Senate committee advances bill creating expedited process to remove unauthorized occupants

On Jan. 17, 2025, the Wyoming Senate Committee of the Whole voted to recommend passage of Senate File 6, a judiciary-sponsored bill that creates a new statutory process for landowners to seek law-enforcement removal of unauthorized persons from residential property and adds new criminal penalties related to false property documents and property defacement.

The bill matters because it changes how property owners and law enforcement may respond to alleged squatters and creates new criminal tools for prosecutors, while raising questions about due process and how the law will apply in cohabitation and domestic situations.

Senate File 6 is organized in three parts: a new civil removal procedure in Title 1 with definitions and an owner-signed affidavit that law enforcement must review; a criminal provision creating misdemeanors and felonies for presenting false lease or deed documents and for advertising property sale without title; and a change to the property-destruction statute so certain unlawful occupants who cause defacement or destruction can be charged with a felony regardless of the amount of damage. Senator Crago, who explained the bill on the floor, said the measure is “an attempt to address the squatting problem that has popped up across our state.”

Under the new removal process, a property owner or the owner’s authorized agent would sign an affidavit under…