What is the eviction process and timeline in Connecticut?
To evict a tenant in Connecticut a landlord serves a written notice to quit possession giving at least three days, then files a summary process case in Superior Court - but two things come first that catch most people out: for a lease violation a separate 15-day pre-termination notice under CGS 47a-15 must be served and allowed to expire before the notice to quit, and for nonpayment the notice to quit cannot be served until the tenant's nine-day statutory grace period under CGS 47a-15a has run (four days on a week-to-week tenancy, plus five more days if the landlord's own online rent payment system blocked the payment).
Cited to CGS 47a-15 Noncompliance by tenant; 15-day pre-termination notice; serious nuisance definition; 6-month repeat clause and 45 more Connecticut statutes · Verified July 24, 2026
Since October 1, 2025 the notice to quit must be an attested copy served by a proper officer - in practice a state marshal - and a copy of the Judicial Branch right-to-counsel notice must be attached to it. The court paperwork is built around a return date: the marshal must serve the summons and complaint at least six days (counted inclusively) before that date, and the landlord must file the served papers with the clerk at least three days before it. A tenant who does not appear within two days after the return day can be defaulted, and the court enters judgment no later than the first court day after the landlord moves for it. After judgment, execution is stayed five days, with intervening Sundays and legal holidays not counted, and that same five days is the entire window to appeal. Only a state marshal may carry out the lockout, and since October 2025 the marshal must make reasonable efforts to notify the tenant at least twenty-four hours beforehand and serve a copy of the execution. Tenants aged 62 or older and tenants with a qualifying disability who live in a building or complex of five or more units can only be evicted for one of the good-cause reasons listed in CGS 47a-23c. Locking a tenant out or seizing their belongings without a court order is a class C misdemeanor and exposes the landlord to double damages.
Connecticut eviction process at a glance
| Nonpayment notice (pay-or-quit) | 3 days |
|---|---|
| Nonpayment notice rules (day counting, cure rights, service) | But those three days cannot start until the tenant's statutory grace period has run: nine days after rent is unpaid when due, or four days on a week-to-week tenancy. Only then may the landlord serve the notice to quit possession, which must give at least three days before the tenancy ends. Two clocks, not one. Rent is payable without demand or notice at the time agreed (CGS 47a-3a(a)), but nonpayment does not become a summary-process ground until the statutory grace period runs: CGS 47a-15a(a) gives the tenant nine days after rent is unpaid when due (four days for a one-week tenancy) before the landlord 'may terminate the rental agreement in accordance with the provisions of sections 47a-23 to 47a-23b.' Effective January 1, 2026 (Nov. Sp. Sess. P.A. 25-1, S. 38) the nine- or four-day period is 'extended an additional five days if a landlord's online rental payment system prevents the payment of rent when due,' and the extension applies only for the week or month in which the system failed; CGS 47a-23(a)(1)(D) was conformed the same day so nonpayment is not a ground at all where the landlord's online system blocked timely payment. Only after the grace period expires may the landlord serve the notice to quit possession, which under CGS 47a-23(a) must be given 'at least three days before the termination of the rental agreement or lease, if any, or before the time specified in the notice for the lessee or occupant to quit possession or occupancy.' Calendar days; no statute excludes weekends or holidays from the three-day notice period (contrast the appeal/stay period in 47a-35(a), which does exclude intervening Sundays and legal holidays). The Judicial Branch's official landlord guide instructs that the three days must be 'three full days' and that 'the three days do not include the date that service is made, or the actual quit or move out date' - that day-counting gloss is Judicial Branch guidance and case law, not statutory text. Content and form: CGS 47a-23(b) prescribes substantially the statutory form and requires the reason for the notice be stated 'using the statutory language or words of similar import'; unknown occupants may be served by alias. Service: CGS 47a-23(c), as amended by P.A. 25-78, S. 18 (effective October 1, 2025), now requires that 'an attested copy of such notice shall be served by a proper officer' to each lessee or occupant or left at the place of residence - the former 'proper officer or indifferent person' option was deleted for residential premises, so in practice a state marshal must serve it. Delivery may be made on any day of the week. Nonresident tenants or those whose whereabouts are unknown get longer notice: at least ten days under CGS 47a-23b(a)-(b). A copy of the Judicial Branch right-to-counsel notice must be attached to the notice to quit for any income-eligible tenant (CGS 47a-75(f)(2)). No pre-termination notice under CGS 47a-15 is required for nonpayment - that section expressly excepts the case 'in which the landlord elects to proceed under sections 47a-23 to 47a-23b, inclusive, to evict based on nonpayment of rent.' There is no statutory right to cure by paying after the notice to quit is served; however, CGS 47a-19 provides that 'acceptance of rent with the knowledge that such rent is overdue constitutes a waiver of the landlord's right to terminate the rental agreement for the tenant's failure to pay such rent when it was due,' and CGS 47a-23(e) lets the landlord include a use-and-occupancy disclaimer in the notice to preserve the eviction. Late fees are capped by CGS 47a-15a(b) at the lesser of $5/day up to $50 or 5 per cent of the delinquent payment, one charge per delinquent payment. |
