Stay of Execution for Connecticut Eviction: Deadline, Filing, and Hearing

If you lost your eviction case in Connecticut, you have five days from the date of judgment to file for a stay of execution, which asks the court to delay your removal and buy you time to find housing. Sundays and legal holidays don’t count toward those five days, but almost nothing else gives you more room. Miss the window, and the landlord can send a marshal to carry out the eviction.¹

The Five-Day Clock Starts at Judgment

Execution is automatically stayed for five days after the court enters judgment, excluding Sundays and legal holidays.¹ You get that pause whether you ask for it or not. It exists so you can either appeal the judgment or file an application for a longer stay. Do neither, and the landlord can move forward.

The court is supposed to tell you about your right to apply for a stay when it enters judgment, and the clerk must give you the application form if you ask. If no one mentioned it, raise it at the clerk’s window right away. The five days keep running regardless.

Who Can’t Apply

Before you spend any of those five days preparing paperwork, confirm you’re actually eligible. The stay statutes don’t cover every rental.

Housing types outside the stay process include farmworker accommodations on a farm where the tenant spends a substantial portion of their time working the operation; housing provided to domestic workers, caretakers, managers, or other employees as part of their compensation; seasonal or resort rentals, including trailers, in a resort community; and transient stays in a hotel, motel, or similar lodging.²

Two eviction grounds also disqualify you no matter the property: nuisance, and use of the premises for illegal or immoral purposes.³ Nonpayment of rent is eligible, but it carries an extra requirement covered next. Most other eviction reasons leave the application open to you.

Nonpayment Cases Need the Full Back Rent on Deposit

This is where tenants lose a stay they could have had. If you were evicted for nonpayment of rent, you can’t just file the application. You have to deposit the full arrearage with the court clerk within those same five days.³ The deposit covers all unpaid rent and any use-and-occupancy charges owed through the date of judgment. The clerk then distributes the money to the landlord by court order.

If you can’t put together the full amount in five days, you’re out of this process. Connecticut’s Eviction Prevention Fund and other rental assistance programs are worth calling the day judgment is entered; they move faster when the deadline is explicit.

Filing the Application

The form is the Stay of Execution Application for Summary Process, Form JD-HM-21. You can download it from the Connecticut Judicial Branch website or pick one up at the courthouse that heard your case.⁴ On it, you confirm three things: you live in the premises, you’ve tried to find other housing in your area and can’t, and your request is honest and you’ll follow the court’s conditions.

File three copies with the clerk of the court that entered the judgment, within the five-day window. The clerk takes care of notifying the landlord or their attorney by delivery or mail.³ You don’t arrange service.

Filing itself buys you more time. Once your application is on file, execution is automatically stayed again until the court rules on it.³ On fees, the court schedule lists $75 for motions in housing and summary process matters, and whether that applies to a stay application depends on how the court classifies it. Ask the clerk when you file.

The Hearing

After you file, the clerk puts the matter on the short calendar and gives each side at least three days’ notice of the date and location.⁵ Show up. If the landlord doesn’t appear, the court may grant the stay; if you don’t, the court may deny it.⁶

To grant a stay, the judge has to find that:

The premises are used as a dwelling, not a commercial space.
You can’t find suitable housing in your city or town, or in a nearby community with a comparable neighborhood.
You’ve made a genuine effort to look.
Your application is made in good faith.
You’ll follow the conditions the court sets.⁷

Bring documentation for each point. Rental applications you’ve submitted, rejection emails or letters from landlords, screenshots of listings you’ve contacted, and a running log of your search all go to diligence. If medical issues or financial hardship are complicating things, bring medical records, termination notices, benefits statements, or bank records. Landlords commonly oppose stays by pointing to continuing financial harm, property damage concerns, or weak evidence of a real housing search. A tenant who looks like they’re just buying time will have trouble.

How Long a Stay Lasts

The ceiling depends on why you were evicted. For reasons other than nonpayment, the court can stay execution for up to six months total from the judgment date. For nonpayment, the maximum is three months total, even after you deposit the full arrearage.⁷ Courts often grant shorter periods, sometimes just weeks, especially when the landlord shows the delay is costing them.

