. Informational only, not legal advice.
Wyo. Stat. § 34-20-104(c)
The declaration's covenants run with the land and bind the association to its own recorded rulebook, the document against which inconsistent enforcement is measured.
Wyo. Stat. § 17-19-1602
The member records right that, with a stated proper purpose, reaches board minutes and accounting records where the association's enforcement pattern is documented.
Wyoming covenant-enforcement doctrine (waiver, estoppel, arbitrary enforcement)
Covenants are enforced in equity, where courts may refuse enforcement that has been abandoned community-wide or applied inconsistently against a particular owner.
Step by step
How to document and raise selective enforcement in Wyoming
Build the record that supports a waiver or selective-enforcement defense to a Wyoming association's citation or fine.
- 01
Identify the exact covenant
Pin the citation to a specific recorded provision. The comparison must be rule-to-rule: the same covenant, the same kind of condition, at other properties.
- 02
Photograph comparables with dates
Document identical uncited conditions at other units or lots, identified by address or unit number, never by the names of the people living there. Date-stamp everything.
- 03
Demand the enforcement records
Use Wyo. Stat. § 17-19-1602(b) with a stated purpose to inspect board minutes and accounting records showing citations, fines, and enforcement decisions for the covenant at issue. Five business days' written notice starts the clock.
- 04
Present the pattern in writing
Send the board a dated letter laying out the comparables and its own records, framed as waiver and inconsistent enforcement, and request withdrawal of the citation. Ask that your letter be reflected in the minutes.
- 05
Preserve the record for court
If enforcement escalates, your organized file, photos, ledgers, minutes, correspondence, is the defense a Wyoming court in equity will weigh. Fact patterns win these cases; adjectives don't.
Straight answers
Common questions
Is selective enforcement a real defense in Wyoming?
Yes, as an equitable defense. Wyoming enforces covenants through equity, where waiver, estoppel, and arbitrary or inconsistent enforcement are recognized grounds to deny enforcement against a particular owner. There's no statute to cite by number; the defense is built from documented facts.
How do I prove the board enforces unevenly?
With its own records and your own photographs: the enforcement ledger and minutes obtained under Wyo. Stat. § 17-19-1602, plus dated photos of identical uncited conditions identified by address or unit number. A documented pattern, not a single anecdote, is what carries the argument.
What's the difference between waiver and selective enforcement?
Waiver says the covenant was abandoned community-wide and is unenforceable against anyone; selective enforcement says it may survive but singling you out is inequitable. Build one record and let the pattern determine which frame fits.
Should I name the neighbors who weren't cited?
No. Identify properties by address or unit number and keep the focus on the association's conduct. The defense is about how the board wields its power, not about your neighbors, and keeping it that way also keeps your own hands clean in equity.