Free Connecticut Residential Lease Agreement

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A configurable Connecticut residential lease agreement that generates a signable multi-page PDF. Built to Connecticut General Statutes chapter 830 — the two-month deposit cap that becomes one month at sixty-two, the escrow account and compulsory interest, and the 45-day rent-increase notice.

Connecticut Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-1 Deposit Interest Free PDF 2026 Edition

A Connecticut residential lease agreement is the written contract governed by Connecticut General Statutes chapter 830, at 47a-1 and following, together with the security-deposit section at 47a-21 and the summary-process sections at 47a-23 and following. Connecticut has drifted a long way from the uniform act it started with, and the drift accelerated between 2023 and 2025. The security deposit is capped at two months’ rent — but only one month’s rent for a tenant sixty-two or older — and it must sit in an escrow account at a named financial institution while earning interest the landlord pays out every year. Entry needs “reasonable” notice and no fixed number of hours. Ending a month-to-month tenancy takes a three-day notice to quit, not the thirty days most templates recite, while a rent increase now takes forty-five days. And from April 1, 2026 a written Connecticut lease is not compliant at all unless a Department of Housing summary form sits in front of it as page one.

Complete the fields below to generate a Connecticut residential lease agreement as a signable multi-page PDF. Every field you fill is written into the document, including the utility allocations, the escrow bank and each disclosure you check, and the generated lease cites the controlling Connecticut section at each point. Before handing over keys, run proper tenant screening — and note that Connecticut regulates the screening fee itself. Pair the signed lease with a Connecticut move-in / move-out checklist, because 47a-7c makes the pre-occupancy walk-through the document that decides what may later be deducted from the deposit.

Connecticut recognizes the standard range of residential arrangements. A fixed-term lease runs for a stated period and expires on its own terms. A periodic tenancy renews each period until one side ends it — and Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-3b supplies the default: where the rental agreement fixes no definite term the tenancy is month to month, and where the tenant pays weekly rent it is week to week. A room or roommate agreement covers a tenant renting one room; the statute even has a word for the arrangement, defining a roomer at 47a-1 as someone whose unit lacks a refrigerator, stove, kitchen sink, toilet and shower or bathtub, one or more of which are shared. A sublease passes the tenant’s interest to a subtenant, and note that 47a-21 expressly treats a subletting tenant as a landlord for deposit purposes.

Several categories fall outside this form. A commercial lease is not governed by chapter 830. And Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-2 exempts a longer list than most states: residence at an institution incidental to detention or to medical, geriatric, educational, counselling or religious service; occupancy under a contract of sale; occupancy by a member of a fraternal or social organization in its own structure; transient occupancy in a hotel, motel or similar lodging; occupancy by a condominium unit owner; and occupancy by a personal care assistant housed as a condition of employment. The transient test is unusually precise: under 47a-2(c) occupancy of under thirty days is transient unless the room is the occupant’s primary residence from the start, and occupancy of thirty days or more is not transient unless the room is not the primary residence and the stay runs under ninety days.

One drafting note that matters more in Connecticut than elsewhere. Nothing requires a residential lease to be notarized or witnessed. But 47a-3d provides that holding over is not evidence of any agreement for a further lease, and that a parol lease reserving a monthly rent whose termination date is not agreed is a lease for one month only. An unwritten arrangement in Connecticut is therefore not a long tenancy the parties forgot to paper — it is legally a series of one-month tenancies.

Two months’ rent — or one month’s rent if the tenant is sixty-two or older. Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-21(b)(1) caps the deposit at two months’ rent for a tenant under sixty-two. Section 47a-21(b)(2) caps it at one month’s rent for a tenant sixty-two or older, and adds a rule most summaries miss entirely: a landlord who has already received more than one month’s rent from a tenant who becomes sixty-two during the tenancy shall return the excess on that tenant’s request.

What counts is as important as how much. Under 47a-21(a) a “security deposit” means any advance rental payment, except an advance payment for the first month’s rent and except a deposit for a key or any special equipment. So the customary first-month-plus-deposit arrangement does not breach the two-month cap, because the first month’s rent is not deposit money at all. It also means the first month’s rent does not carry the escrow duty or the interest duty — which is exactly why the form above keeps the three figures in separate fields.

