How much can a Connecticut landlord charge for a security deposit?

Two months' rent, or one month's rent where the tenant is sixty-two years of age or older. Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-21(b) sets both tiers, and where a sitting tenant turns sixty-two after paying a larger deposit the landlord must return the excess on that tenant's request. An advance payment of the first month's rent, and a deposit for a key or special equipment, are not security deposits at all under 47a-21(a).

Does a Connecticut landlord have to pay interest on a security deposit?

Yes. Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-21(i) requires interest at not less than the deposit index. Under 36a-26 the Banking Commissioner determines that index for each calendar year and publishes it on the Department of Banking website not later than December fifteenth of the prior year, so the rate changes annually and must be read from the department rather than assumed. Interest is paid to the tenant or credited toward the next rent on each anniversary of the tenancy, and a lease clause waiving it is unenforceable under 47a-4(a)(4).

How long does a Connecticut landlord have to return the security deposit?

The later of twenty-one days after termination of the tenancy or fifteen days after the landlord receives written notice of the tenant's forwarding address, under Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-21(d)(2). The landlord must deliver the deposit plus accrued interest, or the balance plus a written statement itemizing each deduction. A landlord who gets this wrong is liable for twice the amount of the deposit.

Where must a Connecticut security deposit be held?

In an escrow account at a financial institution, immediately, for the benefit of the tenant, under Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-21(h)(1). The deposit stays the tenant's property, is exempt from attachment by the landlord's creditors, and is not part of the landlord's estate. Within thirty days the landlord must give the tenant written notice of the amount held and the name and address of the institution holding it.

How much notice must a Connecticut landlord give before entering?

Reasonable written or oral notice, and entry only at reasonable times. Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-16(c) sets no number of hours and no number of days, so a lease that recites a twenty-four-hour or forty-eight-hour rule for Connecticut is reciting a rule the statute does not contain. A landlord who enters unlawfully, or who makes repeated harassing demands for entry, owes actual damages of not less than one month's rent plus reasonable attorney's fees under 47a-18a.

What is the grace period for rent in Connecticut?

Nine days, or four days on a one-week tenancy, under Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-15a(a). Since January 1, 2026 that grace period is extended a further five days where the landlord's own online rental payment system prevents payment when due. A lease clause charging a late fee before the grace period expires, or offering a discount for paying before it expires, is unenforceable under 47a-4(a)(8).

How much can a Connecticut landlord charge as a late fee?

The lesser of five dollars per day up to a maximum of fifty dollars, or five per cent of the delinquent rent payment, under Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-15a(b). Where 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. Only one late charge may be assessed on a delinquent payment however long the rent stays unpaid.

How much notice does a Connecticut rent increase need?

Forty-five days. Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-4e, created in 2024, makes a rent increase ineffective unless the landlord gave written notice not less than forty-five days before it takes effect, with a shorter equivalent for a term of one month or less. The tenant's failure to respond is not agreement, and the section does not allow an increase during the term of an existing agreement.

Can a Connecticut lease make the tenant pay the landlord's attorney's fees?

Only up to fifteen per cent of a money judgment. Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-4(a)(7) voids a clause requiring the tenant to pay the landlord's attorney's fees in excess of fifteen per cent of any judgment against the tenant in an action awarding money damages. Section 42-150aa adds that no fee is collectable for a salaried in-house attorney or before a lawsuit is commenced, and 42-150bb awards a fee to the tenant as a matter of law where the tenant successfully prosecutes or defends. So the clause is lawful, capped and reciprocal.

How much notice ends a Connecticut month-to-month tenancy?

Three days. Connecticut sets no separate periodic-termination notice period anywhere in chapter 830; the requirement is the notice to quit possession under Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-23, which must give at least three days before the date specified. The widely repeated thirty-day figure is not in the statute book. What Connecticut does require, since October 2024, is forty-five days' notice of a rent increase.

What is the fifteen-day notice in Connecticut?

