Connecticut Eviction Process: Notice Periods, Timeline, and Costs

For a monthly tenancy, rent is not a valid eviction ground until the tenant fails to pay within the nine-day statutory grace period in C.G.S. § 47a-15a (four days for a week-to-week tenancy). Only after that grace period runs may you serve the three-day Notice to Quit under § 47a-23. The three days are full calendar days that exclude both the day of service and the quit date itself, so the earliest quit date is the fourth day after service, and you cannot file the summary process case until the day after the quit date. The notice must be in writing, state the ground in language close to the statute, name every adult occupant, include the § 47a-75 Right to Counsel Notice, and be served by a state marshal or other proper officer under § 52-50.

For material noncompliance with the lease or the landlord's rules, C.G.S. § 47a-15 requires a written pre-termination notice (the "Kapa" notice) specifying the acts complained of and stating the agreement terminates on a date at least 15 days after receipt; if the tenant cures within 15 days, the tenancy continues. Nonpayment of rent, serious nuisance as defined in § 47a-15, and violations of § 47a-11(h) skip the 15-day notice entirely, and if substantially the same act recurs within six months you may go straight to the notice to quit. The 15-day notice does not replace the notice to quit; you still must serve a separate three-day Notice to Quit afterward.

Connecticut has no long no-cause notice period: a month-to-month tenancy ends by lapse of time, and you serve the same three-day Notice to Quit citing "lapse of time," timed so the quit date falls at or after the end of the rental month. The major limit is C.G.S. § 47a-23c, which bars no-cause eviction of tenants who are 62 or older or have a qualifying physical or mental disability (or who live with such a spouse, sibling, child, parent or grandparent) in a building or complex of five or more dwelling units, or in a mobile manufactured home park; those tenants may be removed only for the causes listed in the statute. A statewide just-cause expansion has been proposed but has not become law.

Summary process is filed in the Superior Court for the geographical area where the property sits, heard in a Housing Session where one exists; the entry fee is $175 under C.G.S. § 52-259. The summons and complaint must be served by a state marshal at least six days before the return date and filed with the clerk at least three days before the return date.

Under C.G.S. § 47a-26 the tenant must file an appearance within two days after the return date or the landlord may move for a default judgment for failure to appear. A tenant who appears must then plead within two days after the return date under § 47a-26a; note the clock runs from the return date, not from the date of service.

Counting the nine-day grace period, the three-day notice to quit, six-day pre-return-date service, the appearance and pleading deadlines, the five-day stay of execution after judgment, and the marshal's 24-hour notice before the lockout, an uncontested nonpayment case usually runs five to nine weeks. A defective notice to quit, an omitted occupant, a missing Right to Counsel Notice, a tenant appearance and answer, a retaliation or bad-conditions defense, or a discretionary stay of execution under §§ 47a-37 to 47a-39 can add weeks or force you to restart.

Self-help eviction is illegal in Connecticut. Only a state marshal acting on a court-issued summary process execution may remove a tenant or their belongings (C.G.S. § 47a-42), and the marshal must give 24 hours' notice first. A landlord who changes the locks, removes doors, or puts a tenant's property out can be sued under the entry and detainer statute, § 47a-43, with the tenant restored to possession and awarded double damages plus costs under § 47a-46. Willfully cutting off heat, hot water, electricity, gas, or water lets the tenant terminate the lease and recover two months' rent or double actual damages, whichever is greater, plus attorney's fees (§ 47a-13).

Connecticut's eviction notice periods did not change in 2024-2026; the last substantive package was Public Act 23-207, which capped late rent charges under § 47a-15a(b) and, effective January 1, 2024, requires landlords of buildings or complexes with five or more units to give each new or renewing tenant written notice of the § 47a-23c protected-tenant rights. Efforts to extend just-cause protection to all tenants in five-plus-unit buildings failed twice: HB 6889 (2025) got a Housing Committee joint favorable report on March 6, 2025 but was never called for a House vote, and SB 257 (2026) was reported favorably by the Housing and Judiciary Committees but died on the Senate calendar when the session ended.

If the property is owned by an LLC or corporation, the entity must be represented by a licensed attorney in Superior Court; only an individual owner can appear pro se, and a corporate landlord that shows up without counsel risks being defaulted. Since October 1, 2021, C.G.S. § 47a-75 requires the Right to Counsel Notice to accompany every residential notice to quit and every residential summons and complaint, and tenants in covered ZIP codes may get free counsel. Accepting rent after serving the notice to quit can waive it, so use the use-and-occupancy disclaimer language in § 47a-23(e). Connecticut has no rent control, but Public Act 22-30 required every municipality over 25,000 residents to create a fair rent commission, which can review rent increases and hear certain lapse-of-time eviction complaints.

• Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47a-23
• Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47a-15a
• Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47a-15