Connecticut Real Estate Broker Exam — All Questions

A new environmental ordinance leaves a landowner with no economically viable use of a parcel, although the government takes no title to it. The owner's strongest constitutional claim is:

• a.The ordinance is void because zoning cannot restrict use
• b.A regulatory taking entitling the owner to payment✓
• c.Escheat has occurred and the state now owns the parcel
• d.Spot zoning, since only this parcel lost its value

Regulation that goes so far it denies an owner all economically viable use is treated as a regulatory taking, and just compensation is owed even though the government never took title. Arguing that zoning simply cannot restrict use fails, because regulating land is a valid exercise of the police power and owners have no right to the most profitable use. Escheat moves property to the state only when an owner dies with no will and no heirs, which has nothing to do with an ordinance. Spot zoning describes singling out one parcel for a different classification, not a general environmental rule applied to a class of land.

Reviewing a title report, a broker finds an old recorded covenant, written decades ago, that bars resale of the lot to members of a specified race. Its legal effect today is:

• a.It binds the buyer because it was recorded before purchase
• b.It is void, so a court will never enforce it or enjoin it✓
• c.It stays valid until the homeowners association removes it
• d.It is enforceable by the association but not by an owner

A private restriction that discriminates on a protected basis is void and unenforceable under the federal Fair Housing Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1866, so no court will order compliance or enjoin a violation, and the association has no power the courts would back. Recording rescues nothing, because an illegal restriction gains no force from sitting in the public record. No association vote is required to strip it of effect, although many states let an owner have the language formally struck. Valid CC&Rs, by contrast, are enforced privately by injunction brought by an owner or the association. A broker must never repeat or give effect to such language.

A grantor signs and notarizes a deed naming a nephew as grantee, locks it in a safe deposit box, and tells no one. The grantor later dies. What is the deed's effect?

• a.Title passed when the grantor signed the deed
• b.Title passed because the deed was acknowledged
• c.No title passed, because delivery never occurred✓
• d.Title passes when the estate later records it

A deed operates only when the grantor delivers it with the present intent to pass title and the grantee accepts, and both must happen while the grantor is alive. Signing accomplishes nothing while the instrument stays under the grantor's control in a box no one knows about. Acknowledgment before a notary serves recording, not validity, so notarizing it changes nothing here. An estate representative cannot supply the delivery the grantor failed to make, and recording an undelivered deed does not revive it. The nephew takes only through the will or the intestacy statute, which is why closings hand over the executed deed rather than merely signing it.

A deed is signed by a competent grantor and handed to a grantee who accepts it, but the grantor's signature was never notarized. As between those two parties, the deed is:

• a.Void, since notarizing is a validity requirement
• b.Valid, though it cannot be recorded as it stands✓
• c.Valid only if the grantee later pays a recording fee
• d.Voidable at the option of the grantor's creditors

Acknowledgment is a recording requirement, not an element of a valid deed. Delivered and accepted, the deed transfers title between grantor and grantee even with no notary, but the recorder will reject it, leaving the grantee exposed to later purchasers and lienholders who record first. Calling it void confuses the two ideas: validity turns on a competent grantor, an identifiable grantee, words of conveyance, an adequate legal description, the grantor's signature, and delivery and acceptance. Paying a fee cannot cure a missing acknowledgment, because the recorder cannot accept the instrument at all. Creditors of the grantor gain no power to undo a completed conveyance.

In a deed, which clause opens with the words 'to have and to hold' and defines the extent of the estate the grantee is receiving?

• a.The granting clause containing the words of conveyance
• b.The habendum clause, following the granting clause✓
• c.The acknowledgment taken before a notary public officer
• d.The legal description identifying the land conveyed

The habendum clause follows the granting clause, begins with the traditional phrase 'to have and to hold,' and spells out the estate conveyed, for example a fee simple absolute or a life estate. The granting clause holds the words of conveyance that actually transfer the interest and names the grantee. The acknowledgment is the notary's certificate that the signature is genuine, which the recorder requires but the transfer does not. The legal description identifies the land by metes and bounds, lot and block, or government survey, and it fixes what is conveyed rather than how much of an estate. Reading both clauses tells a broker exactly what the buyer is getting.

A relocation company that has owned a home for three months conveys it, warranting title only against defects that arose during its own ownership. The deed it delivers is a:

• a.Bargain and sale deed implying ownership without covenants
• b.General warranty deed covering the entire chain of title
• c.Quitclaim deed conveying only the interest actually held
• d.Special (limited) warranty deed covering the grantor's period✓

Warranting only against defects created or suffered while the grantor held title describes the special or limited warranty deed, the customary instrument for corporate, relocation, and fiduciary sellers who cannot vouch for what earlier owners did. A general warranty deed reaches back through the whole history of the property and offers the broadest protection, which is more than this seller is giving. A quitclaim carries no warranties at all and passes only whatever interest the signer happens to hold. A bargain and sale deed implies that the grantor owns the property but adds few or no covenants. A buyer taking narrower covenants should lean on an owner's title policy.

A title search shows that a seller's former spouse may still hold a possible interest in the property. What is the usual instrument used to release that interest and clear the record?

• a.A quitclaim deed from the former spouse✓
• b.A general warranty deed from the former spouse
• c.A trustee's deed issued after a foreclosure
• d.A correction deed fixing the legal description

A quitclaim releases whatever interest the signer may hold, with no warranties attached, which makes it the standard tool for removing a cloud such as a possible marital interest, a stale easement claim, or a name discrepancy. Demanding a general warranty deed asks the former spouse to guarantee title he or she may never have owned, and it is normally refused. A trustee's deed is what the trustee under a deed of trust issues to the purchaser at a foreclosure sale. A correction deed reforms a mistake in an earlier deed between the same parties and cannot release an outsider's claim.