The pretermination notice under Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-15. Before starting a summary process action for a material noncompliance with 47a-11 or with the lease or the landlord's rules, the landlord must deliver written notice specifying the acts or omissions and stating that the agreement terminates not less than fifteen days after receipt. If the breach can be cured by repair or payment and the tenant cures it within those fifteen days, the lease does not terminate. The notice is not required for nonpayment of rent or for a serious nuisance.

Which tenants have good-cause eviction protection in Connecticut?

Under Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-23c, a tenant who is sixty-two or older, or who has a qualifying physical or mental disability, or who lives with such a spouse, sibling, child, parent or grandparent, and who lives in a building or complex of five or more dwelling units or in a mobile manufactured home park. Such a tenant may be dispossessed only for one of the listed causes and the rent may be increased only so far as is fair and equitable. Since January 1, 2024 the landlord must hand that tenant the Department of Housing rights notice on every rental and renewal.

Can a Connecticut landlord charge an application fee?

No. Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-4d bans any payment, fee or charge for processing, reviewing or accepting a rental application, and bans move-in and move-out fees outright. The only permitted pre-tenancy charges are the security deposit, an advance payment of the first month's rent, a key or special-equipment deposit, and a tenant screening report fee capped at fifty dollars plus an annual consumer price index adjustment. A landlord charging that fee must give the applicant the report and a copy of the receipt.

What is the standardized rental terms summary form?

A one-page Department of Housing form that Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-7d requires to be the first page of every written Connecticut rental agreement on and after April 1, 2026. It summarises the term, the landlord's name, the property-management point of contact, each tenant's name and the total periodic rent computed on the all-in basis the same section requires of advertised rent. A landlord who fails to include it is liable for a civil penalty equal to one month's rent plus the tenant's reasonable attorney's fees and costs.

Does a Connecticut lease need to be notarized?

No. Connecticut requires no subscribing witnesses and no notary for an ordinary residential lease. But 47a-3b makes a tenancy month to month where no definite term is fixed, and 47a-3d construes a parol lease reserving a monthly rent with no agreed termination date as a lease for one month only, so anything longer than a month should always be written down.

When is a Connecticut rental considered abandoned?

When the occupants have vacated without notice and do not intend to return, shown by removal of substantially all their possessions plus either nonpayment of rent for more than two months or an express statement that they will not occupy after a stated date, under Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-11b. The landlord then notifies each occupant at the last known address by both regular and certified mail, waits ten days for contact, inventories the possessions and keeps them not less than thirty days.

Is there a presumption of retaliation in Connecticut?

Yes in practice. Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-20 bars a landlord from seeking possession, demanding a rent increase or decreasing services within six months after five protected tenant acts, and 47a-20a supplies four exclusive grounds on which the landlord may rebut. Connecticut appellate authority treats the tenant's prima facie showing as raising a rebuttable presumption of retaliation which the landlord must meet on one of those four grounds.

Does a Connecticut landlord have to provide air conditioning?

No. Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-7(a)(6) requires running water and reasonable amounts of hot water at all times and reasonable heat, and names no cooling duty. It does name elevators expressly in 47a-7(a)(4), which many states omit. Where a municipal ordinance or building or fire code imposes a greater duty, 47a-7(b) gives that provision precedence, so a local ordinance can raise the standard above the statute.

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Free Connecticut Residential Lease Agreement

Connecticut residential lease agreement walk-through

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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

Updated Q3 2026 By Tenant Screening Background Check Editorial Team Scope Connecticut ~15 min read

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.

Connecticut Lease Rules at a Glance

Security Deposit Cap

2 Months / 1 at 62

Deposit Return

21 Days

Entry Notice

Reasonable

Rent Increase Notice

45 Days

The Connecticut duty almost no template carries: Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-21(i) requires the landlord to pay interest on the security deposit, at not less than the deposit index the Banking Commissioner sets each year under 36a-26 and publishes by December fifteenth of the prior year. The interest is paid or credited on every anniversary of the tenancy, and 47a-4(a)(4) makes a lease clause waiving it unenforceable.

