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Squatters and vacant property in West Virginia: what the law says

West Virginia says in as many words that a squatter is not a tenant and cannot be evicted like one. Since the Stop Squatters Act, an owner hands a law-enforcement officer a verified complaint — "verified" means you sign it under oath, and lying on it is a false-swearing charge. The officer looks into it, and if he finds probable cause — enough for him to believe you, which is not proof but is more than your say-so — he serves a notice to vacate and puts the owner back in possession. No judge signs anything. What the statute does not do is tell that officer how to establish that the person handing him the complaint owns the building. Every answer below is quoted from the statute it came from. We call the document a "verified complaint" throughout, because that is what the statute calls it.

Every answer on this page is quoted from the statute it came from and linked to the source, so you can read the law yourself. Last checked against the statutes on 2026-07-14.

What to do now — this part is ours, not the law

There is no 30-day rule. Nobody becomes a tenant by standing in your house long enough — not in thirty days, not in ninety. They are not a tenant on day one and they are not a tenant on day ninety. What time does change is how hard they are to remove, and how much of your money it takes. That is a reason to move today, not a deadline you have already missed.

If someone is in the property right now

  1. Do not go in, and do not change the locks. It is the first thing everyone wants to do and it is how the owner becomes the defendant. Read that question above before you touch anything.
  2. Call the police non-emergency line. Ask them to look at it as a criminal trespass rather than a landlord–tenant dispute. Those are different outcomes and the words matter.
  3. Have your proof of ownership in your hand when they arrive — the deed, a recent tax bill, your ID. The officer's whole decision turns on whether he believes you own it.
  4. Photograph everything, and write down every date. When you last saw it empty. When you found them. What was said. Who you called, and when.
  5. Call a lawyer the same day. Not next week. The clock on every route above has already started.
The full checklist — what to record and what to ask →

If it has not happened yet

Everything on this page gets easier the earlier you do it. Photograph the property empty, keep the utility bills, and write down who is allowed inside — before you lock up and walk away. None of that is expensive. All of it is worth more than it looks at 2am.

The checklist for leaving a property vacant →

Is a squatter a tenant — and what rights do they have?

No. West Virginia says it outright: a squatter is not a tenant, gets none of an evicted tenant's protections, and a court is forbidden from making you run an eviction to get them out. Being in the building without permission is a crime here, not a housing dispute. But a person who once rented from you is a tenant, not a squatter, and none of this reaches them.

›Read the law

If a trespasser counts as a tenant, the owner is routed into housing court and every fast option closes.

W. Va. Code § 55-3C-2 — squatters defined; squatters not tenants (Stop Squatters Act, added by HB 4940, 2024 RS)

“(a) "Squatter" means a person unlawfully occupying a dwelling unit or other structure who is not entitled under a rental or lease agreement or who is not authorized by the tenant or owner to occupy that dwelling unit or structure. "Squatter" does not include a tenant who holds over in a periodic tenancy as described in §37-6-5 of this code, or an owner. (b) "Squatting" means the act of being a squatter. Squatting is synonymous with trespass, and is a criminal act under §61-3B-2 or §61-3B-3 of this Code. (c) Squatters are not considered tenants for purposes of this code and are not entitled to eviction proceedings afforded to lawful tenants. A Court of this state shall not require the use of eviction, or a similar procedure such as those found under §55-3A-1, et seq. or §55-3B-1, et seq. of this Code, by an owner in any instance involving the removal of a squatter from possession of a property.”

Read the two exclusions in subsection (a), because they decide whether any of this reaches your situation. A tenant who holds over in a periodic tenancy under § 37-6-5 is expressly NOT a squatter, and the fast removal section shuts the door again from the other side: § 55-3C-3(a)(6) makes the route available only where "the unauthorized person is not current or former owners or current or former lawful tenants." A former tenant who will not leave is an eviction, and it goes to a magistrate under § 55-3A-1. Read on the Legislature's own code server on 2026-07-14; the page carries the bill history "2024 Regular Session, HB4940".

Read it at the source →

Can I just change the locks?

No. In West Virginia a person you force out can sue to be put back in — and the statute lets them do it even if they had no right to be there in the first place. That section does not ask who owns the building; it asks how the person came to be out of it. The statute West Virginia wrote for squatters hands every act of removal to a law-enforcement officer; your part of it is the verified complaint.