| Lease-violation notice period | 15 days |
| Lease-violation notice rules (cure vs. termination) | Those 15 days are only the first of two notices. The CGS 47a-15 pre-termination notice runs 15 days from the tenant's receipt of it and gives a chance to cure; a separate three-day notice to quit under CGS 47a-23(a) must then follow before any case can be filed. Connecticut is a two-notice state for lease violations. Step one is the CGS 47a-15 pre-termination notice: prior to commencing a summary process action, where there is material noncompliance with CGS 47a-11 that materially affects the health and safety of other tenants or the physical condition of the premises, or material noncompliance with the rental agreement or with rules adopted under CGS 47a-9, 'the landlord shall deliver a written notice to the tenant specifying the acts or omissions constituting the breach and that the rental agreement shall terminate upon a date not less than fifteen days after receipt of the notice.' The fifteen days run from receipt, not from mailing or service. Cure: 'If such breach can be remedied by repair by the tenant or payment of damages by the tenant to the landlord, and such breach is not so remedied within such fifteen-day period, the rental agreement shall terminate except that (1) if the breach is remediable by repairs or the payment of damages and the tenant adequately remedies the breach within such fifteen-day period, the rental agreement shall not terminate.' Repeat-violation escalation: 'if substantially the same act or omission for which notice was given recurs within six months, the landlord may terminate the rental agreement in accordance with the provisions of sections 47a-23 to 47a-23b, inclusive' - i.e. a second occurrence within six months skips straight to the notice to quit with no new cure period. Step two, always required, is the CGS 47a-23(a) notice to quit possession giving at least three days, served by a proper officer with an attested copy under 47a-23(c) (as amended by P.A. 25-78, S. 18, effective October 1, 2025), with the right-to-counsel notice attached (CGS 47a-75(f)(2)). So the minimum statutory notice burden for a curable lease violation is 15 days plus 3 days, in that order, via two separate documents. A 47a-15 notice is a precondition to the right to serve a notice to quit on a covered ground; a landlord who serves only the notice to quit loses the case. Section 47a-15 does not apply, and no pre-termination notice is needed, where the landlord elects to evict for nonpayment of rent, for conduct constituting a serious nuisance, or for a violation of CGS 47a-11(h). |
| Unconditional-quit grounds | Grounds that skip the CGS 47a-15 fifteen-day cure notice and go straight to the three-day notice to quit under CGS 47a-23(a): (1) nonpayment of rent within the grace period provided in CGS 47a-15a (47a-23(a)(1)(D)); (2) serious nuisance, defined in CGS 47a-15 as '(A) inflicting bodily harm upon another tenant or the landlord or threatening to inflict such harm with the present ability to effect the harm and under circumstances which would lead a reasonable person to believe that such threat will be carried out, (B) substantial and wilful destruction of part of the dwelling unit or premises, (C) conduct which presents an immediate and serious danger to the safety of other tenants or the landlord, or (D) using the premises or allowing the premises to be used for prostitution or the illegal sale of drugs' (for a housing authority, also the illegal sale of drugs within 1,500 feet of housing authority property where the tenant resides); (3) violation of CGS 47a-11(h) - permitting a household member previously evicted for serious-nuisance drug sales to resume occupancy; (4) nuisance as defined in CGS 47a-32, meaning 'any conduct which interferes substantially with the comfort or safety of other tenants or occupants of the same or adjacent buildings or structures'; (5) lapse of time or an express stipulation in the lease (47a-23(a)(1)(A)-(B)); (6) occupancy by one who never had a right or privilege to occupy, or whose right has terminated (47a-23(a)(2)-(3)). Two grounds dispense with the notice to quit entirely: CGS 47a-31, where a lessee is convicted of keeping a house of ill-fame resorted to for prostitution or lewdness or of a gaming-law violation on the premises - 'the lease, contract or rental agreement ... shall thereupon be void; and the lessor may recover possession of the premises in the manner prescribed in this chapter, but notice to quit possession shall not be required'; and CGS 47a-25, where a written lease expressly waives notice to quit and the lease terminates by lapse of time, in which case 'the three days' notice prescribed in sections 47a-23 and 47a-23a shall not be necessary.' Note that a repeat of substantially the same breach within six months of a 47a-15 notice also permits direct resort to the notice to quit (CGS 47a-15(2)). |
