Step 1: wait out the grace period
Rent isn’t legally late for eviction purposes until the tenant fails to pay within 9 days after the due date, or 4 days for a week-to-week tenancy, under C.G.S. 47a-15a(a). A notice to quit for nonpayment served earlier is premature. Since January 1, 2026, the grace period gets 5 extra days in any month when your online rent payment system prevents the tenant from paying on time, and 47a-23(a)(1)(D) bars a nonpayment notice in that case.
If your portal had an outage, check the dates before you serve anything.
Step 2: the notice to quit
Under 47a-23, the notice to quit must be in writing, substantially follow the statutory form, give the address and unit number, state a quit date at least three days out and give the reason in statutory language. Unknown adult occupants can be named as John Doe or Jane Doe. It may be delivered on any day of the week.
Two newer requirements trip up owners. First, P.A. 25-78 rewrote 47a-23(c), so an attested copy must now be served by a proper officer, meaning a state marshal in practice, on each lessee and occupant. Second, under 47a-75(f), you must attach the Judicial Branch’s one-page right-to-counsel notice to every notice to quit and to the summons and complaint.
For a month-to-month tenant, a nonpayment notice ends the tenancy for that month and converts it to a tenancy at sufferance under 47a-23(d). You can also add the statutory use-and-occupancy disclaimer from 47a-23(e), so money you accept after the quit date doesn’t reinstate the lease.
Lease violations, nuisance and no-fault cases
Most lease violations need a pre-termination notice first. Under 47a-15, you deliver a written notice describing the breach with a termination date at least 15 days out. If the tenant fixes a breach that can be cured by repair or payment of damages, the lease continues. If substantially the same breach recurs within six months, you can go straight to a notice to quit.
Serious nuisance, such as violence, threats with the present ability to carry them out, substantial willful damage or using the unit for drug sales, skips the 15-day notice. No-cause notices for lapse of time are limited for protected tenants in buildings of five or more units under 47a-23c, which our Connecticut landlord-tenant law guide covers in detail.
Step 3: summons, complaint and return day
After the quit date passes, a commissioner of the Superior Court, usually your attorney, issues the writ, summons and complaint under 47a-23a. It can be made returnable six days, inclusive, after service, must be returned to court at least three days before the return day, and can be served on any day of the week. Venue is the Superior Court geographical area where the building sits.
In the Hartford, New Britain, New Haven, Bridgeport, Waterbury and Stamford-Norwalk judicial districts, cases go on a dedicated housing docket under 47a-70, where housing mediators screen contested cases and recommend settlements under 47a-69.
Step 4: appearance, default and use-and-occupancy payments
If the tenant doesn’t appear within two days after the return day, you file a motion for judgment for failure to appear with an endorsed copy of the notice to quit, and the court enters judgment no later than the next court day under 47a-26. If the tenant appears but doesn’t plead within two days, you can move for judgment for failure to plead under 47a-26a.
Once the tenant appears, ask for use-and-occupancy payments. Under 47a-26b, the court orders the tenant to deposit the last agreed rent within ten days of your motion unless the tenant objects within five days. A tenant who misses those payments is ordered to answer within four days or face judgment.
Step 5: judgment, the 5-day stay and appeals
Execution is automatically stayed for five days after judgment, not counting Sundays or legal holidays, under 47a-35, and any appeal must be filed in that window. Since P.A. 24-108, a tenant’s appeal no longer turns on a bond. Under 47a-35a, the Superior Court holds a hearing within 14 days of notice of the appeal and orders the tenant to deposit monthly use-and-occupancy payments while it is pending.
An appeal stays execution unless the judge finds it was taken only for delay or the tenant fails to comply with the payment requirement.
Stays of execution: the step that can add months
Connecticut lets tenants ask the court for more time after they lose. Under 47a-37, a tenant can apply within five days of judgment, and filing the application pauses execution until it’s decided. In a nonpayment case, the tenant can apply only after depositing the full arrearage with the clerk within those five days.
Under 47a-39, the court can grant a stay of up to six months in total if the tenant can’t find comparable housing despite diligent effort, is acting in good faith and pays use and occupancy. The cap is three months when the judgment was for nonpayment. Stays aren’t available for nuisance or illegal-use judgments.
Step 6: the marshal’s execution
After the stays run out, you obtain the summary process execution, and a state marshal removes the occupants and their belongings under 47a-42. As amended by P.A. 25-78, the marshal first notifies the town’s chief executive officer, then uses reasonable efforts to notify the tenant at least 24 hours before the eviction and serves a copy of the execution.