›Read the law — 2 provisions

Lawful in a handful of states, a crime in most. Getting this wrong turns the victim into the defendant.

1 · W. Va. Code § 55-3-1 — forcible or unlawful entry; issuance of summons

“If any forcible or unlawful entry be made upon any land, building, structure, or any part thereof, or if, when the entry is lawful or peaceable, the tenant shall detain the possession of any land, building, structure, or any part thereof after his right has expired, without the consent of him who is entitled to the possession, the party so turned out of possession, no matter what right or title he had thereto, or the party against whom such possession is unlawfully detained, may, within three years after such forcible or unlawful entry, or such unlawful detainer, sue out of the clerk's office of the circuit court, or of any court of record empowered to try common-law actions, of the county in which the land, building, structure, or some part thereof may be, a summons against the defendant to answer the complaint of the plaintiff that the defendant is in the possession of, and unlawfully withholds from the plaintiff, the premises in question (describing the same with convenient certainty), to the damage of the plaintiff in such sum as the plaintiff shall state; and no other declaration shall be required.”

The clause that matters is in the middle of the sentence: "the party so turned out of possession, no matter what right or title he had thereto … may … sue." Read who the "he" is. It is the party TURNED OUT — the person you removed — and the statute gives him the action even though he had no right or title to the place at all. The question this section asks is not who owns the building. It is how the person came to be out of it.

Read it at the source →

2 · W. Va. Code § 55-3C-3(b)–(c) — the officer serves the notice and restores possession

“To request the immediate removal pursuant to this section, the property owner or authorized agent shall submit a completed and verified complaint to remove persons unlawfully occupying real property ("complaint") to a law-enforcement officer having authority to act in the jurisdiction of the subject property. … If the preliminary fact-finding indicates probable cause that the conditions outlined in subsection (a) of this section are met, then the law-enforcement agency shall serve a notice to immediately vacate upon the unlawful occupants and put the owner in possession of the real property.”

§ 55-3-1, quoted above, gives a person you put out a civil action to be restored to possession, and it does not turn on who owns the building. A CLAIM ABOUT OUR OWN SEARCH, NOT ABOUT THE LAW: on 2026-07-14 we read W. Va. Code §§ 55-3C-1 through 55-3C-6 in full, and § 55-3-1 in full, on the Legislature's own code server, and we did not find a West Virginia statute making an owner's removal of an occupant a separate crime. Untested is not the same as permitted, and the person who finds out which it is will be the defendant. DeedProof does not advise on this and never will.

Read it at the source →

These are the provisions, in order. We have not drawn a conclusion from them — that is not ours to draw.

If police do act, what is the charge — and can they arrest for it?

Depends — and the steps below do not point the same way. The Stop Squatters Act calls squatting trespass. Trespass inside a building is graded a misdemeanor carrying a fine of up to $100 and no jail. West Virginia gives sheriffs, deputies and municipal police the power to arrest without a warrant for an offence committed in the officer's presence, and separately lets an officer write a citation instead. A citation leaves the person in the building. The provisions are below, in order.

›Read the law — 5 provisions

A charge that only supports a citation does not remove anyone from a house. This is the link that killed the previous market.

1 · W. Va. Code § 55-3C-2(b) — squatting is trespass

“"Squatting" means the act of being a squatter. Squatting is synonymous with trespass, and is a criminal act under §61-3B-2 or §61-3B-3 of this Code.”

The section heading goes further than the text and is worth reading for what it assumes: "Squatters defined: squatters not tenants; squatting constitutes criminal trespass; petition and eviction not appropriate remedies for squatters; remedy is arrest for trespass." The next three links are what that remedy actually amounts to.

Read it at the source →

2 · W. Va. Code § 61-3B-2(a) — trespass in structure or conveyance, and its penalty

“Any person who knowingly enters in, upon, or under a structure or conveyance without being authorized, licensed, or invited, or having been authorized, licensed, or invited is requested to depart by the owner, tenant, or the agent of the owner or tenant, and refuses to do so, is guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than $100.”

