CT Notice to Quit Form JD-HM-7: Grounds, Fields, and Service

Connecticut’s Notice to Quit, Form JD-HM-7, is the written demand a landlord must serve on a tenant before filing any eviction case in housing court. The form tells the tenant to vacate by a specific date and states the legal reason. Get the grounds, the quit date, or the service method wrong and the court will dismiss the eviction before it reaches the merits. This is how to complete and serve it correctly.

Confirm You Have a Legal Ground to Evict

Connecticut General Statutes Section 47a-23 lists the reasons that will support a Notice to Quit. Wanting the unit back is not one of them. The reason you check on the form must match the actual facts, and judges compare the two closely.¹

The grounds landlords use most often are:

Nonpayment of rent, available only after the grace period runs. Month-to-month residential tenants get nine days after rent is due; week-to-week tenants get four.²
Lapse of time, meaning the lease expired and the tenant stayed.
Material lease violations, such as unauthorized pets or occupants.
Nuisance, where the tenant’s conduct substantially interferes with other residents.
Serious nuisance, including assaults on the premises or illegal drug activity.
No right of occupancy, for someone who never had permission to be there.
Terminated right of occupancy, for someone whose permission has ended, such as a former employee housed on-site.¹

If you are evicting for unpaid rent, check the nonpayment box. If the lease has ended, check lapse of time. Checking the wrong one, even with a strong underlying case, is grounds for dismissal.

Send the 15-Day Pre-Termination Notice First If It Applies

For most lease violations, you cannot go straight to the Notice to Quit. Section 47a-15 requires a separate written notice first, identifying what the tenant did wrong and stating that the lease will end no fewer than 15 days after the tenant receives it. If the tenant fixes the problem in that window, the lease continues and the eviction stops.³

If the tenant cures the violation and then commits substantially the same violation again within six months, you can skip the 15-day cure the second time and move straight to the Notice to Quit.³

You can skip the 15-day notice entirely for nonpayment of rent, serious nuisance, and certain health-and-safety violations under Section 47a-11(h). For nonpayment, the nine-day grace period already gives the tenant a chance to pay.

Fill Out JD-HM-7 Field by Field

Use the current version of the form from the Connecticut Judicial Branch website or a housing court clerk’s office. Generic templates and outdated versions invite problems that are easy to avoid.⁴

Name Every Adult Occupant

List the full name of each adult living in the unit. A court order only reaches people named on the notice, so anyone left off may remain in the unit after judgment. For adults whose names you don’t know, the statute allows you to use “John Doe,” “Jane Doe,” or another alias that reasonably describes them.⁵

Describe the Premises Precisely

Write out the full street address, including house number, street, and apartment or unit number. The address on the Notice to Quit should match the lease exactly. “The upstairs unit” is the kind of description a tenant’s attorney will attack.

Set the Quit Date Correctly

The quit date is the deadline for the tenant to leave. You must allow at least three days between service and the quit date, and the day of service does not count. Weekends and holidays do count.¹ A quit date set even one day too early can invalidate the entire notice.

Check Only the Reason That Fits

The form has checkboxes for the Section 47a-23 grounds. Check only the box that matches your facts. If the real issue is unpaid rent but you check the lease-violation box, the case will be dismissed regardless of how much the tenant owes.

Have a State Marshal Serve the Notice

You cannot serve the Notice to Quit yourself. Connecticut requires delivery by a “proper officer or indifferent person,” meaning either a state marshal or someone with no personal stake in the dispute.⁵ A landlord, property manager, or their employee does not qualify. Nearly everyone uses a state marshal because the marshal’s return of service carries the most weight in court.

The marshal can hand the notice directly to the tenant or leave a copy at the residence if no one is home. Service can occur any day of the week. Give the marshal the original form plus one copy for each person named.

Marshal fees are set by statute. The base fee runs up to $50 per process served, with an additional $50 for each additional service, plus mileage calculated from pickup to the service address and back.⁶ Ask for an itemized estimate before you hire.⁷

After service, the marshal issues a return of service showing the date, time, and method. Keep it. You will have to file it with the court if the case proceeds, and the clerk will not accept the eviction complaint without it.

What the Notice Sets Up

If the tenant leaves by the quit date, the matter ends. If the tenant stays past that date, you can then file a Summary Process Summons and Complaint in housing court. The complaint cannot be filed before the quit date passes.⁴ Only a state marshal with a court-issued execution can later remove the tenant and their belongings; changing locks, shutting off utilities, or any other self-help is illegal in Connecticut and can sink an otherwise valid case.

Situations Where the Standard Notice Isn’t Enough

A few categories of tenancy carry extra limits on when and why you can serve a Notice to Quit. Confirm whether any apply before you proceed.

Elderly and Disabled Tenants

Tenants who are 62 or older, blind, or physically disabled and who live in a building or complex of five or more units can only be evicted for specific “good cause” reasons under Section 47a-23c, such as nonpayment, refusing a fair rent increase, lease violations affecting health or safety, the landlord’s own occupancy as a principal residence, or permanent removal of the unit from the market. The protection also covers tenants who live with a qualifying spouse, sibling, parent, or grandparent. A landlord cannot evict a protected tenant for personal use or market removal during an existing lease term.⁸

The Six-Month Retaliation Window

Section 47a-20 bars a landlord from starting an eviction, raising rent, or cutting services within six months after a tenant reports a code violation to a government agency or fair rent commission, requests repairs, has a municipal agency file a complaint about the property, or joins or organizes a tenants’ union.⁹ A tenant can raise retaliation as an affirmative defense, and the landlord then has to prove the eviction rests on independent grounds. The tenant’s rent obligation continues through all of it.⁵

Subsidized Housing

In state public housing, the housing authority must issue a pre-termination notice specifying the lease breach and giving the tenant at least 15 days from receipt before the lease terminates, before any three-day Notice to Quit.¹⁰ Federal voucher programs such as Section 8 may add further notice requirements under federal regulations.

1
Justia Law. Connecticut Code 47a-23 – Notice to Quit Possession or Occupancy of Premises
2
Justia Law. Connecticut Code 47a-15a – Grace Period for Unpaid Rent
3
Justia Law. Connecticut Code 47a-15 – Pre-Termination Notice Requirements
4
Connecticut Judicial Branch. Notice to Quit (End) Possession – JD-HM-7
5
Connecticut General Assembly. Connecticut General Statutes Chapter 832 – Summary Process
6
Justia Law. Connecticut Code 52-261 – Fees and Expenses for Service of Process
7
State of Connecticut. State Marshal Commission Frequently Asked Questions
8
Justia Law. Connecticut Code 47a-23c – Prohibition on Eviction of Certain Tenants Except for Good Cause
9
Justia Law. Connecticut Code 47a-20 – Retaliatory Action by Landlord Prohibited
10
Connecticut eRegulations. Tenant Rights in State Public Housing – RCSA 8-68f-1 Through 8-68f-22