The deposit also never becomes the landlord’s money. Section 47a-21(c) provides that it remains the property of the tenant, in which the landlord holds only a security interest, and that it is exempt from attachment and execution by the landlord’s creditors and is not part of the landlord’s estate in any legal proceeding. Where the building is sold, the transfer automatically assigns the landlord’s security interest in every tenant’s deposit to the buyer. The deeper treatment lives in our Connecticut security deposit laws guide.

In an escrow account at a financial institution, immediately. Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-21(h)(1) requires each landlord to deposit the entire amount of every security deposit received into one or more escrow accounts established or maintained at a financial institution for the benefit of each tenant, to hold that account as escrow agent, and not to withdraw from it except for a reason listed in 47a-21(h)(2). Those reasons are narrow: paying the deposit and interest out at the end, paying interest during the tenancy, transferring deposits on a sale, retaining bank interest above what the tenant is owed, retaining what the tenant genuinely owes for damage after termination, returning money to the tenant during the tenancy, or moving the funds to another escrow account.

Then comes the disclosure that almost no lease template carries. Under 47a-21(h)(4)(A), within thirty days of receiving the deposit — or of moving it to another institution or account — the landlord must give the tenant written notice of the amount held for that tenant’s benefit and the name and address of the financial institution holding it. Under 47a-21(h)(4)(B), if the Banking Commissioner asks in writing for information about a tenant’s deposit, including the institution and the account number, the landlord has seven days to answer.

That reference to the Banking Commissioner is not decorative. Connecticut is unusual in putting a banking regulator, rather than a housing agency or the courts alone, behind its deposit rules. Under 47a-21(j) the commissioner may receive and investigate complaints about the cap, the return, the escrow duty and the interest duty, may subject a landlord to the department’s investigative powers, and may order a landlord to cease and desist and to comply. The commissioner’s jurisdiction stops at two points: a failure to pay the annual interest, and a refusal to return the deposit that rests on the landlord’s good-faith claim of damages — which the statute defines as a claim for actual damages of which written notice was given to the tenant in the itemized statement.

Yes — and this is the Connecticut duty imported templates never carry. Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-21(i) requires the landlord to pay interest on each security deposit at a rate of not less than the deposit index. Only student housing owned or controlled by an educational institution is carved out; mobile manufactured home owners and park operators are carved in.

The rate is not fixed in the lease and it is not fixed in the statute. Conn. Gen. Stat. 36a-26 tells you where to find it: “The Banking Commissioner shall determine the deposit index for each calendar year and publish such deposit index in the Department of Banking’s news bulletin and on the department’s Internet web site not later than December fifteenth of the prior year.” The index itself is the average of the national rates for savings deposits and money market deposits for the last week in November of the prior year, as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation publishes them under 12 C.F.R. 337.6. So the rate changes every January, and the only correct place to read it is the Department of Banking’s own deposit-index page. For calendar year 2026 the commissioner set it at 0.49 per cent; that figure is verified as of this page’s revision date and should be re-checked each year rather than assumed.

The mechanics are what landlords get wrong. Interest is paid to the tenant, or credited toward the next rent payment at the landlord’s election, on the anniversary date of the tenancy and annually thereafter — not held back and settled at move-out. Where the tenancy ends early, or the landlord returns the deposit early, the accrued interest is due within twenty-one days. No interest accrues for any month in which the tenant was delinquent more than ten days in paying monthly rent, unless the landlord imposed a late charge for that delinquency — a genuine trade-off, since charging the late fee preserves the tenant’s interest for that month. And the landlord may not increase the rent because of the duty to pay it.

Two more points close the loop. Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-4(a)(4) makes a lease clause under which the tenant waives the right to that interest unenforceable, so the duty cannot be drafted away. And 47a-21(k)(3) makes a knowing and wilful failure to pay interest when due a finable offence in its own right.

The later of twenty-one days after termination, or fifteen days after written notice of the forwarding address. Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-21(d)(2) sets a two-limbed deadline that most summaries compress into a single number. The tenant may, on termination, notify the landlord in writing of a forwarding address. The landlord then has until 21 days after termination of the tenancy or fifteen days after receiving that written notice, whichever is later, to deliver to the tenant at that address either the full deposit plus accrued interest, or the balance plus accrued interest together with a written statement itemizing the nature and amount of each deduction.

