How Colorado’s New Squatter Law Works: Filing, Hearing, Sheriff Removal

Colorado’s squatter law, Senate Bill 24-103, gives residential property owners a fast county-court route to remove someone who moved into a vacant home without permission. Codified at C.R.S. § 13-40.1-101 and effective August 7, 2024, the law lets an owner file a complaint and verified motion, get a hearing within one court day, and have the sheriff remove the occupant under a writ of restitution if the court agrees the person has no right to be there.¹

Does Your Situation Actually Qualify

The statute is narrow on purpose. It defines an unauthorized person as someone occupying an uninhabited or vacant residential property without any current or prior agreement or consent from the owner, written or oral.¹ It is aimed at strangers who move into empty houses, not tenants who stopped paying or guests who overstayed.

Three groups are specifically excluded, even without a formal lease:

Relatives of the owner or authorized agent, including spouses, parents, stepparents, grandparents, siblings, children, stepchildren, aunts, and uncles, whether related by blood or adoption.
Anyone from whom the owner accepted money or anything of value for use of the property.
Anyone previously given permission, even informal oral permission, to enter and remain.

If any of those apply, the expedited process is off the table and the owner has to use the standard forcible entry and detainer procedure under C.R.S. Title 13, Article 40. The exclusions exist to keep owners from using the fast track to sidestep ordinary tenant protections.

Filing the Complaint and Verified Motion

The case starts in county court, not at the sheriff’s office. The owner, or an authorized agent, files two documents: a complaint, and a verified motion for a temporary mandatory injunction restoring possession.¹ The verified motion uses a format written into the statute, with nine checkbox statements the owner must initial under penalty of perjury.

In substance, those statements require the owner to confirm that they own the property or are the authorized agent, that an unauthorized person entered and is remaining unlawfully, that no written or oral agreement ever existed, that there is no family relationship, that no money or thing of value was ever accepted for use of the property, that the owner demanded the person leave and was refused, and that the owner informed the occupant of the court filing and will deliver a copy of the verified motion to them. A final space allows the owner to describe any damage or alterations.

That notice-to-the-occupant step is easy to miss and the filing depends on it. Before going to the courthouse, bring your recorded deed or other proof of ownership and any documentation of the entry, such as photos of broken locks or of the occupants on the premises.

The One Court Day Hearing

The verified motion asks the county court to hold a hearing within one court day of filing.¹ That single clause is what separates this law from the traditional eviction track, which can run weeks or months. An owner can realistically go from filing to a ruling in 24 to 48 hours.

At the hearing, the court decides whether the occupant actually fits the statutory definition. If so, it enters a temporary mandatory injunction restoring possession, issues a writ of restitution directing the sheriff to remove the occupant, and orders the occupant not to return to the property for fourteen days. If the court finds the occupant does not qualify, the motion is denied and the owner has to pursue a regular eviction.

The hearing is also where things can fall apart. If the occupant appears with something that looks like a lease, claims they paid rent, or asserts a family relationship, the court may decide the expedited process does not apply. The owner carries the burden of proving the declarations in the verified motion, and because those declarations are sworn, overstating the case carries perjury exposure.

Sheriff Removal and the 14-Day No-Return Order

After the court signs the injunction and writ, the sheriff handles the physical removal. The legal question is already decided; deputies go to the property, remove the unauthorized occupant, and secure the premises so the owner can re-enter.

The fourteen-day no-return order gives the owner a window to change locks and put security in place without the same person walking back in. Change the locks right away rather than the next day. Squatters who know the property’s layout are most likely to come back in the first few hours. A return during the no-return period exposes the occupant to additional legal consequences.

The statute focuses on removal and does not lay out detailed rules for handling personal property an occupant leaves behind. Colorado’s regular eviction rules include storage timelines for tenant property, but whether those apply to someone who was never a tenant is not resolved by the statute. Talk to a local attorney before disposing of anything of obvious value.

If the Occupant Contests, or the Owner Overstates

The expedited process flips the usual burden. Rather than the owner waiting months while the court sorts things out, an occupant who believes the removal was wrongful has to file their own action to challenge it.

That is also why the perjury safeguard matters in both directions. An owner who files a false verified motion, saying someone is unauthorized when the person actually had permission or paid rent, faces criminal exposure for perjury and civil liability for wrongful removal. The checkbox format leaves little room to fudge: either there was an agreement or there wasn’t, either money changed hands or it didn’t.

Federal law can also override the state process in narrow circumstances. Under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, 50 U.S.C. § 3951, active-duty military members and their dependents are protected from eviction without a court order when their ability to pay is materially affected by military service, and a court may stay proceedings for ninety days or longer. If there is any sign the occupant is a servicemember, confirm before filing.

Criminal Trespass as a Parallel Track

The civil removal is not the only option. A person who knowingly and unlawfully enters or remains in a dwelling commits first-degree criminal trespass, a class 1 misdemeanor in Colorado. If the dwelling is inhabited or occupied at the time, the charge becomes a class 6 felony.²

A class 1 misdemeanor carries up to 364 days in jail and fines up to $1,000. A class 6 felony carries one to eighteen months in prison. The criminal charge is independent of the SB 24-103 removal, so law enforcement can arrest a squatter for trespass while the owner pursues the civil order on a separate timeline.

Colorado’s legislature has also introduced HB25-1104 in the 2025 session, which would create a standalone criminal offense for squatting and require courts to rule within ten days of charging. It is not yet law.

Squatting Is Not Adverse Possession

Owners sometimes worry that a squatter can eventually claim ownership. In Colorado that worry does not fit the kind of situation SB 24-103 addresses. Adverse possession requires eighteen years of uninterrupted possession, and since 2008 the claimant must prove every element by clear and convincing evidence and show a good-faith, reasonable belief that they were the actual owner.³ Someone who breaks into a vacant house cannot meet the good-faith requirement, and if the true owner prevails the court can also order reimbursement of property taxes paid during that period.