Free tool · Denver
What does a squatter cost you in Colorado?
Change the numbers to match your property. The rent is Colorado's own, from HUD; how long it drags on is your call; everything else is yours to overwrite.
Colorado estimate
$39,124
Your numbers.
These are national starting points, not claims about your property. The one figure that drives the total — how long it drags on — is yours to set. Nobody can source it, so we do not pretend to.
How long before you get it back?
6 months
Your assumption, not ours — courts do not publish how long this takes. A contested removal runs in months, not weeks, almost everywhere; how it goes in Colorado is in the guide.
How many bedrooms?
Sets the rent from HUD’s published Fair Market Rent for Denver — $2,734/mo.
Mortgage / loan payment — per month
$
Only you know this one. The placeholder is roughly a $300k loan at current rates.
Lost rent or delayed sale — per month
$
HUD's Fair Market Rent for this metro, at the bedroom count you picked. It is the 40th percentile of recent-mover rents, so on a renovated or market-rate property it is a floor, not a valuation.
Attorney fees — one-off
$
No public data exists. Our estimate — nothing published backs it. No state bar and no court in any of these markets publishes fee data for an ejectment. Get a written quote and put it here.
Property taxes — per month
$
Your bill, divided by twelve. The placeholder is roughly a $250k property at Philadelphia's 1.3998% — Newark runs 1.845%, Los Angeles 1.187%.
Insurance — per month
$
No public data exists. Our estimate. Vacant cover genuinely does cost more, but the published figures for how much more disagree by a factor of five — anywhere from +25% to 5x. Use your own premium.
Utilities — per month
$
A national placeholder, unless your state overrides it below — Philadelphia's is the Water Department's own published bill. Whoever is inside, you are the ratepayer of record.
Damage and clean-out — one-off
$
No public data exists. Our estimate, and we want to be blunt: NO government body in the United States publishes squatter-damage data. Every figure you have seen quoted traces to one news story or to a lobby survey that counted houses, not dollars. We are not going to launder a number we cannot stand behind — put yours here.
If it happens in Colorado
$39,124
at 6 months— and every extra month adds $5,104.
Against a $0–$120k range, so the bar means something as you drag.
Carrying it, empty ($5,104/mo × 6 mo)
$30,624
One-off costs (attorney, damage)
$8,500
What ruins you is the carry — the months. On top of this you will pay to file, for the sheriff to serve and remove, and for a lawyer. Those are set locally and we do not print a number we cannot cite — but next to the months, they are a sliver.
Can you get any of it back? YES — the prevailing owner recovers attorney fees, because a squatter has no residential rental agreement. The residential-lease exception does not reach a squatter — there is no rental agreement — so the general 'prevailing party ... attorney fees' rule governs. As everywhere, a fee judgment against a squatter is frequently uncollectable in practice.
Why Colorado costs what it does
Colorado is a comparatively clean state for this. A squatter who enters vacant or unoccupied property without right or title is defined as an unlawful detainer under the forcible-entry-and-detainer (FED) statute, so the owner uses the same summary eviction track — county court, a short notice to quit, then a writ of restitution a judge signs — rather than a full months-long ejectment lawsuit. Because a judge still signs the order, the owner must still prove they own the building, so the verification gap the product addresses remains. A 2025 bill (HB25-1104) that would have let police remove a squatter within 24 hours on proof of ownership with no court order died in committee, so that fast lane does not exist.
“Entry is made, without right or title, into any vacant or unoccupied lands or tenements”
The statute
C.R.S. § 13-40-104(1)(a) — forcible entry and detainer; a person who enters vacant or unoccupied property without right or title is an unlawful detainer, removed through the summary FED process in county court
“Entry is made, without right or title, into any vacant or unoccupied lands or tenements”
The FED article supplies the summary remedy against a squatter; counsel should confirm the exact enumerated subsection and the applicable notice period before it is relied on.
Rent, by bedroom
1 bed $1,754 · 2 bed $2,089 · 3 bed $2,734 · 4 bed $3,049
FY2026, effective 2025-10-01
All four figures are the official FY2026 FMRs (1BR $1754, 2BR $2089, 3BR $2734, 4BR $3049; 0BR is $1643). HUD renamed this FMR area for FY2026 from 'Denver-Aurora-Lakewood' to 'Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO MSA' — a label change only, the metro-wide figures are unchanged and sweep in Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, Elbert, Jefferson and Park counties, so it is the metro number, not a Denver-city number.
Do you get your legal fees back?
YES — the prevailing owner recovers attorney fees, because a squatter has no residential rental agreement
“The prevailing party in any action brought under the provisions of this article is entitled to recover damages, reasonable attorney fees, and costs of suit; except that a residential landlord or tenant who is a prevailing party shall not be entitled to recover reasonable attorney fees unless the residential rental agreement between the parties contains a provision for either party to obtain attorney fees”
The residential-lease exception does not reach a squatter — there is no rental agreement — so the general 'prevailing party ... attorney fees' rule governs. As everywhere, a fee judgment against a squatter is frequently uncollectable in practice.
Is there a fast sheriff route?
No — HB25-1104 would have created one; it was postponed indefinitely in committee on 2025-02-04
The bill would have required law enforcement to remove an unauthorized occupant within 24 hours of the owner presenting legal title, with no court order. It was postponed indefinitely by the House Judiciary Committee and is not law. Beware secondary write-ups (blogs, tenant-law summaries) that recite its 24-hour removal text as if it were current Colorado law — it is not.
This is the bill for finding out too late.
Nothing on this page will get an occupant out, and be wary of anyone who says otherwise. What DeedProof does is earlier and duller: it verifies you own the property, structures the statement you swear before a notary, and files it — so that if someone does break in, the officer at the door has something to work from instead of a lease they cannot check.
The decision still belongs to the officer. Our job is to make it an easy one.
This page is the money. The law behind it is on Colorado’s guide — whether police can arrest, whether a sheriff can act on your affidavit alone, and how long occupation takes to become a claim. Every answer quoted from the statute.