Free tool · Salt Lake City
What does a squatter cost you in Utah?
Change the numbers to match your property. The rent is Utah's own, from HUD; how long it drags on is your call; everything else is yours to overwrite.
Utah estimate
$36,718
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Your assumption, not ours — courts do not publish how long this takes.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 Utah is in the guide.
How many bedrooms?
Sets the rent from HUD’s published Fair Market Rent for Salt Lake City — $2,333/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 Utah
$36,718
at 6 months— and every extra month adds $4,703.
Against a $0–$120k range, so the bar means something as you drag.
Carrying it, empty ($4,703/mo × 6 mo)
$28,218
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 — Utah courts award costs and reasonable attorney fees to the prevailing party in a forcible entry and detainer action (Utah Code § 78B-6-811(5)(a)), and the same section triples the assessed damages. Cuts both ways: a wrongful § 78B-6-817 removal lets the person removed recover triple the fair market rent plus court costs and their attorney fees..
Why Utah costs what it does
Utah gives an owner two ways out. Since 2025 the owner can hand law enforcement a sworn "Complaint to Remove Trespassers" and, with no judge, be put back in possession (Utah Code § 78B-6-817). If that route is refused or the occupant contests it, the fallback is the ordinary expedited eviction case (forcible entry and detainer) in court, which ends with a judge's order of restitution enforced by a sheriff or constable. The affidavit bypass is fast on paper, but the statute gives law enforcement no method for checking that the person who signed it actually owns the building.
How you must remove them
summary_plus_affidavit
“law enforcement shall, without delay, instruct the trespasser or serve a notice to immediately vacate on any trespasser and shall put the owner or authorized agent in possession”
The statute
Utah Code § 78B-6-817 — limited alternative remedy: on a verified sworn complaint plus evidence of ownership, law enforcement serves a notice to immediately vacate and restores the owner to possession, no court involved.
“the property owner or property owner's authorized agent shall submit a complaint by presenting a completed and verified Complaint to Remove Trespassers”
Rent, by bedroom
1 bed $1,456 · 2 bed $1,747 · 3 bed $2,333 · 4 bed $2,666
FY2026 (effective 2025-10-01); file fetched 2026-07-14
Do you get your legal fees back?
YES — Utah courts award costs and reasonable attorney fees to the prevailing party in a forcible entry and detainer action (Utah Code § 78B-6-811(5)(a)), and the same section triples the assessed damages. Cuts both ways: a wrongful § 78B-6-817 removal lets the person removed recover triple the fair market rent plus court costs and their attorney fees.
“shall award costs and reasonable attorney fees to the prevailing party”
Is there a fast sheriff route?
YES — Utah Code § 78B-6-817 (enacted 2025) lets an owner file a verified sworn complaint with law enforcement, who serve a notice to immediately vacate and put the owner back in possession with no court. The owner must attest to six things and swear under penalty of perjury; the statute gives law enforcement no standard for verifying that the affiant owns the property.
“law enforcement shall, without delay, instruct the trespasser or serve a notice to immediately vacate on any trespasser and shall put the owner or authorized agent in possession”
§ 78B-6-817(5)(b)(i) exposes an owner who files a false or wrongful complaint to triple the fair market rent of the dwelling, court costs, and reasonable attorney fees.
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 Utah’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.