A court-appointed personal representative sells a decedent's home during probate, and the buyer's broker asks what instrument will convey title. The answer is:

• a.A trustee's deed given after a nonjudicial foreclosure
• b.A sheriff's deed issued following a judicial sale
• c.A general warranty deed with full title covenants
• d.An executor's or personal representative's deed✓

Estate property is conveyed by an executor's deed when a will names the executor, or by a personal representative's or administrator's deed when the court makes the appointment; these deeds recite the court authority and give only limited covenants. A trustee's deed comes from the trustee under a deed of trust after a nonjudicial foreclosure sale. A sheriff's deed, called a referee's deed in some states, follows a judicial sale ordered by a court. A general warranty deed is not used, because a fiduciary will not personally guarantee title against the acts of the decedent or of owners further back in the chain.

After closing under a general warranty deed, a buyer discovers a recorded utility easement that the deed never disclosed. Which covenant did the grantor breach?

• a.Quiet enjoyment, a promise against eviction by better title
• b.Seisin, a promise that the grantor owns the estate conveyed
• c.Against encumbrances, a promise of no undisclosed burdens✓
• d.Further assurance, a promise to sign curative papers

The covenant against encumbrances promises that no liens, easements, or similar burdens exist beyond those the deed discloses, so a recorded easement left unmentioned breaches it at the moment of delivery. Seisin promises the grantor actually owns the estate being conveyed, which is not the trouble when ownership is sound but burdened. Quiet enjoyment shields the grantee from later eviction by someone holding superior title, and an easement holder's use is not an eviction. Further assurance obliges the grantor to sign additional documents needed to perfect title. A general warranty deed carries all of these along with the right to convey and warranty forever.

A neighbor has openly farmed and fenced a strip of an absentee owner's land, excluding others and never asking permission. To take title by adverse possession the neighbor must prove:

• a.Payment of the owner's property taxes for every year
• b.Open, notorious, continuous, hostile, and exclusive possession✓
• c.A written agreement signed by the record title owner
• d.A recorded deed describing the disputed strip of land

Adverse possession requires possession that is open and notorious, continuous, hostile in the sense of being without permission, and exclusive, held for the statutory period set by state law. Some states add payment of taxes or color of title, but those elements are not universal, so a broker should never assume them from another state's rule. A written agreement from the record owner would destroy the claim outright, since permission defeats hostility. Recording a deed creates no possession and cannot manufacture the required years of use. Adverse possession is one form of involuntary alienation, alongside descent, escheat, foreclosure, eminent domain, and accretion.

An owner dies leaving no will, and after a diligent search no heirs can be located. A broker asked to list the property should understand that title:

• a.Passes by devise to the beneficiaries named in a will
• b.Descends to the decedent's nearest surviving creditors
• c.Vests permanently in the administrator the court appoints
• d.Escheats to the state, an involuntary transfer of title✓

Escheat is the state's claim to property when an owner dies intestate and no heirs can be found, and it is a classic involuntary transfer rather than a voluntary one by deed or will. Devise is a gift of real property by will, so it cannot operate where there is no will and no named beneficiary. Descent carries property to heirs under the intestacy statute, but creditors are paid as claimants out of the estate and never inherit the land itself. An administrator has authority to manage and convey estate property during probate, not to own it permanently. Each state sets its own escheat procedure and waiting period.

A search reveals an old mortgage of record that was paid off but never released, and the lender no longer exists. Which step clears that cloud so title is marketable?

• a.Ordering an abstract of title with an attorney's opinion
• b.Buying an owner's title policy that insures over it
• c.Filing a quiet title action asking a court to clear it✓
• d.Recording a correction deed signed by the current seller

A quiet title action asks a court to determine ownership and extinguish a stale or unreleasable claim, which is the practical cure when the mortgagee has vanished and no release can be obtained. An abstract of title with an attorney's opinion summarizes and evaluates the recorded chain; it reports the cloud rather than removing it, and it offers no indemnity. An owner's policy may insure over a known risk, but insurance pays for loss and leaves the defect on the record for the next buyer to confront. A correction deed fixes a drafting error between the original parties and cannot release a third party's lien.

A seller deeds a parcel to one buyer and later deeds the same parcel to a second buyer, who records first. Which framework decides who owns the land?

• a.A federal recording statute applied in all fifty states
• b.The state's recording act, race, notice, or race-notice✓
• c.The order in which the two deeds were signed and dated
• d.The county recorder's discretion over competing claims

Priority between competing grantees is governed by the recording act of the state where the land lies, and the schemes differ: a pure race state protects whoever records first, a notice state protects a later purchaser who took without notice of the earlier deed, and a race-notice state protects one who took without notice and recorded first. No federal statute governs land recording. Signing dates do not decide the contest, which is precisely why a public recording system exists. Recorders act ministerially and have no power to resolve claims. Because the gap between closing and recording is the danger zone, a broker should press for prompt recording.

A buyer pays for a lender's title policy at closing and asks the broker whether it also protects the buyer's equity in the home. The correct answer is that the policy:

• a.Protects both parties equally up to the full purchase price
• b.Protects the buyer once the mortgage has been fully repaid
• c.Protects the buyer against defects arising after closing
• d.Protects only the lender, declining with the balance✓

A lender's, or mortgagee's, policy insures only the lender's security interest, and its coverage shrinks as the principal is paid down, ending altogether when the loan is satisfied. It never covers the buyer's equity, which is why a separate owner's policy is offered at closing for a one-time premium and lasts as long as the insured holds an interest. Repaying the mortgage does not convert the lender's coverage into the buyer's; it extinguishes it. And no title policy insures defects that first arise after its date. Brokers should explain this plainly before a buyer waives owner's coverage to save money.