| Court and action | Superior Court. The action is 'summary process,' governed by CGS chapter 832 (CGS 47a-23 through 47a-42a), with definitions supplied by CGS 47a-1 in chapter 830. A commissioner of the Superior Court issues the writ, summons and complaint, 'which shall be in the form and nature of an ordinary writ, summons and complaint in a civil process, but which shall set forth facts justifying a judgment for immediate possession or occupancy of the premises' (CGS 47a-23a(a)). Venue is the geographical area established under CGS 51-348 where the defendant resides or where the leased premises are located, at the plaintiff's election (CGS 47a-23a(b)). In the judicial districts of Hartford, New Britain, New Haven, Bridgeport, Waterbury and Stamford-Norwalk, 'all proceedings involving a housing matter ... shall first be placed on the housing docket for that district,' subject to transfer if the judge determines it is not a housing matter (CGS 47a-70(a)); the remaining districts hear summary process on the regular civil docket. Procedure is governed by chapter 832 together with the Connecticut Practice Book, principally Sec. 17-30 (summary process default and judgment for failure to appear or plead) and Sec. 17-53 (summary process executions); CGS 47a-74 directs the judges to adopt rules of practice for housing matters. Connecticut operates a statutory right to counsel in eviction proceedings for income-eligible tenants (CGS 47a-75), and the Judicial Branch right-to-counsel notice must be attached both to the notice to quit and to the summary process summons and complaint (CGS 47a-75(f)(2)). |
| Filing to hearing | Connecticut has no fixed statutory hearing date; the case is driven by a return date the plaintiff selects and by short pleading clocks, and a contested case is scheduled after the pleadings close. The complaint may issue only 'at the expiration of the three days prescribed in section 47a-23' (CGS 47a-23a(a)). The return-date mechanic is unusual and runs in two directions from the return day: the complaint 'may be made returnable six days, inclusive, after service upon the defendant and shall be returned to court at least three days before the return day' (CGS 47a-23a(a)). So the marshal must serve the defendant at least six days (counted inclusively) before the return day, and the plaintiff must file the served papers with the clerk at least three days before that same return day - service runs forward to the return date, filing runs backward from it. The complaint may be served on any day of the week. If the defendant is a nonresident or has gone to parts unknown, the summons copy must be mailed or first advertised at least six days before the return day (CGS 47a-23b(a)-(b)). After the return day the clocks are: the defendant must file an appearance within two days after the return day or the plaintiff may move for judgment for failure to appear, and 'the court shall, not later than the first court day after the filing of such motion, enter judgment that the complainant recover possession' (CGS 47a-26); a defendant who appears must plead within two days after the return day or face a motion for judgment for failure to plead, with three further days after the clerk receives that motion to plead (CGS 47a-26a); thereafter 'all pleadings, including motions, shall advance at least one step within each successive period of three days from the preceding pleading or motion' (CGS 47a-26c). On the plaintiff's motion the court will order the defendant to deposit use-and-occupancy payments with the court within ten days, without a hearing unless the defendant objects within five days of the filing of the motion; if an objection is filed the hearing must be held not more than seven days after the objection (CGS 47a-26b(a), (c)). Filing a use-and-occupancy motion does not suspend the pleading deadlines (CGS 47a-26b(a)). Where the case is contested, trial follows under CGS 47a-26d and the court enters judgment for possession if the statutory findings are made. |
| Writ of possession and lockout | The possession writ is the 'summary process execution.' It may not issue immediately: 'execution shall be stayed for five days from the date judgment has been rendered, provided any Sunday or legal holiday intervening shall be excluded in computing such five days' (CGS 47a-35(a)). If a timely appeal is taken within that five-day window, execution is stayed until final determination unless the trial judge finds the appeal was taken solely for delay or the defendant fails to make the payments ordered under CGS 47a-35a (CGS 47a-35(b)). A defendant may also apply within five days after judgment for a discretionary hardship stay under CGS 47a-37; the court may grant a stay in the aggregate not exceeding six months from the date of judgment, but 'such stay of execution shall not exceed three months in the aggregate if the reason for the judgment against the defendant was nonpayment of