Landlord Tenant – Lease Termination – Connecticut

USLF Overview:
(consult Connecticut Statutes, below, for details)

Failure to Pay Rent:

Residential Leases:
There is a statutory nine (9) day grace period after the date rent is due. Landlord can therefore take no official action until Tenant has failed to pay rent for 9 days after the rent was due. At that point, Landlord can serve Tenant with a three (3) day Notice of Termination. Landlord is not required to allow Tenant to cure by paying rent within the 3 day Notice period.

Commercial Leases:
There is no grace period for payment of rent on a commercial (non-residential) lease. Upon rent being unpaid when due, Landlord may immediately serve Tenant with a three (3) day Notice of Termination. Landlord is not required to allow Tenant to cure by paying rent within the 3 day Notice period.

Tenant Noncompliance with Lease:
In either a residential or non-residential lease, if Tenant breaches the lease by failing to comply with the terms and conditions thereof, Landlord may serve Tenant with a 15-day Notice of Termination. Tenant may ordinarily cure the breach (if possible) within the 15-day notice period in order to avoid termination of the Lease.

Selected Connecticut Statutes:

Sec. 47a-15a. Nonpayment of rent by tenant: Landlord’s remedy. If rent is unpaid when due and the tenant fails to pay rent within nine days thereafter or, in the case of a one-week tenancy, within four days thereafter, the landlord may terminate the rental agreement in accordance with the provisions of sections 47a-23 to 47a-23b, inclusive.

Sec. 47a-15. Noncompliance by tenant. Remedy of breach by tenant. Landlord’s remedies. Prior to the commencement of a summary process action, except in the case in which the landlord elects to proceed under sections 47a-23 to 47a-23b, inclusive, to evict based on nonpayment of rent, on conduct by the tenant which constitutes a serious nuisance or on a violation of subsection (h) of section 47a-11, if there is a material noncompliance with section 47a-11 which materially affects the health and safety of the other tenants or materially affects the physical condition of the premises, or if there is a material noncompliance by the tenant with the rental agreement or a material noncompliance with the rules and regulations adopted in accordance with section 47a-9, and the landlord chooses to evict based on such noncompliance, 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. 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; or
(2) 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.

For the purposes of this section, “serious nuisance” means

(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 or, in the case of a housing authority, using any area within fifteen hundred feet of any housing authority property in which the tenant resides for the illegal sale of drugs. If the landlord elects to evict based upon an allegation, pursuant to subsection (g) of section 47a-11, that the tenant failed to require other persons on the premises with his consent to conduct themselves in a manner that will not constitute a serious nuisance, and the tenant claims to have had no knowledge of such conduct, then, if the landlord establishes that the premises or, in the case of a landlord that is a housing authority, the premises or any area within fifteen hundred feet of any housing authority property in which the tenant resides has been used for the illegal sale of drugs, the burden shall be on the tenant to show that he had no knowledge of the creation of the serious nuisance.

Sec. 47a-23. Notice to quit possession or occupancy of premises. Form. Delivery. Federal termination notice.

(a) When the owner or lessor, or the owner’s or lessor’s legal representative, or the owner’s or lessor’s attorney- at-law, or in-fact, desires to obtain possession or occupancy of any land or building, any apartment in any building, any dwelling unit, any trailer, or any land upon which a trailer is used or stands, and

(1) when a rental agreement or lease of such property, whether in writing or by parol, terminates for any of the following reasons:

(A) By lapse of time;
(B) by reason of any expressed stipulation therein;
(C) violation of the rental agreement or lease or of any rules or regulations adopted in accordance with section 47a-9 or 21-70;
(D) nonpayment of rent within the grace period [9 days after due date- USLF] provided for residential property in section 47a-15a or 21-83;
(E) nonpayment of rent when due for commercial property;
(F) violation of section 47a-11 or subsection (b) of section 21-82;
(G) nuisance, as defined in section 47a-32, or serious nuisance, as defined in section 47a-15 or 21- 80; or

(2) when such premises, or any part thereof, is occupied by one who never had a right or privilege to occupy such premises; or
(3) when one originally had the right or privilege to occupy such premises but such right or privilege has terminated; or
(4) when an action of summary process or other action to dispossess a tenant is authorized under subsection (b) of section 47a-23c for any of the following reasons:

(A) Refusal to agree to a fair and equitable rent increase, as defined in subsection (c) of section 47a- 23c,
(B) permanent removal by the landlord of the dwelling unit of such tenant from the housing market, or
(C) bona fide intention by the landlord to use such dwelling unit as such landlord’s principal residence; or

(5) when a farm employee, as described in section 47a-30, or a domestic servant, caretaker, manager or other employee, as described in subsection (b) of section 47a-36, occupies such premises furnished by the employer and fails to vacate such premises after employment is terminated by such employee or the employer or after such employee fails to report for employment, such owner or lessor, or such owner’s or lessor’s legal representative, or such owner’s or lessor’s attorney-at-law, or in-fact, shall give notice to each lessee or occupant to quit possession or occupancy of such land, building, apartment or dwelling unit, 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.

(b) The notice shall be in writing substantially in the following form: “I (or we) hereby give you notice that you are to quit possession or occupancy of the (land, building, apartment or dwelling unit, or of any trailer or any land upon which a trailer is used or stands, as the case may be), now occupied by you at (here insert the address, including apartment number or other designation, as applicable), on or before the (here insert the date) for the following reason (here insert the reason or reasons for the notice to quit possession or occupancy using the statutory language or words of similar import, also the date and place of signing notice). A.B.”. If the owner or lessor, or the owner’s or lessor’s legal representative, attorney-at-law or attorney-in-fact knows of the presence of an occupant but does not know the name of such occupant, the notice for such occupant may be addressed to such occupant as “John Doe”, “Jane Doe” or some other alias which reasonably characterizes the person to be served.
(c) A copy of such notice shall be delivered to each lessee or occupant or left at such lessee’s or occupant’s place of residence or, if the rental agreement or lease concerns commercial property, at the place of the commercial establishment by a proper officer or indifferent person. Delivery of such notice may be made on any day of the week.
(d) With respect to a month-to-month tenancy of a dwelling unit, a notice to quit possession based on nonpayment of rent shall, upon delivery, terminate the rental agreement for the month in which the notice is delivered, convert the month-to-month tenancy to a tenancy at sufferance and provide proper basis for a summary process action notwithstanding that such notice was delivered in the month after the month in which the rent is alleged to be unpaid.
(e) A termination notice required pursuant to federal law and regulations may be included in or combined with the notice required pursuant to this section and such inclusion or combination does not thereby render the notice required pursuant to this section equivocal, provided the rental agreement or lease shall not terminate until after the date specified in the notice for the lessee or occupant to quit possession or occupancy or the date of completion of the pretermination process, whichever is later. A use and occupancy disclaimer may be included in or combined with such notice, provided that such disclaimer does not take effect until after the date specified in the notice for the lessee or occupant to quit possession or occupancy or the date of the completion of the pretermination process, whichever is later. Such inclusion or combination does not thereby render the notice required pursuant to this section equivocal. Such disclaimer shall be in substantially the following form: “Any payments tendered after the date specified to quit possession or occupancy, or the date of the completion of the pretermination process if that is later, will be accepted for use and occupancy only and not for rent, with full reservation of rights to continue with the eviction action.”