1. (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:

   1. (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 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.
2. (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.
3. (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.
4. (d) With respect to a month-to-month or a week-to-week 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 or week in which the notice is delivered, convert the month-to-month or week-to-week tenancy to a tenancy at sufferance and provide proper basis for a summary process action notwithstanding that such notice was delivered in the month or week after the month or week in which the rent is alleged to be unpaid.
5. (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.”

(1949 Rev., S. 8274; 1949, S. 3217d; 1957, P.A. 291, S. 1; 1959, P.A. 28, S. 130; 1969, P.A. 313, S. 1; P.A. 74-183, S. 115, 291; P.A. 76-95, S. 23, 27; 76-435, S. 75, 82; 76-436, S. 102, 681; P.A. 77-451, S. 5; P.A. 78-280, S. 61, 127; P.A. 79-571, S. 46; P.A. 80-399, S. 1; P.A. 81-237; P.A. 82-274, S. 1; P.A. 86-210; 86-286, S. 2; P.A. 87-507, S. 1; P.A. 89-254, S. 8; P.A. 90-230, S. 98, 101; P.A. 91-5; 91-383, S. 18; P.A. 92-171, S. 1; May Sp. Sess. P.A. 92-11, S. 38, 70; P.A. 93-185; 93-209, S. 1; P.A. 95-247, S. 1; P.A. 97-231, S. 10; P.A. 99-221; P.A. 04-127, S. 3.)

History: 1959 act made writ, summons and complaint returnable to circuit court rather than to trial justices, alternate trial justices or municipal courts, which have been abolished; 1969 act deleted reference to requirement for “Duplicate” copies in form; P.A. 74-183 replaced circuit court with court of common pleas and added provisions re venue, effective December 31, 1974; P.A. 76-95 deleted reference to leases terminated under provisions of Sec. 47-23 and specified that complaint “shall be returned to court at least three days before the return day”; P.A. 76-435 revised effective date section of P.A. 76-95; P.A. 76-436 replaced court of common pleas with superior court and reference to Sec. 51-156a with reference to Sec. 51-348, effective July 1, 1978; Sec. 52-532 transferred to Sec. 47a-23 in 1977; P.A. 77-451 added references to dwelling units and to lease terminations where Sec. 47a-15 or 47a-11 has bearing; P.A. 78-280 made technical corrections; P.A. 79-571 added references to rental agreements, divided section into Subsecs. and deleted detailed provisions re eviction procedure, reincorporated in statutes as Sec. 47a-23a; P.A. 80-399 required that lessee or occupant receive notice at least eight, rather than ten, days before termination of lease and deleted exception which had required only five days notice where lease is terminated for nonpayment of rent; P.A. 81-237 amended Subsec. (b) to require that the notice to quit contain the reason therefor; P.A. 82-274 amended Subsec. (c) to provide that if the rental agreement or lease concerns commercial property the notice may be left at the commercial establishment; P.A. 86-210 amended Subsec. (a) to provide that notice be given to an occupant “if the owner or lessor knows or in the exercise of reasonable diligence should know the name of such occupant”; P.A. 86-286 repealed provision added by P.A. 86-210 and amended Subsec. (b) to provide that if owner or lessor, or legal representative, attorney-at-law or attorney-in-fact does not know or cannot reasonably discover the name of occupant, notice may be addressed to “occupant” or “occupants”; P.A. 87-507 amended Subsecs. (a) and (c) to replace “the lessee” with “each lessee” and amended Subsec. (b) to require the notice to set forth “the address, including apartment number or other designation, as applicable” of the premises and to permit the notice to be addressed to an occupant as “John Doe”, “Jane Doe” or some other alias which reasonably characterizes the person to be served, rather than “occupant” or “occupants”, when the owner or lessor “knows of the presence of an occupant” but does not know and cannot discover his name; P.A. 89-254 amended Subsec. (a) to restructure provisions, to insert Subdiv. indicators, to revise in Subdiv. (1) the reasons for the termination of a rental agreement or lease by inserting Subpara. indicators, by replacing “under the provisions of section 47a-15a” with “(D) nonpayment of rent within the grace period provided for residential property in section 47a-15a” and by adding as reasons Subpara. (C) “violation of the rental agreement or lease or of any rules or regulations adopted in accordance with section 47a-9”, Subpara. (E) “nonpayment of rent when due for commercial property”, and Subpara. (G) “nuisance, as defined in section 47a-15”, to replace in Subdiv. (2) “one who has no right or privilege” with “one who never had a right or privilege” and to add in Subdiv. (3) “other than under a rental agreement or lease”; P.A. 90-230 added “or his legal representative, or his attorney-at-law, or in-fact” to Subsec. (a)(3); P.A. 91-5 amended Subsec. (b) to provide that the reason or reasons for the notice to quit be inserted “using the statutory language or words of similar import”; P.A. 91-383 amended Subsec. (a) by adding reference to Secs. 21-70, 21-83, 21-82(b) and 21-80 in Subparas. (C), (D), (F) and (G), respectively, of Subdiv. (1); P.A. 92-171 amended Subsec. (a) to require notice be given at least five, rather than eight, days before termination of rental agreement or lease or before time specified in the notice to quit possession or occupancy, amended Subsec. (b) to delete requirement that reasonable diligence be exercised to discover the name of an occupant whose presence is known as a condition of addressing the notice to “John Doe”, “Jane Doe” or some other alias, and amended Subsec. (c) to authorize delivery of the notice on any day of the week; May Sp. Sess. P.A. 92-11 made a technical change in Subsec. (a); P.A. 93-185 added Subsec. (d) re the effect of delivering a notice to quit possession based on nonpayment of rent in the month after the month in which the rent is alleged to be unpaid; P.A. 93-209 added Subsec. (e) to authorize a federal termination notice to be included in or combined with a notice required pursuant to this section and to specify the effect of such inclusion or combination; P.A. 95-247 amended Subsec. (a) to delete in Subdiv. (3) provision that characterized right or privilege to occupy premises as being “other than under a rental agreement or lease” and to add as reasons for notice to quit possession or occupancy Subdiv. (4) re when an action is authorized under certain provisions of Sec. 47a-23c(b) and Subdiv. (5) re when a farm employee or domestic servant, caretaker, manager or other employee fails to vacate premises furnished by his employer; P.A. 97-231 amended Subsec. (a) to require notice be given at least three, rather than five, days before termination of rental agreement or lease or before the time specified in the notice to quit possession or occupancy; P.A. 99-221 made technical changes and amended Subsec. (e) by adding provisions re the use and occupancy disclaimer; P.A. 04-127 amended Subsec. (d) by adding provisions re week-to-week tenancy.