rent' (CGS 47a-39). The hardship-stay provisions do not apply to farm housing occupied by a farm worker, dwelling space furnished to domestic servants, caretakers, managers or other employees as compensation, seasonal resort rentals, or transient hotel/motel occupancy (CGS 47a-36). For a nonpayment judgment, a defendant must deposit the full arrearage with the clerk within five days of judgment to be eligible to apply for a stay (CGS 47a-37(a)). Once any stay expires the plaintiff may obtain an execution and the defendant, occupants and their possessions 'may be removed by a state marshal, pursuant to such execution, and delivered to the place of storage designated by the chief executive officer' (CGS 47a-42(a)). A state marshal - not the sheriff, not the landlord - performs the removal. P.A. 25-78, S. 19 (effective October 1, 2025) rewrote the notice sequence in CGS 47a-42(b): the marshal first gives the town's chief executive officer notice of the eviction (the former express twenty-four-hour requirement to the town was deleted), and 'after giving such notice to the chief executive officer of the town, the state marshal shall use reasonable efforts to locate and notify the defendant not less than twenty-four hours before the date and time such eviction is to take place' - so the twenty-four-hour clock now runs to the tenant. That notice must include service on each defendant and any other occupant, personally or at the premises, of a true copy of the summary process execution, on a Judicial Department form carrying conspicuous boldface notices about contacting an attorney, how to reclaim stored possessions, and that anyone remaining when the marshal returns may be arrested for criminal trespass in the first degree under CGS 53a-107. Removed possessions go to the designated storage place; if unclaimed and storage unpaid within fifteen days the chief executive officer sells them at public auction (CGS 47a-42(c)). An execution 'shall not be issued after the expiration of six months from the date such judgment was entered,' excluding any period during which execution was stayed (CGS 47a-41a). Practice Book Sec. 17-53 requires a hearing before an execution issues on a violation of a stipulated judgment or a stay beyond the statutory stay, except that for nonpayment of a sum certain an affidavit suffices and 'the execution shall issue on the third business day after the filing of the affidavit.' |
| Appeal window | 5 days |
| Best-case uncontested timeline (derived from statutory minimums — contested cases run longer) | Roughly 27 to 30 calendar days from the missed rent payment to the lockout, at the theoretical statutory floor for an uncontested nonpayment case. Those are statutory minimums, not observed averages, and a tenant who appears and litigates pushes the case out substantially further. Adding the statutory minimums produces that span: 9 days grace period after rent is unpaid when due before the ground exists (CGS 47a-15a(a)) + at least 3 days on the notice to quit (CGS 47a-23(a)) + service to a return date at least 6 days out, counted inclusively, with the papers filed at least 3 days before that return day (CGS 47a-23a(a)) + 2 days after the return day for the defendant to appear before a motion for judgment for failure to appear may be filed (CGS 47a-26) + judgment entered no later than the first court day after that motion is filed (CGS 47a-26) + a 5-day stay of execution from judgment, excluding intervening Sundays and legal holidays (CGS 47a-35(a)) + at least 24 hours' notice from the state marshal before the removal (CGS 47a-42(b), as amended by P.A. 25-78, S. 19). For a curable lease violation, substitute a 15-day pre-termination notice under CGS 47a-15 for the 9-day grace period and add the 3-day notice to quit on top, so the floor is roughly 33 to 36 days. The floor assumes same-day marshal service at each step, no objection to use-and-occupancy payments, no appearance by the tenant, and no hardship stay. A tenant who appears, pleads, and litigates triggers the three-day pleading-advancement cycle of CGS 47a-26c and a trial date, and a hardship stay under CGS 47a-39 can add up to six months (three months where the judgment was for nonpayment), so contested cases run substantially longer. |
| Self-help eviction (lockout, utility shutoff) barred | Yes |
| Self-help scope and tenant remedies | Locking a tenant out or seizing their belongings without a court order is a crime in Connecticut. Criminal lockout is a class C misdemeanor under CGS 53a-214, and the tenant can sue to be restored to possession and to recover double damages and costs. Barred by statute, and criminally. CGS 53a-214(a) provides that a landlord or lessor of a residential unit subject to chapter 830 or 832, an owner, or the agent of any of them 'is guilty of criminal lockout when, without benefit of a court order, he or she deprives a tenant, as defined in subsection (l) of section 47a-1, or a lessee of a nonresidential unit, of access to his or her residential or nonresidential unit or his or her possessions.' Criminal lockout is a class C misdemeanor (CGS 53a-214(b)). The civil remedy is the entry and detainer action under CGS 47a-43, available where a person makes forcible entry and detains with a strong hand, holds premises with force after a