Four Connecticut Rules That Catch Landlords Out

First, the deposit cap has two tiers. Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-21(b) allows two months’ rent, but only one month’s rent where the tenant is sixty-two or older — and a landlord already holding two months from a tenant who turns sixty-two must hand the excess back on request. Second, the deposit is not the landlord’s money and cannot sit in the landlord’s account. Under 47a-21(h) it goes immediately into an escrow account at a financial institution, and the tenant must be told the amount held and the name and address of that bank within thirty days. Third, it earns interest, every year, whether or not anyone asks. Fourth, the notice periods are not the ones templates recite: three days to quit, nine days of grace on rent, fifteen days to cure another breach, twenty-one days to return the deposit, and forty-five days before a rent increase.

How to Fill Out This Connecticut Lease Agreement

The Seven-Step Connecticut Sequence

1. Name the landlord, the manager and the agent for service

Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-6 requires written notice, on or before the tenancy begins, of the name and address of the person authorized to manage the premises and of the person authorized to receive all notices, demands and service of process — kept current thereafter. Skip it and 47a-6(b) deems whoever signed for the landlord to be the landlord’s agent for service and for performing the landlord’s repair duties.

2. Describe the premises and count the units

Enter the address, county and property type. Property type decides how maintenance may be reallocated under 47a-7, and the unit count matters: at five or more dwelling units the protected-tenant regime in 47a-23c attaches, with good-cause eviction, fair-and-equitable rent increases and a written rights notice on every renewal.

3. State the all-in rent and the due day

Since 2025, Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-7d requires every fee a tenant must pay periodically to be prorated into the offered rent, so the figure in the lease should be the one the tenant actually pays each month. The same section applies every payment to rent first and to other charges only afterwards.

4. Set the deposit against the right cap

Two months’ rent, or one month where any tenant is sixty-two or older. Enter the first month’s rent and any key deposit separately — 47a-21(a) excludes both from the definition of a security deposit, so neither counts against the cap and neither carries the escrow and interest duties.

5. Name the escrow bank

The form asks for the financial institution and its address because 47a-21(h)(4)(A) requires the tenant to be told both, in writing, within thirty days. Putting it in the lease itself is the simplest way to be sure the notice was actually given.

6. Check the disclosures Connecticut requires

Eight state disclosures plus, for housing built before 1978, the federal lead-paint one, and three of the eight were created between 2023 and 2025. The fire sprinkler notice has to appear in the lease in twelve-point boldface, which is why it is generated into the document rather than attached.

7. Generate, sign, and put the summary form in front

Download the multi-page PDF and sign. No witnesses and no notary are required. But on and after April 1, 2026, 47a-7d makes a completed Department of Housing standardized rental terms summary form the mandatory first page of the written agreement, so print it and put it in front of this one. Download the official fillable form direct from the Department of Housing: standardized rental terms summary form (PDF, bilingual English/Spanish), listed on the DOH mandatory landlord-tenant forms page. The requirement itself is set out in DOH Notice OPRHS 2026-005 (27 March 2026). Complete DOH’s own file rather than recreating it – subsection (d) requires the form published pursuant to subsection (c).

Build Your Connecticut Residential Lease Agreement

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 Residential Lease Agreement Builder

1. Parties

Landlord (owner) full legal name

Landlord phone

Person authorized to receive notices, demands and service of process — name and address (47a-6)

Person authorized to MANAGE the premises (47a-6)

Manager address

Tenant 1 full legal name

Tenant 2 full legal name (if any)

Additional tenants (comma-separated)

Authorized occupants who are not tenants (minors, etc.)

2. Premises

Rental property address (street, unit, city, ZIP)

County

Property type (drives 47a-7 duty-shifting)

Year built (pre-1978 triggers federal lead disclosure)

Bedrooms / bathrooms

Total dwelling units in the building or complex (five or more triggers 47a-23c)

Is any tenant sixty-two or older? (changes the deposit cap)

3. Term

Lease type

Term length in months (if other)

Lease start date

Lease end date (if fixed)

4. Rent

Conn