Owner guide
A Connecticut landlord's guide to tenant law.
Security deposits, grace periods, late fee limits, notices and evictions — what the law actually requires, in plain language, with the statute cited so you can check any of it yourself.
What’s on this page
Security deposits
Deposits are the most heavily regulated part of a Connecticut tenancy, and the area where small landlords most often get caught out. The rules are not discretionary and a lease cannot waive them.
A landlord may not require more than two months’ rent as a security deposit — reduced to one month’s rent if the tenant is 62 years of age or older.
C.G.S. § 47a-21Holding the money
Deposits must be held in an escrow account at a Connecticut financial institution, separate from your own operating funds. This is not a bookkeeping preference. The money remains the tenant’s throughout the tenancy; you are holding it, not receiving it.
Interest
You owe the tenant annual interest on the deposit, at a rate the Connecticut Banking Commissioner publishes each year based on average commercial bank savings deposit rates. Interest accrues whether or not you remember to pay it.
Returning it
After the tenancy ends you must either return the deposit with interest, or deliver a written itemised statement of the damages you are claiming against it — within 21 days of the tenancy ending, or 15 days after the tenant gives you a forwarding address in writing, whichever is later.
“Itemised” means itemised. A single line reading “cleaning and damage — $600” is not a compliant statement, and will not survive a challenge.
Rent, grace periods and late fees
Rent is due when the lease says it is due. But Connecticut adds a statutory grace period before you can act on nonpayment, and it caps what you may charge for lateness.
For a monthly tenancy, rent unpaid at the due date must remain unpaid for a further nine days before you may terminate for nonpayment. For a week-to-week tenancy the period is four days. Payment inside the grace period removes the ground for eviction.
C.G.S. § 47a-15aLate fees are capped
You may charge no late fee at all during the grace period. Afterwards, and only where the lease provides for one in writing, the fee may not exceed the lesser of:
- $5 per day, to a maximum of $50; or
- 5% of the delinquent rent payment.
A lease clause charging more than this is unenforceable to the extent of the excess. Plenty of leases in circulation in Connecticut exceed it, usually because they were copied from a template written for another state.
Entering the property
You own the building; the tenant has possession of the home. Those are different things, and the law protects the second.
A landlord must give reasonable notice and enter only at reasonable times, except in a genuine emergency — a burst pipe, a fire, a gas leak, anything threatening the property or someone’s safety. Twenty-four hours is the widely accepted standard for notice, and putting it in writing protects you as much as the tenant.
Repeated entry without notice, or entry used to pressure a tenant, can amount to harassment and give the tenant a claim against you.
Repairs and habitability
Connecticut landlords owe a duty to keep the property fit and habitable: working heat, hot and cold running water, safe electrical and plumbing systems, structural soundness, and compliance with applicable housing codes. That duty exists independently of the lease and cannot be signed away.
A tenant whose serious repair request goes unanswered has real options, including complaining to the local housing code enforcement office and, in some circumstances, paying rent into court rather than to you. Neither is a situation you want to be in, and both are usually avoidable by answering the phone.
Practically: acknowledge every request in writing, act on genuine emergencies immediately, and document what you did with dates and photographs. A maintenance record is the best evidence there is that you met the standard.
Ending a tenancy and the eviction process
Eviction in Connecticut is called summary process. It is a court action with a fixed sequence, and skipping a step means starting again.
1. The grace period expires
For nonpayment, the nine-day grace period must run out first. If the tenant pays within it, the ground disappears.
2. Notice to Quit
The Notice to Quit formally ends the tenancy. It must give the tenant at least three full days to move out, and it must state a proper statutory ground.
3. Summons and complaint
If the tenant has not moved out when the notice expires, a summons and complaint are issued and served, and the case enters the housing court.
4. Judgment and stay
If judgment enters for the landlord, there is an automatic stay of execution of five days, not counting Sundays, legal holidays or the day of judgment, before anything further can happen. The court can extend it.
5. Execution
Only after all of that, and only through a state marshal, can a tenant actually be removed. At no point in this process may you do it yourself.
Realistically, a straightforward nonpayment case takes several weeks at minimum, and a contested one considerably longer. Anyone promising you a fast eviction is either guessing or planning to do something unlawful.