peaceable entry made without the actual possessor's consent, enters and causes damage to the premises or damages, removes or detains the possessor's personal property, or where 'the party put out of possession would be required to cause damage to the premises or commit a breach of the peace in order to regain possession' (CGS 47a-43(a)(1)-(4)). That last clause is what reaches an ordinary lockout: a tenant who would have to break a changed lock to get back in qualifies. The procedure is fast - the judge 'shall forthwith issue a summons ... to appear at a specified time and place, within eight days from the exhibition of such complaint,' served six days inclusive before the day appointed for trial (CGS 47a-43(b)-(c)). On a finding for the complainant the judge 'shall render judgment that the complainant be restored to, and reseized of, the premises or that the personal property removed or detained be returned to the complainant, and shall award a writ of restitution accordingly,' with costs and execution against the person complained of (CGS 47a-45a(a)). Damages are doubled: 'the party aggrieved may recover in a civil action double damages and his costs against the defendant' (CGS 47a-46). CGS 47a-41 voids any lease or rental agreement provision purporting to waive the tenant's rights under the stay-of-execution sections, and CGS 47a-4(a)(1) bars a rental agreement in which the tenant agrees to waive or forfeit rights or remedies under the landlord-tenant chapters. Retaliation is separately barred: under CGS 47a-20 a landlord may not maintain an action to recover possession, demand a rent increase, or decrease services within six months after the tenant has in good faith complained to officials or a fair rent commission, requested repairs, brought a CGS 47a-14h action, or organized or joined a tenants' union; CGS 47a-33 makes a retaliatory purpose a defense in summary process, subject to the exceptions in CGS 47a-20a. |
Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Connecticut Eviction Process Laws (verified July 24, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/eviction-process/connecticut/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Every figure above is cited to the Connecticut statute in the citations section below.
Notes and caveats
- Official 'current' pages lag the law — use the 2026 Supplement — the cga.ct.gov '/current/' chapter pages serve the statutes revised to January 1, 2025; four of the sections these answers rest on — 47a-15a, 47a-23, 47a-35a and 47a-42 — were amended in 2025 and are cited to the 2026 Supplement instead. A reader who relies only on the 'current' page gets three of these answers wrong, and the page is easy to misread: its 'revised to January 1, 2026' phrase belongs to the warning pointing readers AT the Supplement, not to the page's own text.
- A 3-day state on paper — the real nonpayment floor is 9 + 3 — the 3-day figure is the notice-to-quit period in 47a-23(a), not the practical clock. The tenant's real minimum protection before a case can be filed is the 9-day grace period plus the 3-day notice, so a comparison table reading Connecticut as a 3-day state understates it by nine days.
- Lease violations take two notices: 15 days, then 3 — the 15-day figure is the 47a-15 pre-termination cure period, and the 3-day notice to quit is always additionally required on that path — the true minimum is 15 + 3 via two separate documents. Quoting the 3-day figure alone would make Connecticut look like a one-notice state, which it is not.
- The 5-day appeal window runs longer on the wall clock — the 5 comes from 47a-35(b), which is eviction-specific and unambiguous ('no appeal shall be taken except within such five-day period') and displaces the Practice Book's general twenty-day civil window. But the five days exclude intervening Sundays and legal holidays, so the wall-clock window is usually longer than five calendar days — the day count alone is slightly misleading.
- 'Three full days' is Judicial Branch guidance, not statute — the rule that the notice to quit gives three full days excluding the day of service and the quit date comes from the Judicial Branch's official landlord guide and case law; 47a-23 itself says only 'at least three days before.' It is guidance rather than a separate statutory figure.
- Day counting: calendar days, with two express exceptions — 47a-35(a) excludes 'any Sunday or legal holiday intervening' from the five-day stay-of-execution and appeal period, and 47a-23a(a) counts the six days from service to the return day 'inclusive.' Practice Book Sec. 63-2 counts appellate deadlines by calendar rather than working days, counting the last day and not the first, with rollover when the clerk's office is closed.
- What changed in 2024-2025 — P.A. 25-78 §§18-19 (effective October 1, 2025) rewrote notice-to-quit service in 47a-23(c) and the eviction-notice sequence in 47a-42(b); Nov. Sp. Sess. P.A. 25-1 §§37-38 (effective January 1, 2026) added the online-rental-payment-system exception to 47a-23(a)(1)(D) and the five-day grace-period extension in 47a-15a(a); P.A. 25-91 §§8-9 (effective June 24, 2025) made conforming changes to 47a-26e and 47a-35a; P.A. 24-108 §8 (effective July 1, 2024) replaced the appeal bond in 47a-35a(a) with a court-ordered use-and-occupancy deposit.