THIS IS THE LINK THAT KILLED A PREVIOUS MARKET FOR US, IN ANOTHER STATE. Read the penalty on subsection (a): a fine of not more than $100, and no term of confinement. Subsection (b) — a structure clearly posted as condemned as unfit for human habitation — is the one that carries up to six months in jail, and it is a different set of facts. We do not tell you which subsection your building is under; that is the officer's call and then a court's.

Read it at the source →

3 · W. Va. Code § 62-10-9 — power of sheriffs and deputies to make arrests

“Sheriffs and each of their deputies are hereby authorized and empowered within their respective counties to make arrests for any crime for which a warrant has been issued in violation of any laws of the United States or of this state, and to make arrests without warrant for all violations of any of the criminal laws of the United States, or of this state, when committed in their presence.”

This section speaks of sheriffs and deputies. If your property is inside a city, the officer who comes to the door is a municipal police officer, and his authority is the next link. Both sections grant the warrantless arrest on the same words — "committed in their presence" — and whether a person found living inside a vacant building is committing an offence in the officer's presence is not a question we will answer. It is not ours to answer.

Read it at the source →

4 · W. Va. Code § 8-14-3 — powers, authority, and duties of law-enforcement officials and policemen

“For an offense committed in his or her presence, any such officer may arrest the offender without a warrant and take the offender before the mayor or police court or municipal court to be dealt with according to law.”

The same section also says municipal police "shall aid in the enforcement of the criminal laws of the state within the municipality" and have "the same authority to arrest without a warrant for offenses committed in his or her presence, as a deputy sheriff." Read on the Legislature's own code server on 2026-07-14.

Read it at the source →

5 · W. Va. Code § 62-1-5a — citation in lieu of arrest

“A law-enforcement officer may issue a citation instead of making an arrest for the following offenses, if there are reasonable grounds to believe that the person being cited will appear to answer the charge: (1) Any misdemeanor, not involving injury to the person, committed in a law-enforcement officer's presence: Provided, That the officer may arrest the person if he has reasonable grounds to believe that the person is likely to cause serious harm to himself or others”

A citation leaves the person in the building. These are the provisions, in order. We have drawn no conclusion from them — read them and decide. Note that removal under § 55-3C-3 is a separate route with a different trigger: it runs on the owner's verified complaint rather than on a charge.

Read it at the source →

These are the provisions, in order. We have not drawn a conclusion from them — that is not ours to draw.

What decides whether police arrest or walk away?

Whether the officer believes you. West Virginia is unusual — it does not just take your word, it tells the officer to go and check: read the lease they hand him, talk to the neighbours, ask around. But everything on that list is about the person inside. Nothing in the statute tells him how to establish that you are the owner, and the only thing standing behind your half of it is your signature.

DeedProof solves this

We verify you own the property and file your notarized statement where police can check it. How it works →

›Read the law — 2 provisions

Every other question here is downstream of this one. The whole encounter, in one decision, made in a doorway in the dark.

1 · W. Va. Code § 55-3C-3(c) — preliminary fact-finding, then probable cause

“Upon receipt of the complaint, the law-enforcement agency to which the complaint was submitted shall conduct preliminary fact-finding, which may include reviewing any alleged lease agreement, interviewing relevant individuals, and other relevant inquiries to ascertain the validity of the complaint. If the preliminary fact-finding indicates probable cause that the conditions outlined in subsection (a) of this section are met, then the law-enforcement agency shall serve a notice to immediately vacate upon the unlawful occupants and put the owner in possession of the real property.”

Read what the officer is pointed at: "any alleged lease agreement", "interviewing relevant individuals", "other relevant inquiries". A forged lease is an alleged lease agreement until somebody establishes that it is not, and the first condition he has to find probable cause for — subsection (a)(1), "the requesting person is the property owner or authorized agent" — is the one the statute gives him no tool for at all.

Read it at the source →

2 · W. Va. Code § 55-3C-5(a)–(b) — false complaint; civil cause of action for wrongful removal

“A property owner or their authorized agent who knowingly submits a complaint pursuant to this article in bad faith is subject to criminal prosecution for false swearing, and shall indemnify the law-enforcement agency and its agents for all costs and damages which may arise from a law-enforcement officer's good faith actions pursuant to this article. A civil cause of action for wrongful removal may be brought by a person who has been removed from a property pursuant to this article, with remedies including restoration of possession, actual costs, damages, and attorney fees.”