The penalty is one of the sharpest in the country. A landlord who violates that subsection is liable for twice the amount of the security deposit — not twice the wrongly withheld portion, twice the deposit. There is a narrower rule for the narrower failure: where the only violation is failing to deliver the accrued interest, the landlord is liable for ten dollars or twice the accrued interest, whichever is greater. Section 47a-21(k) then adds criminal fines for a knowing and wilful failure to pay the deposit, for an escrow violation, and for an interest violation.

Practical consequence for both sides: the forwarding-address notice is worth putting in writing and worth keeping proof of, because it is what starts the fifteen-day limb running, and a tenant who never gives one leaves only the twenty-one-day limb to argue about. Build the itemization with our Connecticut security deposit itemization form and send the balance with a Connecticut security deposit return letter.

Reasonable notice — and Connecticut deliberately sets no number. Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-16(c) requires the landlord to give the tenant “reasonable written or oral notice of his intent to enter” and to enter “only at reasonable times, except in case of emergency”, and in the same breath forbids the landlord to abuse the right of entry or use it to harass the tenant. There is no twenty-four-hour rule and no forty-eight-hour rule anywhere in the section. A lease that recites one for Connecticut has imported it from somewhere else.

Two things follow. What is reasonable depends on the purpose and the circumstances — a scheduled annual inspection and a plumber chasing a leak are not the same request — and oral notice genuinely suffices, though written notice is what either side can later prove. Section 47a-16(a) lists the permitted purposes the tenant may not unreasonably refuse: inspection, necessary or agreed repairs, alterations or improvements, necessary or agreed services, and showings to prospective or actual purchasers, mortgagees, tenants, workmen or contractors.

Section 47a-16(d) then closes the door on everything else. The landlord may not enter without the tenant’s consent except in an emergency, as 47a-16a permits, under a court order, or where the tenant has abandoned or surrendered the premises. Section 47a-16a is the extended-absence rule: the tenant must notify the landlord of an anticipated prolonged absence, and the landlord may then enter at reasonable times during it for the listed purposes.

Connecticut compensates for the absence of a number with an unusually concrete remedy. Under 47a-18a, where the landlord makes a prohibited entry, or makes repeated demands for entry that are lawful in themselves but have the effect of unreasonably harassing the tenant, the tenant may recover actual damages not less than an amount equal to one month’s rent plus reasonable attorney’s fees, and may obtain an injunction or terminate the lease. The floor is the point: the tenant does not have to prove a loss. The mirror provision, 47a-18, gives the landlord a declaratory judgment or injunction, actual damages and attorney’s fees where the tenant refuses lawful entry. A dated Connecticut notice to enter is how a landlord shows the notice was reasonable; see Connecticut landlord entry laws for the full picture.

Nine days of grace, and a late fee capped at the lesser of five dollars a day up to fifty dollars or five per cent of the rent. Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-15a(a) provides that where rent is unpaid when due and the tenant fails to pay within nine days — or within four days on a one-week tenancy — the landlord may terminate under the summary-process sections. Those periods are the statutory “grace period”, and since January 1, 2026 they are extended a further five days where the landlord’s own online rental payment system prevents payment of rent when due, for the week or month in which the system failed.

The fee ceiling arrived in 2023 and is tighter than most landlords expect. Under 47a-15a(b) a late charge may be assessed only where the lease contains a valid written agreement to pay one, only on a payment made after the grace period, and may not exceed the lesser of five dollars per day up to a maximum of fifty dollars, or five per cent of the delinquent rent payment. Where the rent is paid in whole or in part by a governmental or charitable entity, the five per cent is measured against the tenant’s share. And the landlord may not assess more than one late charge on a delinquent payment, regardless of how long the rent stays unpaid — so a per-day charge stops accruing once the ceiling is hit and cannot be re-imposed the following month for the same arrears.

The prohibited-terms section backs both rules up. Section 47a-4(a)(8) makes unenforceable a clause under which the tenant agrees to pay a late charge before the grace period expires, and equally a clause offering reduced rent for paying early — Connecticut treats the discount and the penalty as the same thing wearing different hats. Section 47a-4(a)(9) makes unenforceable a clause charging more than 47a-15a allows. Section 47a-19 adds a trap on the other side: accepting rent with knowledge that it is overdue waives the right to terminate for that late payment. See Connecticut late fee laws, and serve nonpayment with our Connecticut nine-day notice to pay rent or quit.