- The 2026 session left eviction law untouched — of the 185 public acts of the 2026 regular session, only two touch Title 47a directly: P.A. 26-11 §15 — a purely technical cross-reference fix to 47a-23c(a)(1)(B) (subdivision (12) to subdivision (8) of 46a-64b), effective October 1, 2026, with no substantive change to the protected-tenant rule — and P.A. 26-79 §3, which amends security deposits, not eviction. P.A. 26-80 (state marshals) touches 47a-42/47a-42a only inside the marshal fee schedule.
- Two official texts haven't caught up with the statute — Practice Book Sec. 17-30(a) still describes the notice to quit as served by 'the proper officer or indifferent person,' which no longer matches 47a-23(c) as amended by P.A. 25-78 for residential premises — the statute controls. And 47a-35(b) still conditions the appellate stay on a 'bond, as provided in section 47a-35a,' though P.A. 24-108 removed the bond and replaced it with a court-ordered deposit of rent or use-and-occupancy value after a hearing held within fourteen days; read together, the stay now depends on complying with the 47a-35a(a) payment order.
- Protected tenants: no-fault eviction effectively abolished — 47a-23c bars any dispossession action against tenants aged 62 or older (or living with a spouse, sibling, parent or grandparent 62+) or with a qualifying disability expected to result in death or last at least twelve months, in buildings or complexes of five or more units or mobile manufactured home parks, except on seven good-cause grounds: nonpayment; refusal to agree to a fair and equitable rent increase; material noncompliance with 47a-11 affecting health, safety or the premises; voiding under 47a-31 or material noncompliance with the rental agreement; material noncompliance with 47a-9 rules; permanent removal of the unit from the housing market; or the landlord's bona fide intention to use the unit as a principal residence — with the last three unavailable during the term of an existing rental agreement. Landlords may demand proof of protected status (the tenant has thirty days to supply it), and since January 1, 2024 landlords of covered buildings must give every tenant the Department of Housing notice of these rights at every rental, renewal or new agreement.
- Fair rent commissions touch eviction too — commissions — mandatory in every municipality with a population of 15,000 or more (7-148b(b), as amended effective January 1, 2026; the threshold was 25,000 before then) — are expressly empowered to carry out 47a-20 and 47a-23c(b): a protected tenant contesting a rent increase files with the local commission (or, where none exists, brings a Superior Court action), and while a commission does not itself stay a pending summary process action, its fairness determination removes or supplies the 47a-23c(b)(1)(B) ground. Commissions may also order rent limited to a fair and equitable amount, suspend rent payments into escrow for health or safety violations, and issue cease-and-desist orders against retaliation (7-148d).
- No local eviction ordinances — and no official commission list — no Connecticut statute authorizes municipal just-cause eviction ordinances or longer local notice periods; chapter 832's notice periods are uniform statewide, and the only municipal layer is the fair rent commission. No town-by-town list of commissions appears here: there is no official state registry of adopting towns, and the circulating lists trace to non-official sources.
- Out of scope: mobile home parks, exempt occupancies, commercial — mobile manufactured home parks run on a parallel track in chapter 412 — 21-80 supplies its own grounds and much longer notice periods (thirty days for continued violation of a park rule, 545 days for a change in use of the land) and 21-83 carries its own nine-day grace period — so do not blend those into the residential figures. 47a-2 exempts various arrangements from Title 47a entirely, and the hardship stay does not reach farm housing occupied by a farm worker, employee dwelling space, seasonal resort rentals, or transient hotel/motel lodging (47a-36), with 47a-30 and 47a-36(b) supplying a separate route for former farm and resident employees. Commercial tenancies share chapter 832 but differ: rent is due when due with no grace period (47a-23(a)(1)(E)) and the landlord may claim forfeiture of the tenant's possessions (47a-23a(a), 47a-42a).
- Subsidized tenancies may need a federal notice first — subsidized and Section 8 tenancies may require an additional federal pre-termination notice, which 47a-23(e) permits to be combined with the state notice to quit provided the tenancy does not terminate until the later of the quit date or completion of the pretermination process.
- The sources behind the headline figures — the headline figures — the 15-day cure notice with its six-month recurrence rule, the 9-day/4-day grace period, and the 5-day stay-and-appeal window with its Sunday/holiday exclusion — come verbatim from the statute text on cga.ct.gov, stated as the law stood on July 24, 2026, with the amended sections taken from the 2026 Supplement rather than the 'current' pages.
Common questions: Connecticut eviction process
Each answer is the verified value from the table above, restated as a direct answer. Free to quote with a link to this page.
- How much notice does a landlord have to give before filing an eviction for unpaid rent in Connecticut?