A CLAIM ABOUT OUR OWN SEARCH, NOT ABOUT THE LAW: on 2026-07-14 we read W. Va. Code §§ 55-3C-1 through 55-3C-6 in full on the Legislature's own code server. We looked for any provision telling an officer how to establish that the person who submitted the complaint actually owns the building — a deed check, a recorder's lookup, a registry, a documentary requirement of any kind. We found no such provision. What the statute puts behind the owner's assertion is a penalty for lying, not a method of checking. Confirm against the official code before relying on it.

Read it at the source →

These are the provisions, in order. We have not drawn a conclusion from them — that is not ours to draw.

What is the lawful way to get them out?

A verified complaint handed to a law-enforcement officer — not a court case. He looks into it, and if he finds probable cause he serves a notice to vacate immediately and puts you back in possession. Eight conditions gate that route. If the person inside was ever your tenant, the statute points you at magistrate court — West Virginia's local court — instead. If one of the other seven fails you, we could not establish which route is left, and we do not guess.

›Read the law — 3 provisions

The route sets the real cost. A summary track is weeks; a full civil suit is months.

1 · W. Va. Code § 55-3C-3(a)–(b) — the conditions, and the complaint

“A property owner or their authorized agent may request, from any law-enforcement officer having authority to act in the jurisdiction where the subject property is located, the immediate removal of any person squatting in a residential dwelling or commercial building if the following conditions are met: (1) The requesting person is the property owner or authorized agent; (2) The real property includes a residential dwelling or commercial building; (3) An unauthorized person or persons are unlawfully occupying the property; (4) The property was not open to the public at the time of entry; (5) The property owner or their authorized agent has directed the unauthorized person(s) to leave; (6) The unauthorized person is not current or former owners or current or former lawful tenants; (7) The unauthorized person is not immediate family members of the property owner or tenants; and (8) No pending litigation related to the subject property exists between the property owner and the unauthorized person(s).”

Conditions (6) and (8) are the ones that shut this route in practice. A person who once rented from you is not reachable by it, and neither is anyone you are already in litigation with. WHAT THE STATUTE DOES NOT SAY IS WHERE A FAILED CONDITION LEAVES YOU. It closes this route and names no other. Note also subsection (d): after the notice is served, the owner "may request the law-enforcement agency to remove the unauthorized person if they do not vacate the property when ordered to do so." AND ONE THING WE LOOKED FOR AND DID NOT FIND: on 2026-07-14 we read §§ 55-3C-1 through 55-3C-6 in full and found no prescribed statewide form for the "completed and verified complaint" this section requires. The statute names the document and does not print it. Ask the law-enforcement agency that covers your property which form it uses.

Read it at the source →

2 · W. Va. Code § 55-3C-2(c) — eviction is not the remedy for a squatter

“Squatters are not considered tenants for purposes of this code and are not entitled to eviction proceedings afforded to lawful tenants. A Court of this state shall not require the use of eviction, or a similar procedure such as those found under §55-3A-1, et seq. or §55-3B-1, et seq. of this Code, by an owner in any instance involving the removal of a squatter from possession of a property.”

Read it at the source →

3 · W. Va. Code § 55-3A-1(a)–(b) — petition for summary relief for wrongful occupation

“A person desiring to remove a tenant from residential rental property may apply for relief to the magistrate court or the circuit court of the county in which the property is located, by verified petition, setting forth the following: (1) That he or she is the owner or agent of the owner and as such has a right to recover possession of the property; … Upon filing the petition, the court shall schedule a hearing, which may not be less than five nor more than 10 judicial days following the filing of the petition.”