Two groups can ask for longer. Residents of mobile manufactured home parks who own their unit and received a specific type of notice, and tenants affected by condominium conversions, can request an additional extension of up to nine months beyond the initial six-month period. The court weighs the tenant’s age, family size, length of tenancy, and whether suitable alternative housing exists.⁷

Conditions You’ll Have to Meet

A stay comes with strings. The statute lets the court impose whatever conditions and terms appear fair and equitable, and in practice those usually mirror or exceed your original lease obligations.⁷

The most common one is continued use-and-occupancy payments, generally equal to the rent amount and due on the old schedule. Miss one and you can lose the stay. Courts may also require you to maintain the property, avoid disturbing neighbors, and show proof you’re still looking for housing. If your eviction involved lease violations other than nonpayment, expect stricter conditions tailored to the original problem.

A landlord who thinks you’ve broken a condition can file a motion to lift the stay. If the court agrees, the stay is revoked and the eviction proceeds right away. There’s no automatic extension when a stay expires on its own either; the landlord can direct the marshal to carry out the eviction without going back to court. Judges rarely grant a second stay to a tenant who didn’t comply with the first one, so treat the conditions as hard requirements from day one.

Military and Disability Protections That Run Alongside

If you or your spouse is on active military duty, the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act gives you a separate layer of protection from Connecticut’s state-law process. A landlord cannot evict a servicemember or their dependents during a period of military service without a court order, and violating that requirement is a federal misdemeanor. The protection applies to a primary residence where monthly rent doesn’t exceed an annually adjusted threshold; for 2025 it was $10,239.63, which covers most residential rentals. When a landlord does get a court order, the court must stay proceedings for at least 90 days if military service has materially affected the servicemember’s ability to pay rent, and can also adjust lease terms.⁸ Raise it with the court as early as possible.

If you have a disability, the federal Fair Housing Act requires landlords and housing providers to grant reasonable accommodations when necessary to give a person with a disability equal opportunity to remain in housing. Extra time to relocate because of a disability-related limitation can qualify. You don’t have to disclose a specific diagnosis. The request can be oral or written, though writing creates a record. If the disability and the need aren’t obvious, the provider can ask for verification from a doctor, social worker, or other reliable third party. The landlord must grant the accommodation unless it would create an undue financial or administrative burden. This runs independently of the state stay process and can be raised in addition to it.

Get Free Legal Help Immediately

Connecticut’s Right to Counsel program provides free lawyers to eligible tenants facing eviction. Tenants in Greater Hartford are covered without geographic restriction. In places like Hamden, New Haven, and West Haven, coverage reaches residents of specific zip codes or tenants in subsidized housing. Even if your town isn’t on the list, you may qualify if you live in subsidized housing, are 62 or older, have a disability, or have children in your household.⁹

If full representation isn’t available where you are, the Right to Counsel hotline can still give legal advice. CTLawHelp.org has information on the eviction process, 2-1-1 refers to housing and utility assistance, and the Connecticut Eviction Prevention Fund helps tenants facing eviction due to job loss, a death in the household, or medical issues. With a five-day deadline running, call the day judgment is entered.

1
Justia Law. Connecticut Code 47a-35 – Stay of Execution, Appeal
2
Connecticut General Assembly. Connecticut Code Chapter 832 – Summary Process
3
Justia Law. Connecticut Code 47a-37 – Application for Stay of Execution
4
Connecticut Judicial Branch. Form JD-HM-21 – Stay of Execution Application – Summary Process
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Justia Law. Connecticut Code 47a-38 – Hearing on Application for Stay of Execution
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Connecticut Judicial Branch. Form JD-HM-21 – Stay of Execution Application – Summary Process
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Justia Law. Connecticut Code 47a-39 – Court May Grant Stay of Execution
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3951 – Evictions and Distress
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EvictionHelpCT. Providing Help to Eligible Tenants Facing Eviction