Free tool · Cheyenne
What does a squatter cost you in Wyoming?
Change the numbers to match your property. The rent is Wyoming's own, from HUD; how long it drags on is your call; everything else is yours to overwrite.
Wyoming estimate
$32,536
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Your assumption, not ours — courts do not publish how long this takes.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 Wyoming is in the guide.
How many bedrooms?
Sets the rent from HUD’s published Fair Market Rent for Cheyenne — $1,636/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 Wyoming
$32,536
at 6 months— and every extra month adds $4,006.
Against a $0–$120k range, so the bar means something as you drag.
Carrying it, empty ($4,006/mo × 6 mo)
$24,036
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? NO — against a true squatter you eat your own legal fees. Wyoming awards an owner attorney's fees in an eviction only 'as provided by the lease' (W.S. § 1-21-1008(b)), and a squatter has no lease; the ordinary judgment gives the owner restitution of the premises and costs, not fees. The one attorney-fee provision in the 2025 removal law runs the OTHER way: a person wrongly removed can recover triple the fair market rent, court costs and reasonable attorney fees from the owner (§ 1-21-1403(c)).. Fees hinge on a lease the squatter does not have; a non-tenant occupier case yields costs only. Read on 2026-07-14 in the Legislature's official Title 1 code PDF; the URL is not versioned. The offsetting owner-liability provision (§ 1-21-1403(c)) is in the enrolled act SF0006.
Why Wyoming costs what it does
Wyoming gives an owner two paths. Since July 1, 2025, you can hand law enforcement in the county a sworn complaint, and if they satisfy themselves you are the record owner, they serve notice to leave and put you back in possession — no judge and no court case. That fast path is closed, though, if the person inside was ever a tenant of yours or of the previous owner (even under a spoken agreement) or shows a lease; then you fall back to Wyoming's ordinary eviction lawsuit in circuit court, which starts with a three-day written notice and runs in weeks if contested.
How you must remove them
summary_plus_affidavit
“Upon verification under subsection (c) of this section, law enforcement shall, without delay, provide notice to immediately vacate to all unauthorized persons occupying the residential dwelling and shall put the owner in possession of the residential dwelling.”
Wyoming has BOTH tracks, hence summary_plus_affidavit. The 2025 affidavit removal (Article 14) lets law enforcement restore possession on the owner's sworn complaint with no court; the ordinary summary forcible-entry-and-detainer track in circuit court (§ 1-21-1002(a)(v) reaches an 'occupier of lands... without color of title') is the fallback when the affidavit route is unavailable — e.g. the occupant claims a lease. Verified verbatim from the enrolled act on 2026-07-14.
The statute
Fast removal: W.S. §§ 1-21-1401 through 1-21-1403 (2025 Senate Enrolled Act No. 20 / SF0006, eff. 2025-07-01) — law-enforcement removal of an 'unauthorized person' on the owner's sworn complaint, no court. Ordinary eviction: W.S. §§ 1-21-1001 to 1-21-1016 (forcible entry and detainer), which reaches a 'settler or occupier of lands... without color of title' under § 1-21-1002(a)(v).
“(a) An owner or the owner's authorized agent may request from law enforcement in the county where the property is located the immediate removal of any person unlawfully occupying or possessing the owner's residential dwelling if all of the following conditions are met”
The removal statute is quoted from the enrolled act (permanently versioned). The forcible-entry-and-detainer sections are in the Legislature's official, non-versioned Title 1 code PDF, read 2026-07-14.
Rent, by bedroom
1 bed $917 · 2 bed $1,161 · 3 bed $1,636 · 4 bed $1,970
FY2026, effective 2025-10-01
The published FY2026 Cheyenne figures are $917/$1161/$1636/$1970 (1BR/2BR/3BR/4BR), a consistent year-over-year increase over the FY2025 Cheyenne figures ($903/$1141/$1599/$1916). HUD's Cheyenne, WY MSA is Laramie County; treat it as the metro, not a specific block. Figures are from a HUD FMR republication; confirm against HUD's FY2026 schedule if load-bearing.
Do you get your legal fees back?
NO — against a true squatter you eat your own legal fees. Wyoming awards an owner attorney's fees in an eviction only 'as provided by the lease' (W.S. § 1-21-1008(b)), and a squatter has no lease; the ordinary judgment gives the owner restitution of the premises and costs, not fees. The one attorney-fee provision in the 2025 removal law runs the OTHER way: a person wrongly removed can recover triple the fair market rent, court costs and reasonable attorney fees from the owner (§ 1-21-1403(c)).
“the court shall render judgment in accordance with the findings for the amount of rent found due, together with costs and attorney's fees as provided by the lease”
Fees hinge on a lease the squatter does not have; a non-tenant occupier case yields costs only. Read on 2026-07-14 in the Legislature's official Title 1 code PDF; the URL is not versioned. The offsetting owner-liability provision (§ 1-21-1403(c)) is in the enrolled act SF0006.
Is there a fast sheriff route?
YES — since 1 July 2025 (W.S. §§ 1-21-1401 to 1-21-1403). The owner submits a sworn complaint, under penalty of perjury, to law enforcement in the county; if law enforcement verifies the complainant is the record owner, it serves notice to immediately vacate and puts the owner back in possession, with no judge and nothing filed in court. Two limits matter: the route is unavailable if the occupant is a current or former tenant of the owner or a prior owner (even orally), and the statute orders law enforcement to 'verify that the person who submitted the complaint is the record owner' while giving them no method, data source, or standard — the only ownership proof the complaint must carry is a copy of the owner's government-issued ID.
“Upon receipt of a complaint under this section, law enforcement shall verify that the person who submitted the complaint is the record owner of the residential dwelling or the authorized agent of the owner and that the person is entitled to relief under this section. ... Upon verification under subsection (c) of this section, law enforcement shall, without delay, provide notice to immediately vacate to all unauthorized persons occupying the residential dwelling and shall put the owner in possession of the residential dwelling.”
This is the species of law that commoditizes the court, not the verification problem — the statute leaves the record-owner check to law enforcement with no way to perform it. Verified verbatim from the enrolled act (permanently versioned) on 2026-07-14.
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 Wyoming’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.