Connecticut-Specific Real Estate Laws
Area IV is 8 of the 45 state items and reaches outside Chapter 392: ownership and land records, adverse possession, property taxes and assessments, the conveyance tax, the residential property condition report, the Landlord-Tenant Act, the Common Interest Ownership Act, Connecticut fair housing law, property-specific disclosures such as lead paint, crumbling foundations and carbon monoxide, interpreters, and the Connecticut Uniform Electronic Transactions Act.
Ownership, Records, Taxes and the Conveyance Tax
Sec. 47-10 makes an unrecorded conveyance ineffective against anyone but the grantor and the grantor's heirs, which is why Connecticut deeds are recorded with the town clerk. Sec. 52-575 gives fifteen years as the period after which an owner is barred from entering land held adversely, and Sec. 47-37 uses the same fifteen years for a prescriptive easement — not the twenty-one years national textbooks often quote. Real property is assessed at 70 per cent of its present true and actual value and taxed at the municipal mill rate. The real estate conveyance tax under Sec. 12-494 has two parts: a state portion of 0.75 per cent and a municipal portion of 0.25 per cent, on consideration of $2,000 or more. For a residential estate of $800,000 or more the state portion is tiered — 0.75 per cent up to $800,000, 1.25 per cent from there to $2,500,000, and 2.25 per cent above $2,500,000 — and non-residential property other than unimproved land is taxed at 1.25 per cent.
Condition Reports, Tenancies and Common Interest Communities
Sec. 20-327b requires the seller of one-to-four unit residential property, including condominiums and cooperatives, to give the prospective purchaser the written residential condition report before the purchaser signs a binder, contract, option or lease with purchase option; the licensee may not fill the form out for the seller. Sec. 20-327c requires the purchase agreement to credit the buyer $500 at closing if the report is not furnished — and paying that credit does not excuse the seller from disclosing a known defect that significantly impairs value, health and safety, or useful life. Under the Landlord-Tenant Act, Sec. 47a-21(b) caps the security deposit at two months' rent, or one month's rent for a tenant aged 62 or older, and subsection (d), as amended by Public Act 23-207, requires return of the deposit with interest, or the balance with an itemized statement of damages, within 21 days of termination or 15 days after written notice of the forwarding address, whichever is later. Under the Common Interest Ownership Act, Sec. 47-270 requires the resale certificate with the association's assessments, budget, reserves, approved capital expenditures over $1,000 and pending litigation; the association must furnish it within ten business days for the statutory preparation fee (stated as $185, adjusted under Sec. 47-213), and the contract stays voidable until five days after delivery. Sec. 47-269 gives a fifteen-day cancellation right where a public offering statement is required.
Fair Housing, Property-Specific Disclosures and Interpreters
Sec. 46a-64c protects race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender identity or expression, marital status, age, lawful source of income, familial status, status as a veteran and status as a victim of domestic violence; sexual orientation is protected in housing by a separate statute, Sec. 46a-81e. Lawful source of income has no federal counterpart, so refusing a tenant because the rent will be paid with a housing voucher is unlawful in Connecticut. Sec. 20-327h requires the CHRO fair housing disclosure form, signed by the prospective purchaser, to be attached at closing. The condition report asks about carbon monoxide and smoke detectors, underground storage tanks, and — since June Special Session Public Act 17-2 — about pyrrhotite in a concrete foundation, the mineral behind Connecticut's crumbling foundation crisis; Sec. 20-327b(g) adds a special disclosure in affected municipalities. Sec. 20-327i governs interpreters: where a buyer or renter uses an interpreter other than the licensee, both the buyer and the interpreter sign the prescribed forms; where the licensee interprets, the form must be in the buyer's own native language. The Connecticut Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, Secs. 1-266 to 1-286, gives electronic records and signatures legal effect but applies only between parties who have agreed to conduct the transaction electronically.
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State-specific details
State exam facts
- State regulator
- Connecticut Real Estate Commission (DCP)
- Exam vendor
- PSI
- Passing score
- 75%
- Scored questions
- 120
- Time limit
- 180 minutes
Who regulates real estate brokers in Connecticut?
The Connecticut Real Estate Commission, within the Department of Consumer Protection (DCP), licenses brokers and salespersons. The Commission contracts with PSI to deliver its exams.
What experience do I need before the Connecticut broker exam?
C.G.S. § 20-314(d) requires three years actively engaged as a licensed Connecticut salesperson under a supervising licensee, at least 1,500 hours in the business, and at least four closed transactions in those three years, plus 120 classroom hours: 60 in Real Estate Principles and Practices, 15 in Legal Compliance, 15 in Real Estate Brokerage Principles and Practices and two 15-hour electives. DCP waives the electives for an applicant with 20 transactions in the previous five years.
How is the Connecticut broker exam structured?
PSI bulletin 1007 gives the broker exam as 75 general questions in 120 minutes plus 45 Connecticut state questions in 60 minutes — 120 questions in 3 hours — and says "In order to pass the Broker examinations, you must receive a score of at least 75%." The 70% printed in the same bulletin is the salesperson standard, not the broker one.
Sources: https://portal.ct.gov/dcp/license-services-division/all-license-applications/real-estate-brokers, https://test-takers.psiexams.com/api/content/bulletin/1007
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