READ WHO THIS SECTION IS ABOUT. It opens "A person desiring to remove a TENANT from residential rental property" — so it reaches condition (6), the current or former lawful tenant, and it is the only one of the eight conditions whose failure leaves a tenant on the other side of the door. It does not obviously reach a person who was never a tenant, and § 55-3C-2(c), quoted above, forbids a court from requiring this procedure against a squatter. A CLAIM ABOUT OUR OWN SEARCH: for the other seven conditions — an open building, a relative, a case already running between you — we could not establish which route West Virginia leaves an owner. The candidates we read are unlawful entry and detainer under § 55-3-1 and ejectment under § 55-4-1, and neither carries the clock this section does. We do not name a court we cannot cite. Ask a West Virginia lawyer. (Two mechanical notes on the quote: the ellipsis drops paragraphs (2) to (4) of subsection (a) and joins subsection (b); and "five to ten judicial days" counts court days, not calendar days — call it a week or two. Note the first thing the petition must set forth here, too: that the petitioner is the owner. § 55-3A-2 gives the tenant "any and all defenses which might be raised in an action for ejectment or an action for unlawful detainer.")

Read it at the source →

These are the provisions, in order. We have not drawn a conclusion from them — that is not ours to draw.

How long does it take, and what does it cost?

Days on paper — the notice to vacate is immediate, and there is no hearing to wait for. But the statute sets no deadline for the police to look into your complaint, and none for them to act on it, so the real wait is your police department's and we cannot tell you what it is. If the person inside was ever your tenant, it is a court case instead, and the hearing alone is a week or two out. We give no dollar figure, because the statute names a fee and no amount.

›Read the law — 3 provisions

The two numbers every owner wants, and the one nobody warns them about: you do not get it back.

1 · W. Va. Code § 55-3C-3(c) — notice to immediately vacate

“If the preliminary fact-finding indicates probable cause that the conditions outlined in subsection (a) of this section are met, then the law-enforcement agency shall serve a notice to immediately vacate upon the unlawful occupants and put the owner in possession of the real property.”

THIS IS WHY THE ANSWER IS "DAYS ON PAPER" AND NOT "DAYS". The word in the statute is "immediately" — but it attaches to the notice, which comes at the END of the sequence. The statute sets no deadline for the preliminary fact-finding that comes first, and no deadline for the agency to act on the complaint. How long that takes is a question about your police department, not about the statute, and it is not one we can answer for you.

Read it at the source →

2 · W. Va. Code § 55-3A-1(b) — the hearing clock

“Upon filing the petition, the court shall schedule a hearing, which may not be less than five nor more than 10 judicial days following the filing of the petition.”

That is the clock to the HEARING, not to the removal — and § 55-3A-2 lets the tenant raise "any and all defenses which might be raised in an action for ejectment or an action for unlawful detainer." This section is about removing a TENANT, so it is the clock for condition (6) and not for the other seven; see the removal route above for what we could and could not establish about those.

Read it at the source →

3 · W. Va. Code § 55-3C-3(d) — fee for service of the notice

“The law-enforcement agency is entitled to a fee for service of a notice pursuant to subsection (c) of this section.”

NO DOLLAR FIGURE APPEARS ON THIS PAGE, and that is deliberate. The statute names a fee and no number, and West Virginia magistrate filing and service fees are set outside these sections. Every fee figure on this site appears verbatim in a document we fetched, or it does not appear. What IS in the statute is the downside: § 55-3C-5 exposes an owner who submits a complaint in bad faith to prosecution for false swearing and to indemnifying the agency, and gives a person wrongly removed an action for possession, damages and attorney fees.

Read it at the source →

These are the provisions, in order. We have not drawn a conclusion from them — that is not ours to draw.

Can a sheriff remove them on the owner's affidavit alone, with no court?

Yes. West Virginia is one of the states that took the judge out: you sign a verified complaint, an officer looks into it, and if he finds probable cause he puts you back in possession. Nobody signs an order. The catch is that the whole thing then rests on your sworn word — and if it was wrong, the person you had removed can sue you for the house back, damages and their lawyer, and you can be prosecuted for false swearing.

›Read the law — 2 provisions

Where a state has passed this, it hands the owner the whole mechanism for free. This field tracks the existential risk.

1 · W. Va. Code § 55-3C-3(b)–(c) — complaint to the officer; the officer restores possession

“To request the immediate removal pursuant to this section, the property owner or authorized agent shall submit a completed and verified complaint to remove persons unlawfully occupying real property ("complaint") to a law-enforcement officer having authority to act in the jurisdiction of the subject property. Upon receipt of the complaint, the law-enforcement agency to which the complaint was submitted shall conduct preliminary fact-finding … If the preliminary fact-finding indicates probable cause that the conditions outlined in subsection (a) of this section are met, then the law-enforcement agency shall serve a notice to immediately vacate upon the unlawful occupants and put the owner in possession of the real property.”