Six months after closing, a contractor the buyer hired records a mechanic's lien against the home. The buyer files a claim under the owner's title policy. The insurer will most likely:

• a.Deny, because the defect arose after the policy was issued✓
• b.Pay, because owner's policies cover all future liens
• c.Pay, because the standard exceptions were removed
• d.Deny, because only a lender may file a title claim

Title insurance looks backward: it covers defects that already existed when the policy was issued but were not discovered or excepted, not events that happen later. A lien for work the buyer ordered after closing is a new problem the buyer must resolve directly. Buying extended coverage removes standard exceptions and broadens what is insured as of the policy date, but it does not push coverage forward in time. Owners plainly may claim under their own policies; the lender's policy is the one limited to the lender. Extended coverage typically depends on a current survey, which reveals encroachments and boundary issues a records search alone cannot.

A buyer tours a house and finds an occupant who is not the seller living there under an unrecorded lease. What kind of notice does that occupancy give the buyer?

• a.Actual notice, given by the seller's written disclosure
• b.Constructive notice, given by the public record
• c.No notice at all, since the lease was not recorded
• d.Inquiry notice, requiring the buyer to ask about it✓

Someone in possession who is not the seller puts a buyer on inquiry notice: the buyer is charged with whatever a reasonable investigation of that occupancy would have turned up, including an unrecorded lease or an option to purchase. Actual notice is what a party genuinely knows, typically from a disclosure or a conversation, and no one has told this buyer anything. Constructive notice comes from the public record, which by definition cannot reveal an unrecorded lease. Treating an unrecorded interest as invisible is the classic error, because possession is itself notice. A broker should always ask who occupies a property and on what terms.

Which body is created within the Department of Consumer Protection and authorizes the department to issue Connecticut real estate licenses?

• a.The Connecticut Association of Realtors
• b.The Connecticut Real Estate Commission✓
• c.The Office of the Secretary of the State
• d.The Connecticut Department of Banking

C.G.S. Section 20-311a(a) says "There is created in the Department of Consumer Protection the Connecticut Real Estate Commission," and Section 20-311b(b) says the commission "shall authorize the department to issue licenses to real estate licensees." The commission also administers licensure, renewal, suspension and revocation under Section 20-311b(c). A trade association is a private membership body: it can hold its own members to a code of ethics, but it has no power to grant or take away a state license. The Secretary of the State receives the formation and registration filings of business entities, which is a corporate filing function rather than an occupational licensing one. The Department of Banking supervises lenders and mortgage brokers, so a lending complaint may belong there, but a brokerage licensing matter does not.

Under the exceptions in C.G.S. Section 20-329, which person may perform the acts of a real estate broker in Connecticut without holding a license?

• a.A friend who negotiates a purchase for a share of the savings
• b.An owner who sells or leases real property that the owner owns✓
• c.A salesperson whose license lapsed while renewal is pending
• d.An assistant who shows listings for an hourly wage

Section 20-329(1) excepts "any person who as owner or lessor performs any of the acts enumerated in section 20-311, with reference to property owned, leased or sought to be acquired or leased by the person." Owners acting for themselves are not acting "for another," which is the element Section 20-311(15) makes central to engaging in the real estate business. Negotiating another person's purchase for a share of the savings is acting for another for valuable consideration, so it needs a license no matter how the payment is described. A lapsed license is not a license: Section 20-314(f) sets out reinstatement, and until reinstatement the former licensee may not practice. And an assistant who shows listings is negotiating and soliciting rather than doing clerical work, so the narrow clerical exception in Section 20-329(11) does not reach that conduct.

Before being admitted to the Connecticut broker examination, an applicant must show active engagement as a licensed salesperson under a supervising licensee for a minimum period of:

• a.One year, with at least 2,500 hours of work in the real estate business
• b.Three years, with at least 1,500 hours in the real estate business✓
• c.Two years, with at least 1,000 hours of work in the real estate business
• d.Five years, with at least 3,000 hours of work in the real estate business

C.G.S. Section 20-314(d)(1)(A)(i) requires the applicant to have "been actively engaged as a licensed real estate salesperson under the supervision of a supervising licensee, who is licensed in this state, for a minimum period of three years immediately preceding the date the applicant filed such applicant's application, during which period such salesperson engaged in the real estate business for at least one thousand five hundred hours," certified by the supervising licensee. Two years is the figure many neighboring states use and many study guides repeat, but Connecticut's statute says three. The one-year and five-year figures likewise appear nowhere in Section 20-314, and no hour total other than 1,500 is stated. Subparagraph (A)(vi) adds a separate requirement of at least four closed transactions in those same three years, and subdivision (2) waives the two elective courses only for an applicant with at least twenty transactions in the preceding five years.

To renew a Connecticut real estate license, a licensee may satisfy the continuing education requirement by completing approved courses consisting of not less than:

• a.Twenty hours of classroom study in each two-year renewal period
• b.Eight hours of classroom study in each two-year renewal period
• c.Twelve hours of classroom study in each two-year period✓
• d.Six hours of classroom study in each calendar year of the term

C.G.S. Section 20-319(b) establishes two-year renewal licenses and allows the continuing education requirement to be met by "a course or courses, approved by the commission or department, of continuing education in current real estate practices and licensing laws, including, but not limited to, practices and laws concerning common interest communities, consisting of not less than twelve hours of classroom study." Eight hours and twenty hours are not the Connecticut figure, and the statute states a single two-year total rather than an annual quota, so an answer framed as six hours per calendar year misstates both the number and the cycle. The same subsection allows the requirement to be met instead by passing a written examination on current practice and law, and it charges a biennial eight-dollar continuing education processing fee.

Recovery from the Connecticut Real Estate Guaranty Fund is capped, in the aggregate, at what amount in connection with any one real estate transaction or claim?