Forty-five days — a rule that did not exist before October 2024. Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-4e provides that no rent increase for a dwelling unit is effective unless the landlord has given the tenant written notice of the proposed increase not less than forty-five days before the day it is proposed to take effect. For a lease with a term of one month or less, the notice period equals a full term of that lease.

Three details are doing real work. The tenant’s failure to respond is not agreement to the increase, so silence cannot be treated as acceptance. The section does not allow a landlord to raise the rent during the term of an existing rental agreement — it governs the notice for an increase that is otherwise permitted, not a new power to impose one. And it does not displace any federal notice requirement for subsidized housing.

Where the tenant is protected under 47a-23c, a further limit applies: the rent may be increased only so far as the increase is fair and equitable judged against the criteria in 7-148c, and the tenant may take it to the local fair rent commission or, where none exists, to the Superior Court. Conn. Gen. Stat. 7-148b, as amended by Nov. Sp. Sess. Public Act 25-1 effective January 1, 2026, requires every Connecticut municipality with a population of fifteen thousand or more to create a fair rent commission, or join a joint or regional one, by ordinance on or before January 1, 2028; the earlier threshold was twenty-five thousand with a July 1, 2023 deadline, so most Connecticut renters already have one locally and more municipalities are being swept in. Our Connecticut rent increase laws guide covers the mechanics, and the Connecticut rent increase notice generates the document.

Almost none. Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-4d, added in 2023, is one of the strictest pre-tenancy fee rules in the country. No landlord may demand from a prospective tenant any payment, fee or charge for the processing, review or acceptance of a rental application, or demand any other payment, fee or charge before or at the beginning of the tenancy, except four things: a security deposit under 47a-21, an advance payment of the first month’s rent, a deposit for a key or any special equipment, and a tenant screening report fee. The section then adds a flat prohibition in its own sentence: no landlord may charge a tenant a move-in or move-out fee.

The screening fee is regulated rather than banned. A landlord may charge a fee not exceeding fifty dollars plus an adjustment reflecting any increase in the consumer price index for urban consumers, as the Commissioner of Housing determines annually — so the ceiling drifts upward and, like the deposit index, has to be read from the agency rather than assumed. A landlord who charges it must give the prospective tenant a copy of the screening report, or the information needed to request it from the provider, and a copy of the receipt or invoice from the entity that produced it. “Tenant screening report” is defined broadly: a credit report, a criminal background report, an employment history report, a rental history report, or any combination.

The 2025 advertising rule tightens the same theme from the other end. Under 47a-7d a landlord may not advertise, display or offer a unit at a rent that excludes any fee, charge or cost the tenant must pay periodically; those must be prorated into the advertised figure, and that applies even to a monthly default charge the tenant could opt out of. Only a handful of things may sit outside: an actual-cost payment-processing fee where a free alternative exists, pet fees and deposits, submetered or directly billed variable utilities, damage charges beyond normal wear and tear, and one-off service fees such as a lockout or key replacement. See Connecticut tenant screening laws for the screening side.

Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-7(a) sets six landlord duties: comply with chapter 368o and all applicable building and housing codes materially affecting health and safety; make all repairs and do whatever is necessary to put and keep the premises in a fit and habitable condition; keep all common areas clean and safe; maintain in good and safe working order all electrical, plumbing, sanitary, heating, ventilating and other facilities and appliances and elevators supplied or required to be supplied; provide and maintain receptacles for ashes, garbage, rubbish and other waste and arrange for removal; and supply running water and reasonable amounts of hot water at all times and reasonable heat.

Two things stand out against other states. Connecticut names elevators expressly, which matters in a housing stock full of older walk-ups and mid-rises. And Connecticut imposes no cooling or air-conditioning duty at all — the heat duty is one-directional. The heat duty also has express carve-outs: it does not apply where the building is not required by law to be equipped for the purpose, or where the unit is built so that heat or hot water is generated by an installation within the tenant’s exclusive contr