Read on the Legislature's own code server on 2026-07-14. This section is the work of the 2025 session — the Legislature's bill list for the 2025 Regular Session carries HB 2434, "Relating to establishing the Stop Squatters Act", and the 2024 Act (HB 4940, which the code site records as the source of § 55-3C-2) had no law-enforcement removal in it. The distinction matters when you read older summaries of West Virginia law. It is also the reason the widely circulated citation "HB 4940" is the wrong one to look at.

Read it at the source →

2 · W. Va. Code § 55-3C-5(a)–(b) — false complaint; wrongful removal

“A property owner or their authorized agent who knowingly submits a complaint pursuant to this article in bad faith is subject to criminal prosecution for false swearing, and shall indemnify the law-enforcement agency and its agents for all costs and damages which may arise from a law-enforcement officer's good faith actions pursuant to this article. A civil cause of action for wrongful removal may be brought by a person who has been removed from a property pursuant to this article, with remedies including restoration of possession, actual costs, damages, and attorney fees.”

This is the trade the statute makes, and it is worth seeing plainly. It removes the judge from the front of the process and puts the whole risk of being wrong on the owner at the back of it — including the agency's costs, by way of the indemnity in subsection (a).

Read it at the source →

These are the provisions, in order. We have not drawn a conclusion from them — that is not ours to draw.

How long before they can claim they own it?

Ten years. And note how West Virginia writes it — as a deadline on YOU: you cannot bring an action to recover the land more than ten years after your right to bring it first arose. Do not read the bare ten years as the whole rule; West Virginia's courts require the occupier to prove a good deal more than the passage of time, and that part is not in the statute.

›Read the law

The thing an owner of an empty building actually fears. Pure state statute.

W. Va. Code § 55-2-1 — entry upon or recovery of lands

“No person shall make an entry on, or bring an action to recover, any land, but within ten years next after the time at which the right to make such entry or to bring such action shall have first accrued to himself or to some person through whom he claims.”

A CLAIM ABOUT OUR OWN SEARCH: the statute states the ten years and nothing else. The elements an occupier must actually prove in West Virginia — that the possession was hostile, actual, open and notorious, exclusive, continuous, and under claim or colour of title — come from the Supreme Court of Appeals, not from this section. We do not quote them here: on 2026-07-14 the only copy of the leading opinion we could reach on the court's own server was an image-encoded PDF we could not read, and we do not put words in a court's mouth from a secondary reproduction. Ask a West Virginia lawyer what the elements are before relying on the bare ten years.

Read it at the source →

This page is the law. What it costs you in West Virginia — the filing fee, the sheriff’s bill, the months, and whether you ever see the money again.

Your deed proves you own it. It does not prove you never rented it.

That is the officer’s real question, and the lease in their hand does not contradict your deed. You can swear it is a forgery — but a statement you write the morning after, against a lease dated last year, is worth very little. The version that counts has to already exist.

How DeedProof verifies owners and files the affidavit in advance →

› Every source on this page (10)

W. Va. Code § 55-3C-2(c) — eviction is not the remedy for a squatterW. Va. Code § 55-3-1 — forcible or unlawful entry; issuance of summonsW. Va. Code § 55-3C-3(b)–(c) — complaint to the officer; the officer restores possessionW. Va. Code § 61-3B-2(a) — trespass in structure or conveyance, and its penaltyW. Va. Code § 62-10-9 — power of sheriffs and deputies to make arrestsW. Va. Code § 8-14-3 — powers, authority, and duties of law-enforcement officials and policemenW. Va. Code § 62-1-5a — citation in lieu of arrestW. Va. Code § 55-3C-5(a)–(b) — false complaint; wrongful removalW. Va. Code § 55-3A-1(b) — the hearing clockW. Va. Code § 55-2-1 — entry upon or recovery of lands

DeedProof is not a law firm and this page is not legal advice. We cite primary sources; we do not interpret them for your situation. Laws change — confirm current requirements with the relevant government office or a licensed attorney.