• a.Twenty-five thousand dollars✓
• b.One hundred thousand dollars
• c.Fifty thousand dollars
• d.Ten thousand dollars

C.G.S. Section 20-324a lets a person aggrieved by a licensee's embezzlement, false pretenses, forgery, fraud, misrepresentation or deceit "recover, upon approval by the commission of an application brought pursuant to the provisions of section 20-324e compensation in an amount not exceeding in the aggregate the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars in connection with any one real estate transaction or claim, regardless of the number of persons aggrieved or parcels of real estate involved." The aggregate wording is what makes the other figures wrong in both directions: the cap is not raised by adding claimants, so ten thousand understates and fifty and one hundred thousand overstate the single statutory ceiling. Section 20-324e(b) requires a valid Superior Court judgment first, and Section 20-324e(f) bars the licensee from a new license until the fund is repaid with interest.

When the commission disciplines a Connecticut licensee under C.G.S. Section 20-320, any fine it collects is:

• a.Retained by the commission as operating revenue
• b.Deposited in the Real Estate Guaranty Fund✓
• c.Paid to the complaining consumer as restitution
• d.Remitted to the town where the violation occurred

Section 20-320(a) lets the commission or department suspend or revoke a license and, in addition to or in lieu of that, "impose a fine of not more than five thousand dollars per violation," and it closes with the direction that "any fine collected pursuant to this section shall be deposited in the Real Estate Guaranty Fund established pursuant to section 20-324a." A fine is therefore not restitution: a consumer recovers through the Section 20-324e application process after obtaining a judgment, not out of the fine itself. Nor does the money become commission revenue, since the statute names the fund as its destination. And nothing in the chapter directs any part of a fine to a municipality; towns collect the conveyance tax share under Section 12-494, not licensing fines.

Under C.G.S. Section 20-312(e), a Connecticut real estate team's initial registration with the department is valid for:

• a.One year, for an initial registration fee of $565✓
• b.Three years, for an initial registration fee of $565
• c.One year, for an initial registration fee of $25
• d.Two years, for an initial registration fee of $375

Section 20-312(e) provides that "each initial registration shall be valid for a period of one year and be subject to renewal for additional one-year periods," and that the team pays "an initial registration fee of five hundred sixty-five dollars when the team files its initial registration, and a registration renewal fee of three hundred seventy-five dollars." The $375 figure is therefore the renewal, not the initial fee, and no registration under this subsection runs two or three years; licenses renew biennially under Section 20-319(a), but team registrations do not. The $25 fee belongs to Section 20-319a, which charges that amount for a change to or transfer of a team's registration and for a salesperson's or associate broker's transfer of affiliation. Team registration was added by Public Act 21-167, effective January 1, 2022.

A Connecticut broker's affiliated salesperson is sued by a third party over conduct in a listing the salesperson handled as an independent contractor. Under C.G.S. Section 20-312a, the broker is:

• a.Liable only for the portion of the commission that the broker actually retained
• b.Liable only if the broker directed the salesperson's conduct in writing
• c.Shielded from third-party liability by the independent contractor agreement
• d.Liable to the same extent as if the salesperson were the broker's employee✓

Section 20-312a states that "in any action brought by a third party against a real estate salesperson affiliated with a real estate broker as an independent contractor, such broker shall be liable to the same extent as if such affiliate had been employed as a real estate salesperson by such broker." The independent contractor label therefore changes the tax and employment relationship but not the broker's exposure to third parties, so treating the agreement as a shield inverts the statute. Nothing in the section scales the broker's liability to the commission split, which is a private accounting between broker and affiliate. And the statute imposes liability without regard to whether the broker gave written direction, which is why Section 20-320(b) separately says compliance with the chapter does not relieve a person of responsibility for the conduct of that person's agents or employees.

A Connecticut salesperson wants to bring a listing to a second brokerage while remaining affiliated with the first. Under C.G.S. Section 20-320(a)(4), doing so without the knowledge and consent of the salesperson's own broker is:

• a.A matter for the local board of realtors alone
• b.Permitted if the second brokerage pays the referral fee
• c.Grounds for suspension or revocation of the license✓
• d.Permitted, because listings belong to the salesperson

Section 20-320(a)(4) makes it a ground for discipline that a licensee "represented, or attempted to represent, a real estate broker, other than the real estate licensee's affiliated or supervising licensee, without the express knowledge and consent of such real estate licensee's affiliated or supervising licensee," and the commission may suspend, revoke or fine up to five thousand dollars per violation. A listing is a contract between the client and the brokerage, not property of the individual salesperson, so the claim that listings belong to the salesperson restates a common misunderstanding rather than the statute. Who pays a referral fee has no bearing on the consent requirement, and Section 20-320a separately bars referral fees for sending a buyer to a lender or attorney. A trade board may also discipline its own members, but the license itself is the commission's to suspend.

Under Conn. Agencies Regs. Section 20-328-2a(a), a Connecticut licensee who has a present or contemplated interest in a property must:

• a.Obtain the commission's written approval before proceeding with the sale
• b.Withdraw from the transaction before any offer is presented to the seller
• c.Disclose the interest only if a party asks about it in writing
• d.Disclose that interest specifically to all affected parties✓

The regulation provides that "a licensee shall not undertake to provide professional services concerning a property or its value where the licensee has a present or contemplated interest unless such interest is specifically disclosed to all affected parties." The duty is therefore satisfied by disclosure, not by withdrawal, so a rule requiring the licensee to step out of the deal states a stricter obligation than Connecticut imposes. The commission licenses and disciplines under Section 20-311b but does not pre-approve individual transactions, so waiting for its approval describes a procedure that does not exist. And the disclosure is affirmative: making it contingent on a party thinking to ask reverses the burden the regulation places on the licensee, and Section 20-320(a)(1) treats a material misrepresentation as separate grounds for discipline.