The execution form now warns that anyone still there when the marshal returns who refuses to leave can be arrested for first-degree criminal trespass. Belongings go to the town’s storage site at the tenant’s expense, which you pay up front and can recover, and the town auctions unclaimed items after 15 days. An execution is void after six months under 47a-41a.
No self-help and no retaliation
Changing the locks, removing belongings or forcing a tenant out lets the tenant file an entry and detainer complaint under 47a-43, which is heard within eight days, and recover double damages and costs in a civil action under 47a-46.
Under 47a-20, you can’t bring a summary process action within six months after a tenant’s good-faith code complaint, repair request, fair rent commission filing or tenants’ union activity. Section 47a-20a carves out nonpayment, illegal use, a good-faith owner move-in and a periodic tenancy notice served before the complaint.
Federal overlays: CARES Act and SCRA
At a property with a federally backed mortgage or federal housing program, Section 4024(c) of the CARES Act, 15 U.S.C. 9058(c), bars requiring a tenant to leave until 30 days after a notice to vacate. The moratorium expired in 2020, but courts are split on whether the 30-day text still applies, so serving 30 days is the safer path. Section 47a-23(e) lets you combine a federal termination notice with the notice to quit without making it equivocal.
Before taking a default, file the military affidavit the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act requires, 50 U.S.C. 3931.
Connecticut eviction timeline
Minimum statutory periods for a nonpayment case where the tenant never appears.
| Step | Deadline | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Grace period before notice | 9 days after due date (plus 5 if your portal blocked payment) | C.G.S. 47a-15a(a) |
| Notice to quit, marshal-served, with right-to-counsel notice | At least 3 days before quit date | 47a-23; 47a-75(f) |
| Return day | May be 6 days, inclusive, after service | 47a-23a(a) |
| Appearance | Within 2 days after return day | 47a-26 |
| Default judgment | No later than next court day after motion | 47a-26 |
| Automatic stay and appeal window | 5 days, excluding Sundays and holidays | 47a-35 |
| Application for stay of execution | Within 5 days of judgment | 47a-37 |
| Maximum stay of execution | 6 months, or 3 months for nonpayment | 47a-39 |
| Marshal’s notice to tenant | At least 24 hours before removal | 47a-42(b) |
| Unclaimed belongings auctioned | After 15 days in town storage | 47a-42(c) |
Worked example: the cost of a Connecticut nonpayment eviction
Assume a two-bedroom at $1,750 a month in a 10-unit building in New Haven, a tenant who stops paying and never appears, and an assumed $1,800 for attorney and marshal fees together. Rent is due on day 0. The grace period ends on day 9, the marshal serves the notice to quit on day 10 with a quit date of day 14, and the summons is served on day 15 with a return day of day 21.
The appearance window closes on day 23, you move for default on day 24, and judgment enters on day 25. The 5-day stay, with one Sunday excluded, ends on day 31, and after the marshal’s 24-hour notice the unit is back on day 33. At $57.53 a day, that is $1,898.63 in lost rent, or $3,698.63 with fees.
If the tenant instead deposits the arrearage and wins the maximum three-month nonpayment stay, the clock runs to about day 123. Use-and-occupancy payments should cover most of that period, but if they stop, the exposure grows to $7,076.71, or $8,876.71 with fees.
| Scenario | Days to possession | Lost rent | With fees |
|---|---|---|---|
| Default, no stay | 33 | $1,898.63 | $3,698.63 |
| Three-month nonpayment stay, no payments | 123 | $7,076.71 | $8,876.71 |
Payment plans, cash for keys and stipulations
A common way to settle is a stipulated judgment: the tenant agrees to pay arrears on a schedule or move by a date, and you can get an execution if the terms are broken. In the housing-docket districts, a housing mediator can help the two sides reach one.
Cash for keys is a cleaner exit when the goal is a vacant unit. Put the move-out date, the condition of the unit, the payment at key return and a mutual release in writing, and you skip the stay-of-execution risk entirely.
Selling an occupied Connecticut building mid-eviction
A pending summary process case doesn’t block a sale. The buyer steps into your rights under the leases, and the contract should say who continues and controls the case, who pays the attorney and who keeps use-and-occupancy money held by the court. Hand over the notice to quit, the marshal’s return, any stipulations and the rent ledger, and get tenant estoppels on the units that aren’t in court.
Selling your Connecticut apartment building to Skyline
Skyline Capital Investments buys Connecticut apartment buildings with five or more units, including occupied properties with problem tenants or summary process cases underway. Send the address and unit count through the form on this page or call (469) 660-2977. We typically respond within 48 hours.
