Connecticut Real Estate Broker Exam — All Questions

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.

Which characteristic is protected against housing discrimination by C.G.S. Section 46a-64c but has no counterpart in the federal Fair Housing Act?

• a.A tenant's familial status
• b.A tenant's lawful source of income✓
• c.A tenant's religious creed
• d.A tenant's national origin

Section 46a-64c(a)(1) makes it a discriminatory practice to refuse to sell or rent, or otherwise make a dwelling unavailable, because of "race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender identity or expression, marital status, age, lawful source of income, familial status, status as a veteran or status as a victim of domestic violence." Lawful source of income is on that list and has no federal counterpart, so a Connecticut landlord may not refuse a tenant for paying rent with a housing voucher. Familial status and national origin are protected federally as well, and creed covers the ground the federal act calls religion, so none of those three separates Connecticut law from the federal baseline. Sexual orientation is protected in housing by a separate Connecticut statute, Section 46a-81e, rather than by Section 46a-64c.

The written residential condition report prescribed under C.G.S. Section 20-327b asks the Connecticut seller specifically about the presence in a concrete foundation of:

• a.Radon gas
• b.Asbestos
• c.Pyrrhotite✓
• d.Lead paint

The template prescribed by Section 20-327b(d) asks whether the seller has "any knowledge related to the presence of pyrrhotite in a foundation on the property," alongside questions about foundation testing and repairs, and it carries a concrete foundation notice telling prospective buyers they may have the foundation inspected by a licensed professional engineer for deterioration due to pyrrhotite. Pyrrhotite is the iron sulphide mineral behind Connecticut's crumbling foundation crisis, and Section 20-327b(g) adds a special disclosure for affected municipalities. Radon, asbestos and lead-based paint are also addressed in Connecticut and federal disclosure practice, and the report covers radon testing and asbestos separately, but none of them is the substance the foundation questions are written about. The foundation disclosure requirement dates to June Special Session Public Act 17-2, not to any 2025 act.

A Connecticut buyer brings a relative to interpret during negotiations. Under C.G.S. Section 20-327i, the licensee must obtain signatures on the prescribed interpreter form from:

• a.Both the buyer and the interpreter✓
• b.The buyer's attorney and the interpreter
• c.The buyer alone, not the interpreter
• d.The interpreter alone, not the buyer

Section 20-327i(a) requires the licensee to provide the forms "to the buyer or renter and interpreter, and obtain the buyer's or renter's and interpreter's signatures" on statements that the obligations of the contract were explained in the buyer's native language and that each understands the agreement. Two signatures are the point: one confirms the explanation was received, the other that it was given. A form signed only by the interpreter would leave no record from the person the statute protects, and a form signed only by the buyer would leave none from the person who did the interpreting. No attorney signature is called for; the statute puts the two participants in the conversation on the form and no one else. Subsection (b) covers the different case in which the licensee personally acts as interpreter, and there the form must be written in the buyer's own native language.