A Connecticut licensee prepares a purchase agreement and the parties sign it. Under C.G.S. Section 20-320(a)(7), the licensee must deliver a copy of the instrument to each party executing it:

• a.Immediately, on execution of the instrument✓
• b.Within three business days of execution
• c.Within ten calendar days of execution
• d.At the closing of title on the property

Section 20-320(a)(7) makes it grounds for discipline to have "failed to deliver immediately a copy of any instrument to any party or parties executing such instrument, where such instrument has been prepared by the real estate licensee or under such real estate licensee's supervision." Connecticut uses no grace period here, so a three-day or ten-day window reads a deadline into the statute that its text does not contain, and each would leave a signing party without the document that binds them. Delivery at closing is later still and defeats the purpose, which is to put the executed terms in the parties' hands while the transaction can still be acted on. Section 20-325m separately requires the broker to retain those contracts for at least seven years.

A Connecticut broker receives a buyer's earnest money deposit. Under C.G.S. Section 20-324k, the broker must place it in:

• a.The listing agent's personal account until closing
• b.An interest-bearing account held in the broker's own name
• c.The brokerage operating account, tracked by ledger entry
• d.A separate escrow or trust account in a Connecticut bank✓

Section 20-324k(a) requires each broker who "receives, accepts and holds any moneys on behalf of any principal, client or other person" to "at all times maintain a separate escrow or trust account, distinct from his own account, in a bank of his choice doing business in this state." Running the money through the operating account is commingling however carefully it is ledgered, and Section 20-320(a)(10) makes commingling grounds for discipline. Holding client money in an account in the broker's own name fails the statute's "distinct from his own account" requirement whether or not it earns interest. Routing it to an individual agent's personal account is worse on both counts, and Section 20-324k(b) lets the commission examine and audit the trust account whenever it deems that necessary.

Under C.G.S. Section 20-324k(c), money a Connecticut broker accepts and is not legally entitled to must be deposited in the escrow or trust account within:

• a.Two banking days of the date the broker receives the funds
• b.Ten calendar days of the date the broker receives the funds
• c.Three banking days of the date all necessary parties sign✓
• d.Five business days of the date all necessary parties sign

Section 20-324k(c) requires the broker to "deposit such moneys in his escrow or trust account within three banking days of the date the agreement evidencing such transaction is signed by all necessary parties to such transaction, pending final legal disposition of such moneys." Two features of that sentence decide the item: the count is three banking days, and it runs from full execution of the agreement rather than from the moment the broker takes the check, which is why the options starting the clock at receipt misstate the trigger even before their numbers are considered. Five business days and ten calendar days appear nowhere in the section. Section 20-324k(e) adds that a willful violation carries a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, imprisonment of not more than six months, or both.

A Connecticut applicant willfully misrepresents a fact required to be disclosed on a license application. Under C.G.S. Section 20-324, the penalty is a fine of not more than:

• a.One thousand dollars, imprisonment of not more than one year, or both
• b.Five thousand dollars, imprisonment of not more than six months, or both
• c.Ten thousand dollars, with no term of imprisonment
• d.Five hundred dollars, imprisonment of not more than six months, or both✓

Section 20-324 provides that any person "willfully misrepresenting any fact required to be disclosed in any application or in any other form, paper or document required to be filed with the commission in connection with an application for a license under this chapter shall be fined not more than five hundred dollars or imprisoned not more than six months or both." Connecticut's chapter carries several different money figures and the exam tests whether a candidate can keep them apart. One thousand dollars with six months is the criminal penalty in Section 20-325 for engaging in the real estate business without a license, not the application-misrepresentation penalty, and the term there is six months rather than a year. Five thousand dollars is the administrative fine the commission may impose per violation under Section 20-312(d) or Section 20-320(a). No provision of the chapter sets a ten thousand dollar penalty.

Under C.G.S. Section 20-311(21), which of the following is a "nonmaterial fact concerning real property" in Connecticut?

• a.That the basement has taken on water during periods of heavy rain
• b.That the roof was replaced after storm damage in the past two years
• c.That a boundary encroachment is disputed by the adjoining neighbor
• d.That the property was suspected to have been the site of a death✓

Section 20-311(21) defines a nonmaterial fact as one that includes, but is not limited to, the fact that "(A) an occupant of real property is or has been infected with a disease on the list of reportable diseases, emergency illnesses and health conditions issued by the Commissioner of Public Health pursuant to section 19a-2a, or (B) the real property was at any time suspected to have been the site of a death or felony." The category is deliberately narrow and stigma-related. A roof replacement, a disputed encroachment and water in the basement are all physical conditions of the property itself, and the residential condition report prescribed by Section 20-327b asks the seller about each of them by name, which is the clearest signal that Connecticut treats them as facts to be disclosed rather than as nonmaterial ones.

Under C.G.S. Section 20-327g, a seller of residential property who gives the purchaser written notice that a list of local properties used for hunting or shooting sports may be available at the town clerk's office:

• a.Has satisfied the duty to disclose even if the list is inaccurate✓
• b.Becomes liable for any error the town clerk's list contains
• c.Must compile the list if the town clerk has not already done so
• d.Must also obtain the list and attach it to the sales contract

Section 20-327g(a) says that on giving that written notice before or upon entering the contract, "the seller and any real estate licensee shall be deemed to have fully satisfied any duty to disclose the presence of local properties upon which hunting or shooting sports regularly take place, even if (1) the list is not available at the office of the town clerk, or (2) there is an error, omission or inaccuracy in the list." The notice is the whole of the obligation, so requiring the seller to obtain and attach the list adds a step the statute does not. Subsection (c) states expressly that no seller or licensee shall be required to compile or contribute to compiling the list. And subsection (b) says nothing in the section imposes liability for failing to disclose those properties, which is the opposite of the safe harbor being read as a source of liability. Section 20-327f gives the same shape of protection for hazardous waste facility lists.