What you must never do
These are self-help evictions, and every one of them is unlawful in Connecticut no matter how much rent is owed or how badly the tenant has behaved:
- Changing the locks or removing the doors
- Shutting off heat, water, electricity or gas
- Removing the tenant’s belongings from the unit
- Threatening or intimidating a tenant into leaving
- Refusing to accept rent in order to build an eviction case
- Retaliating against a tenant for making a code complaint or asserting a legal right
A tenant subjected to any of these can get into court quickly, and the landlord can end up paying damages and the tenant’s costs — on top of still having to run a lawful eviction. There is no version of this that saves time.
Fair Housing in Connecticut
Connecticut protects more classes than federal law does. The federal list covers race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, familial status and disability. Connecticut adds:
- Age
- Marital status
- Sexual orientation
- Gender identity or expression
- Veteran status
- Lawful source of income
That last one catches people out. In Connecticut you may not refuse an applicant because they intend to pay with a housing voucher or other lawful assistance. “No Section 8” in a listing is unlawful here, and it is the kind of thing testers look for.
The safest practice is simple: publish your screening criteria before you take applications, apply them identically to every adult applicant, and keep records showing you did. Consistency is both the legal standard and the best defence.
Assistance animals are handled under disability law, not your pet policy. A no-pets property must still consider a reasonable accommodation request, and no pet deposit or pet rent may be charged for an assistance animal.
Lead paint
For any property built before 1978, federal law requires you to give tenants the EPA lead hazard pamphlet and disclose known lead paint before the lease is signed. Much of Greater Hartford’s rental stock predates 1978, so for most owners here this applies by default.
Common questions
No more than two months’ rent. If the tenant is 62 or older, the limit drops to one month’s rent. This is set by C.G.S. § 47a-21 and it is not something a lease can contract around.
Yes. Connecticut requires deposits to be held in an escrow account at a Connecticut financial institution and interest to be paid to the tenant annually, at a rate the Banking Commissioner sets each year based on average commercial bank savings deposit rates. Deposits must never be mixed with your operating money.
A landlord who fails to return the deposit with interest, or to deliver a written itemised statement of damages claimed, within the statutory deadline can be liable for up to twice the amount of the deposit. This is one of the most commonly litigated mistakes small landlords make, and it is entirely avoidable.
Rent is due on the date the lease says. But Connecticut gives a statutory grace period of nine days for a monthly tenancy — four days for a week-to-week tenancy — before you may terminate for nonpayment. If the tenant pays inside the grace period, the ground for eviction disappears.
You may not charge a late fee during the grace period at all. After it, and only where the lease provides for one in writing, the fee is capped at the lesser of five dollars per day up to a maximum of fifty dollars, or five per cent of the delinquent rent payment. Lease clauses charging more than this are unenforceable.
No. In Connecticut a Notice to Quit must be served by a state marshal. You cannot hand it to the tenant, post it on the door or send it by mail yourself. Improper service is the single most common reason eviction cases get dismissed and have to be started over from the beginning.
No, and this is the most expensive mistake a landlord can make. Changing locks, removing doors, shutting off heat, water or electricity, or removing a tenant’s belongings are all illegal self-help evictions in Connecticut regardless of how far behind the tenant is. A tenant locked out can go to court quickly and you may face damages. The only lawful route is summary process.
Connecticut requires a landlord to give reasonable notice and to enter only at reasonable times, except in a genuine emergency such as a burst pipe or a fire. Twenty-four hours’ notice is the widely accepted standard. Repeated entry without notice can amount to harassment.
Yes, and the Connecticut list is longer. Beyond the federal protected classes — race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, familial status and disability — Connecticut also protects age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status and lawful source of income. That last one matters in practice: refusing an applicant because they hold a housing voucher is unlawful in Connecticut.
Connecticut requires larger municipalities to maintain a fair rent commission, which can hear tenant complaints that a rent is excessive and in some circumstances order it reduced. Hartford and New Britain both have one. It does not cap rents in advance, but it means an unusually large increase can be challenged.
The statutes are public. Chapters 830, 831 and 832 of the Connecticut General Statutes cover landlord and tenant rights, security deposits and summary process respectively, and the Connecticut Judicial Branch publishes plain-language guides for both landlords and tenants. Every figure on this page is cited so you can verify it rather than take our word for it.
Last reviewed August 2026. Connecticut General Statutes § 47a-21 was amended with effect from 1 July 2026; where sources differ on the deposit return period this page states the shorter deadline, because complying with it satisfies either reading.
This is the part we do so you don't have to.
Deposit escrow and interest, notice periods, itemised statements, Fair Housing consistency, lead paint disclosure. Getting any one of them wrong costs more than a year of management fees.