- 3 days. But those three days cannot start until the tenant's statutory grace period has run: nine days after rent is unpaid when due, or four days on a week-to-week tenancy. Only then may the landlord serve the notice to quit possession, which must give at least three days before the tenancy ends.
- How much notice is required to evict for a lease violation in Connecticut?
- 15 days. Those 15 days are only the first of two notices. The CGS 47a-15 pre-termination notice runs 15 days from the tenant's receipt of it and gives a chance to cure; a separate three-day notice to quit under CGS 47a-23(a) must then follow before any case can be filed.
- How long does an eviction take in Connecticut?
- Roughly 27 to 30 calendar days from the missed rent payment to the lockout, at the theoretical statutory floor for an uncontested nonpayment case. Those are statutory minimums, not observed averages, and a tenant who appears and litigates pushes the case out substantially further.
- How long does a tenant have to appeal an eviction judgment in Connecticut?
- 5 days.
- Can a landlord change the locks or shut off utilities instead of going to court in Connecticut?
- No — Connecticut bars self-help eviction by statute; a landlord must go through the court process. Locking a tenant out or seizing their belongings without a court order is a crime in Connecticut. Criminal lockout is a class C misdemeanor under CGS 53a-214, and the tenant can sue to be restored to possession and to recover double damages and costs.
Changes since last full verification
The Verified date above (July 24, 2026) marks the last time every figure on this page was verified end-to-end against official state sources. The changes below were published since then, each verified against the official source it names (what these dates mean).
- Correction, August 13, 2026 — Connecticut's local-rent-regulation posture and the fair-rent-commission references on the eviction page previously gave the 25,000-population threshold for the municipal fair rent commission mandate. November Special Session Public Act 25-1, Section 35, effective January 1, 2026, cut the threshold to 15,000, allowed the mandate to be satisfied by a joint or regional commission, and gave newly covered municipalities until January 1, 2028 to comply. The operative text appears in the 2026 Supplement to the General Statutes; the base revision still prints the prior text, and the record's citations now point to the supplement.
Statute citations
- CGS 47a-15 Noncompliance by tenant; 15-day pre-termination notice; serious nuisance definition; 6-month repeat clause (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-15a subsec. (a) - 9-day / 4-day grace period plus 5-day online-payment-system extension (2026 Supplement text) (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-23 subsecs. (a)-(e) - three-day notice to quit, grounds, statutory form, service by proper officer, use-and-occupancy disclaimer (2026 Supplement text) (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-23a subsec. (a) - complaint returnable six days inclusive after service, returned to court at least three days before return day; subsec. (b) venue (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-23b subsecs. (a)-(b) - ten-day notice for nonresident lessee or whereabouts unknown (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-23c subsecs. (a)-(e) - protected tenants aged 62+ or with a disability in buildings/complexes of five or more units; good-cause grounds; fair and equitable rent; landlord notice duty (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-25 waiver of notice to quit in a written lease terminating by lapse of time (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-26 failure to appear within two days after return day; judgment not later than first court day after motion filed (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-26a failure to plead within two days after return day; three days after clerk receives motion (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-26b subsecs. (a), (c) - use and occupancy payments; five-day objection window; hearing within seven days (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-26c pleadings advance at least one step within each successive three-day period (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-26d trial, finding and judgment for possession (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-26g appeal allowed as provided in 47a-35 to 47a-35b and 51-197c to 51-197f (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-31 illegal use voids lease; notice to quit not required (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-32 definition of nuisance for summary process (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-35 subsec. (a) - five-day stay of execution excluding intervening Sunday or legal holiday; subsec. (b) - no appeal except within such five-day period (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-35a subsec. (a) - hearing within fourteen days of notice of the appeal; court-ordered deposit of rent / use and occupancy during appeal (2026 Supplement text) (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-36 occupancies excluded from the hardship stay provisions - farm housing, employee dwelling space, seasonal resort rentals, transient hotel/motel (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-37 subsec. (a) - application for stay of execution within five days after judgment; full arrearage deposit required in nonpayment cases (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-39 stay in the aggregate not exceeding six months; not exceeding three months where judgment was for nonpayment of rent (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-41a execution void after six months from entry of judgment, excluding stayed periods (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-42 subsecs. (a)-(c) - removal by state marshal; 24-hour notice to the defendant; service of a true copy of the summary process execution; storage and sale (2026 Supplement text) (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-43 subsecs. (a)-(c) - entry and detainer; summons within eight days; served six days inclusive before trial (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-45a subsec. (a) - writ of restitution restoring the complainant to possession (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-46 double damages and costs for an unlawful entry or detainer (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 53a-214 subsecs. (a)-(b) - criminal lockout, class C misdemeanor (2026 Supplement text) (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-3a subsec. (a) - rent payable without demand or notice; subsec. (d) - tenant right to a ledger on request (2026 Supplement text) (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-11 subsecs. (a)-(h) - tenant responsibilities; (h) readmitting an evicted drug-sale occupant (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-19 acceptance of overdue rent waives the right to terminate (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-20 six-month retaliatory-action bar (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-20a actions deemed not retaliatory (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-33 retaliation as a defense in summary process (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-41 lease provisions waiving tenant's stay-of-execution rights are void (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-70 subsec. (a) - housing docket in Hartford, New Britain, New Haven, Bridgeport, Waterbury and Stamford-Norwalk (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 47a-75 subsec. (f)(2) - right-to-counsel notice must be attached to the notice to quit and to the summary process summons and complaint (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 7-148b subsec. (b) - fair rent commission mandatory in municipalities of 15,000 or more (as amended eff. 2026-01-01; 25,000 before then); powers include carrying out 47a-20 and 47a-23c(b) (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 7-148d subsecs. (a)-(b) - orders limiting rent, suspending rent payments into escrow, and cease-and-desist for retaliation (verified 2026) Official source
- CGS 21-80 subsecs. (a)-(b) - separate mobile manufactured home park grounds and notice periods (30 days for rule violations; 545 days for change of use) (verified 2026) Official source
- Conn. Practice Book Sec. 17-30 subsecs. (a)-(c) - summary process default and judgment for failure to appear or plead (2026 Practice Book) (verified 2026) Official source
- Conn. Practice Book Sec. 17-53 summary process executions; hearing requirement; execution issues on the third business day after affidavit (2026 Practice Book) (verified 2026) Official source
- Conn. Practice Book Sec. 63-1 subsec. (a) - twenty-day general civil appeal period applies only 'unless a different time period is provided by statute' (2026 Practice Book) (verified 2026) Official source
- Conn. Practice Book Sec. 63-2 counting days for appellate filings - last day counted, first day not; calendar not working days (2026 Practice Book) (verified 2026) Official source
- P.A. 25-78 (Sub. H.B. 7139), Secs. 18-19 enrolled act - amends 47a-23(c) service and 47a-42(b) eviction notice, both effective October 1, 2025 (verified 2026) Official source
- Nov. Sp. Sess. P.A. 25-1 (H.B. 8002), Secs. 37-38 enrolled act - amends 47a-23(a)(1)(D) and 47a-15a(a) for online rental payment system failures, effective January 1, 2026 (verified 2026) Official source
- P.A. 26-11 (Sub. S.B. 473), Sec. 15 enrolled act - technical cross-reference fix to 47a-23c(a)(1)(B), effective October 1, 2026 (not yet in force) (verified 2026) Official source
- Conn. Judicial Branch, A Landlord's Guide to Residential Summary Process (Eviction) Slides 7-8, 15-16 - pre-termination notice sequence; 'three full days' excluding the service date and the quit date; service six days before and filing three days before the return date (verified 2026) Official source
How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text on the official Connecticut General Assembly site (cga.ct.gov): chapters 830, 831, 832 and 98 downloaded in full from the current-revision pages AND from the 2026 Supplement (revised to January 1, 2026), which carries the 2025-session amendments to Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-15a, 47a-21, 47a-23 and 7-148b — the supplement text is the operative text used here. Every number that decides an answer here was read at least twice in independent documents: the 2-month/1-month deposit caps, 21-day/15-day return deadline, double-deposit penalty, deposit-index interest rule, 9-day/4-day grace periods, $5-per-day/$50/5%-of-delinquent-payment late-fee cap, and the reasonable-notice entry standard were each confirmed verbatim on both the official pages and the Justia 2024-edition mirror; the 2025 changes (fair-rent-commission threshold 25,000 to 15,000, +5-day online-payment-outage grace extension, rent-algorithm ban) were confirmed in both the 2026 Supplement and the enrolled November Special Session Public Act 25-1 (HB 8002) PDF on cga.ct.gov; the 30-to-21-day deposit-deadline change and late-fee cap were traced to PA 23-207 sections 8, 38 and 39 (effective 2023-10-01) in the enrolled act PDF. The 2026 security-deposit interest rate (0.49% deposit index) was double-read on two official Department of Banking pages. 2026-session sweep: PA 26-79 section 3 (SB 218) read in the enrolled PDF and flagged as pending (effective 2026-10-01); bill-status pages read for HB 5092, HB 5359, SB 257 and SB 274, all of which died at the 2026-05-06 adjournment.