Under C.G.S. Section 20-312c(d), every advertisement placed by a Connecticut associate broker must include:

• a.A statement that the associate broker owns the brokerage firm
• b.The name of the supervising licensee, at a prominent location✓
• c.The associate broker's license number and the date it was issued
• d.The street address of the office at which the listing file is kept

Section 20-312c(d) requires each associate broker to "comply with all advertising requirements and standards that apply to real estate brokers, and shall include the name of the supervising licensee who controls and supervises such associate broker at a prominent location in all of such associate broker's advertisements." The point is that the consumer can see which brokerage stands behind the advertisement. The subsection names no license number and no issue date, and it asks for no office address; those appear in the registration and record-keeping provisions rather than in the advertising duty. A claim of ownership would be false in the ordinary case, since Section 20-311(3) defines an associate broker as a broker who works on behalf of a supervising licensee. Section 20-312(e)(1) sets parallel naming rules for team advertising.

C.G.S. Section 20-325b requires every written agreement fixing a Connecticut broker's compensation to carry a boldface notice stating that the amount or rate of broker compensation:

• a.Is reviewed and set by the Connecticut Real Estate Commission each year
• b.May not exceed the rate that is customary in the local market
• c.Is not fixed by law and may be negotiable between the parties✓
• d.Is payable only out of the proceeds of the closing of title

Section 20-325b requires the statement, in not less than ten point boldface type or in a manner that otherwise stands out from the surrounding text: "NOTICE: THE AMOUNT OR RATE OF REAL ESTATE BROKER COMPENSATION IS NOT FIXED BY LAW. IT IS SET BY EACH BROKER INDIVIDUALLY AND MAY BE NEGOTIABLE BETWEEN YOU AND THE BROKER." The notice exists precisely to contradict the belief that some authority sets the rate, so an answer naming the commission as the rate-setter states what the statute is written to deny. A ceiling tied to what is customary locally would be the same error in softer form, and agreeing on rates by reference to a market custom raises antitrust exposure of its own. Nothing in the section dictates the source of payment, which the parties fix in their agreement.

Under C.G.S. Section 20-329(11), an unlicensed person employed by a Connecticut broker to perform clerical services may:

• a.Prepare and process paperwork at the broker's direction✓
• b.Negotiate the terms of an agreement with a prospective buyer
• c.Sign as a signatory on the broker's escrow or trust account
• d.List a property for an owner who asks for that help directly

Section 20-329(11) excepts from licensure "any person who is employed by a broker to perform clerical services, which person shall not negotiate the terms of an agreement, list a property unless on behalf of a real estate licensee, open or be listed as a signatory on a broker's escrow or trust account or sell, buy or lease real property for another person for compensation." Clerical support is what the exception permits, and the rest of the sentence is a list of what it forbids. Negotiating terms is the first prohibition in that list. Being a signatory on the trust account is expressly barred, which matters because Section 20-324k makes the broker accountable for that account. And listing a property is allowed only on behalf of a licensee, so taking the listing at an owner's direct request falls outside the exception.

A Connecticut licensee represents the seller. The buyer, who has no agent, asks in writing whom the licensee represents. Under C.G.S. Section 20-325d(a), the licensee must:

• a.Answer only after the buyer signs a representation agreement
• b.Decline, because the client's identity is confidential information
• c.Refer the buyer to the supervising broker for an answer
• d.Disclose the identity of the licensee's client in writing✓

Section 20-325d(a) provides that a licensee who represents a seller, lessor, prospective purchaser or lessee "shall, upon request, disclose in writing the identity of the real estate licensee's client to any party to the transaction who is not represented by another real estate licensee." Client identity is not within the protected category: Section 20-311(7) defines confidential information as facts about a person's assets, expenses, income, liabilities, motivations and previous offers, so refusing on confidentiality grounds misapplies the definition. Conditioning the answer on the unrepresented buyer signing a representation agreement inverts the provision, which exists for the benefit of the party who has no agent. And the duty rests on the licensee who received the request, so passing it to the supervising broker does not discharge it.

Under C.G.S. Section 20-320(a)(6), a Connecticut exclusive listing or buyer agency contract may not:

• a.Be signed by an agent acting under a written power of attorney
• b.Provide for compensation stated as a flat dollar amount rather than a rate
• c.Contain a fixed termination date with automatic continuation past it✓
• d.Run for a term longer than one hundred eighty days from the date of signing

Section 20-320(a)(6) makes it grounds for suspension, revocation or a fine that the licensee "entered into an exclusive listing contract or buyer agency contract which contains a fixed termination date if such contract also provides for an automatic continuation of the period of such contract beyond such date." The prohibition is aimed at the self-renewing listing, which is why the answer has to pair the fixed date with the automatic extension. Connecticut sets no maximum term of one hundred eighty days or any other length; the parties choose the term, provided it actually ends when it says it does. Section 20-325a(b)(7) expressly contemplates signature by an authorized agent under a written document executed in the manner provided for conveyances. And a flat fee is a lawful way to state compensation, subject to the negotiability notice required by Section 20-325b.

C.G.S. Section 20-325f addresses subagency in Connecticut by providing that a real estate broker shall not:

• a.Cooperate with any broker who represents the other party to the transaction
• b.Share a commission with a cooperating broker from another brokerage
• c.Show a property that another brokerage holds under an exclusive listing
• d.Make a unilateral offer of subagency or affiliate with a subagent✓

Section 20-325f states that "no real estate broker shall make any unilateral offer of subagency or agree to compensate, appoint, employ, cooperate with or otherwise affiliate with a subagent for the sale or purchase of real property." Connecticut abolished subagency outright, which is why the rule reads as a flat prohibition rather than a consent requirement. It does not bar cooperation itself: a cooperating broker who represents the buyer is a buyer's agent, not a subagent of the seller, and that arrangement is ordinary practice. Sharing a commission between brokerages is likewise untouched, since what the section forbids is the agency relationship, not the compensation. And showing another brokerage's listing is normal cooperative practice, subject to Conn. Agencies Regs. Section 20-328-2a, which channels dealings through the listing agent.

Connecticut requires a licensee to provide a consumer with the mandated real estate agency disclosure:

• a.Within ten calendar days after the closing of title takes place
• b.Only after the seller has accepted the buyer's written offer to purchase
• c.Not later than the first personal meeting with a prospective party✓
• d.Only if the consumer asks for it in writing before the meeting

Connecticut requires the licensee to deliver the agency-relationship disclosure at the beginning of the first personal meeting concerning the consumer's specific real estate needs, before confidential information changes hands, so the consumer learns whether the licensee represents the seller, the buyer, both, or neither before negotiating positions are revealed. The keyed language is the statute as amended: C.G.S. Section 20-325d(b) was rewritten by P.A. 23-84 effective April 1, 2024 to read "Not later than the first personal meeting," dropping the "specific real estate needs" qualifier. The implementing regulation, RCSA Section 20-325d-5(a), still carries the older phrasing, at the beginning of that meeting, which is the stricter of the two; disclosing at the earlier moment satisfies both. Waiting until an offer has been accepted comes long after that, when the consumer has already spoken freely and committed. Delivery after closing is later still and serves no protective purpose at all. And the duty is affirmative: it falls on the licensee to disclose at the required time, not on the consumer to know to ask for it in writing.

Under C.G.S. Section 20-325d(b), the written disclosure a Connecticut licensee gives a prospective party must state the types of agency relationships available and must also warn the prospective party:

• a.Not to discuss the property with any other licensee during the search
• b.Not to share confidential information before signing a representation agreement✓
• c.Not to make an offer before an attorney has reviewed the purchase contract
• d.Not to rely on the seller's written residential condition report

Section 20-325d(b)(1) requires the licensee to "disclose in writing to a prospective party (A) the types of agency relationships available to the prospective party, and (B) that the prospective party should not share confidential information with the real estate licensee until such prospective party has entered into a written representation agreement with such real estate licensee," and subdivision (2) adds, for residential transactions, information on fair housing discrimination including protected classes and where to obtain further help. Warning a consumer away from other licensees would restrain the consumer's choice rather than protect it, and nothing in the subsection says any such thing. Advice about attorney review and about the weight to give a seller's condition report may be sensible in a given deal, but neither is part of the statutory disclosure. The disclosures may be delivered electronically.

In Connecticut, dual agency, meaning the representation of both buyer and seller in the same transaction, is:

• a.Created automatically whenever one brokerage lists and sells
• b.Permitted only in commercial real estate transactions, not residential
• c.Prohibited in every residential real estate transaction in the state
• d.Permitted only with the informed written consent of both parties✓

Connecticut allows dual agency, but only when both parties give informed written consent. Because a dual agent cannot fully advocate for either side, the licensee must disclose the limited nature of the representation, obtain that consent, and refrain from revealing one party's confidential information to the other. It is therefore not barred in residential transactions, and neither does it arise automatically because one brokerage happens to list and sell the same property: consent is what makes the arrangement lawful, and without it the arrangement fails however the transaction is structured. The consent requirement is not tied to any one property type, so confining it to commercial deals misstates it. C.G.S. Section 20-325g supplies a statutory consent form, and Section 20-325i recognizes designated agency as a separate arrangement.

Under the Dual Agency Consent Agreement prescribed by C.G.S. Section 20-325g, the brokerage firm may not disclose to the buyer:

• a.That a material defect in the property is known to the firm
• b.That another offer on the property has been accepted
• c.That the seller will accept less than the asking price✓
• d.That the property is listed in the multiple listing service

The statutory form provides that the brokerage firm may not disclose "to the buyer that the seller (landlord) will accept less than the asking or listed price, unless otherwise instructed to do so in writing by the seller (landlord)," and it protects the mirror image of that information about the buyer, together with each party's motivation and willingness to change financing terms. Executing the form before any purchase, sale or lease contract creates a conclusive presumption of informed consent. Telling other offerors that an offer has been accepted is what Conn. Agencies Regs. Section 20-328-2a requires rather than forbids. Property information available through the multiple listing service is disclosed to both parties on request under paragraph (4) of the form. And the confidentiality paragraph carves out "information related to material property defects which are known to the brokerage firm," so a known defect must still be disclosed.

A Connecticut broker appoints one affiliated licensee as designated seller agent and another as designated buyer agent in the same transaction. Under C.G.S. Section 20-325i, each designated agent is:

• a.Deemed a dual agent, because one firm represents both sides
• b.Not deemed a dual agent, and carries the primary duty to that client✓
• c.Required to obtain the commission's approval of the appointment
• d.Barred from taking any further listing in the same community

Section 20-325i provides that on designation "the responsibility to satisfy the respective duties as a seller's or landlord's agent or as a buyer's or tenant's agent shall be the primary responsibility of the individual so designated, who shall not be deemed a dual agent, except in the case of an individual designated to represent both a seller and buyer in the same transaction." So the arrangement fails only where one person is designated for both sides, and the fact that a single firm stands behind both designations does not by itself create dual agency. The statute imposes no geographic restriction on the designated agent's other business. And designation is the broker's option, made with regard to a particular transaction only; no approval from the commission is called for.

C.G.S. Section 20-325h bars a Connecticut licensee from revealing a client's confidential information except where disclosure is:

• a.Required by legal process, or needed to prevent a crime✓
• b.Useful to close the transaction on the agreed terms
• c.Made after the representation agreement has ended
• d.Requested by the licensee's supervising broker in writing

Section 20-325h forbids revealing confidential information, using it to the person's disadvantage, or using it for the licensee's or a third party's advantage, except "(A) as required by legal process, (B) as necessary to defend such real estate licensee from allegations of wrongful or negligent conduct, or (C) as necessary to prevent the commission of a crime." Those three are the whole of the list. A supervising broker's written request is not among them, and the supervising licensee is bound by the same duty. Commercial usefulness is the opposite of an exception, since using the information to the client's disadvantage is exactly what the section prohibits. And nothing in the text ties the duty to the life of the agreement: it speaks of a person "whom the real estate licensee represented," in the past tense, so the obligation outlasts the relationship.

Under Conn. Agencies Regs. Section 20-328-2a, a Connecticut licensee who wants to discuss a property that is exclusively listed with another brokerage must ordinarily deal with:

• a.The seller directly, because the listing binds only the brokerage
• b.The town clerk, where the listing agreement is recorded
• c.The multiple listing service, which speaks for the seller
• d.The listing agent, rather than the seller, owner or lessor✓

The regulation states that "all dealings concerning property exclusively listed with an agent shall be conducted with the listing agent, and not the seller, owner or lessor," and it applies the same channel in the other direction for a buyer or lessee who is exclusively represented. Direct contact is left open only with consent or after diligent but unsuccessful attempts to reach the agent. Treating the exclusive listing as binding only the brokerage is the reasoning the rule exists to stop, since going around the listing agent is the interference the outline area is about. A multiple listing service publishes offers of cooperation; it does not act as the seller's mouthpiece. And listing agreements are not recorded on the land records, which is where a broker's lien claim under Section 20-325a is filed.

Under C.G.S. Section 52-575, the period of adverse possession that will bar a Connecticut owner's entry onto land held by another is:

• a.Fifteen years✓
• b.Ten years
• c.Twenty-one years
• d.Seven years

Section 52-575(a) provides that "no person shall make entry into any lands or tenements but within fifteen years next after his right or title to the same first descends or accrues or within fifteen years next after such person or persons have been ousted from possession," and a person who does not enter within that period is disabled from entering afterwards. The same fifteen-year measure governs a prescriptive easement under Section 47-37. Seven, ten and twenty-one years are the periods other states use, and twenty-one in particular travels through national textbooks, which is why Connecticut candidates are tested on it. The statute also lets an owner interrupt the running of the period by serving and recording written notice under Sections 47-39 and 47-40, provided an action is commenced within one year of recording.

A Connecticut residence sells for $1,000,000. Under C.G.S. Section 12-494, the state portion of the real estate conveyance tax on the consideration above $800,000 is imposed at a rate of:

• a.One-quarter of one per cent
• b.One and one-quarter per cent✓
• c.Two and one-quarter per cent
• d.Three-quarters of one per cent

Section 12-494(b)(2) taxes a residential conveyance of eight hundred thousand dollars or more in tiers: three-quarters of one per cent on the portion up to and including $800,000, one and one-quarter per cent on the portion above $800,000 up to and including $2,500,000, and two and one-quarter per cent on the portion above $2,500,000. Three-quarters of one per cent is therefore the rate on the first $800,000 rather than on the excess, and two and one-quarter per cent does not begin until the price passes $2,500,000, which this one does not. One-quarter of one per cent is the separate municipal portion imposed by Section 12-494(a)(2), which becomes general revenue of the town, and certain targeted investment communities may add up to another quarter of one per cent under subsection (c). The tax applies where the consideration equals or exceeds two thousand dollars.

If a Connecticut seller fails to furnish the required written residential condition report, C.G.S. Section 20-327c requires the purchase agreement to give the purchaser a credit at closing of:

• a.Two hundred fifty dollars
• b.Five hundred dollars✓
• c.Two thousand dollars
• d.One thousand dollars

Section 20-327c(a) requires every agreement to purchase residential real estate for which a report is required "to include a requirement that the seller credit the purchaser with the sum of five hundred dollars at closing should the seller fail to furnish the written residential condition report or reports." None of the other amounts appears in the section, and the figure is worth memorizing precisely because the credit is small enough to be mistaken for a nominal sum. Subsection (b) is the part licensees most often get wrong: paying the credit does not excuse the seller from disclosing a known defect that significantly impairs the value of the property, the health or safety of future occupants, or the useful life of the property, and subsection (c) lets the purchaser sue for actual damages for that nondisclosure. Section 20-327b(c) applies the requirement to one-to-four unit residential property, including condominiums and cooperatives.

Under C.G.S. Section 47a-21(b), the maximum security deposit a Connecticut landlord may demand from a tenant who is sixty-two years of age or older is:

• a.One month's rent✓
• b.Two months' rent
• c.Four months' rent
• d.Three months' rent

Section 47a-21(b)(2) provides that "in the case of a tenant sixty-two years of age or older, a landlord shall not demand a security deposit in an amount that exceeds one month's rent," and a landlord holding more than that from a tenant who turns sixty-two must return the excess on request. Two months' rent is the general ceiling under subdivision (1) for a tenant under sixty-two, which is why it is the tempting answer, and Connecticut sets no three-month or four-month figure at all. On termination, subsection (d)(2) requires the landlord to return the deposit with accrued interest, or the balance plus an itemized statement of damages, not later than twenty-one days after termination or fifteen days after receiving written notice of the tenant's forwarding address, whichever is later. Public Act 23-207 shortened that period from thirty days to twenty-one.

Under Connecticut's Common Interest Ownership Act, a buyer purchasing a resale unit in a common interest community is generally entitled to receive:

• a.A guarantee that the association's assessments will not be increased later
• b.A seat on the association's executive board for the first year
• c.A resale certificate with the association's budget and assessments✓
• d.Only the deed and the executed contract of sale for the unit

C.G.S. Section 47-270(a) requires the selling unit owner to furnish the buyer, before the earlier of conveyance or transfer of possession, with the declaration, bylaws, rules and a certificate stating the periodic common expense assessment, any unpaid or special assessment, other fees payable, approved capital expenditures over one thousand dollars, reserves, the current operating budget, and any unsatisfied judgments or pending suits against the association. That is far more than the deed and the contract of sale, so an answer limited to those two understates the buyer's rights. Nothing in the act freezes assessments; the disclosure exists so the buyer can judge the risk that they will rise. And board membership is governed by the association's own documents, not conferred by a resale. Under Section 47-270(b) the association must furnish the certificate within ten business days of a request, and under subsection (c) the contract stays voidable by the purchaser until five days after delivery.