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OLR Bill Analysis
sHB 6889
AN ACT CONCERNING EVICTIONS FOR CAUSE.
SUMMARY
This bill extends certain existing eviction and rent increase
protections to all tenants who have lived in specified housing types for
at least 13 months. This generally includes buildings and complexes
with at least five separate dwelling units and mobile home parks with
at least five homes. Under current law, these protections are generally
available only to tenants who (1) live in these housing types and (2) are
at least age 62 or individuals with disabilities (and their family members
in the household).
Existing law allows landlords to evict tenants covered by these
protections (“protected tenants”) based only on certain grounds.
Landlords cannot do so solely because the lease has expired (a lapse of
time eviction). The bill establishes an additional ground, applicable only
to tenants who are not at least age 62 or an individual with a disability,
based on a landlord’s intention to use the dwelling unit as a family
member’s principal residence.
Current law requires (1) the Department of Housing (DOH) to create
a one-page notice summarizing protected tenants’ rights related to
evictions and rent increases and post it on the department’s website and
(2) landlords (or their agents) to provide the notice to any tenant that
rents, or enters or renews an agreement to rent, a dwelling unit located
in a building or complex or mobile home park described above. The bill
requires DOH to revise this notice, by December 1, 2025, based on its
extension of these protections and correspondingly requires landlords
or their agents to use the revised notice starting on January 1, 2026.
The bill also makes various minor, technical, and conforming
changes. 2025HB-06889-R000262-BA.DOCX
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EFFECTIVE DATE: October 1, 2025
PROTECTED TENANTS
The bill generally extends existing law’s eviction and rent increase
protections (see below) for certain protected tenants to all tenants who
have lived in one the following housing types for a minimum of 13
months:
1. buildings or complexes with at least five separate dwelling units;
or
2. mobile manufactured home parks with at least five homes.
This extension also applies to qualifying tenants living in common
interest communities (1) where their landlord owns at least five
dwelling units or (2) that were previously converted from a mobile
home park, under certain circumstances (see BACKGROUND).
Under current law, these protections generally apply only to a tenant
living in the housing types described above who is:
1. at least age 62, or who permanently lives with a spouse, sibling,
parent, or grandparent (i.e. family member) meeting this age
requirement; or
2. a person with a physical or mental disability, or who
permanently lives with a family member, including a child, with
a disability that can be expected to last for at least 12 months or
result in death.
Under existing law, unchanged by the bill, “landlord” includes a
licensee or owner of a mobile home park and “tenant” includes park
residents.
Currently, a landlord can request proof of a person’s status as a
“protected tenant.” The bill specifies that landlords may only do so
when protected status is not readily apparent.
2025HB-06889-R000262-BA.DOCX
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GROUNDS FOR EVICTION
The bill extends existing law’s eviction protection to the expanded
group of protected tenants. As under existing law, landlords can evict
protected tenants based only on certain grounds. These are commonly
known as “for cause” or “just cause” evictions and include the following
reasons:
1. nonpayment of rent;
2. material noncompliance with tenants’ or mobile home parks
residents’ statutory duties that materially affects the (a) health
and safety of other tenants or (b) physical condition of the
premises (this generally includes nuisance and serious nuisance);
3. material noncompliance with the rental agreement or a
landlord’s lawfully adopted rules and regulations; and
4. voiding of a rental agreement based on certain illegal activity.
Additionally, landlords can evict these tenants for other reasons after
a rental agreement expires, including if the (1) tenant will not agree to a
fair and equitable rent increase (see below) or (2) landlord permanently
removes the unit from the housing market or genuinely intends to use
it as his or her principal residence.
(It is unclear if the bill’s extended eviction protection applies to a
tenant, not protected under current law, whose rental agreement has
expired and who is party to an eviction proceeding at the time he or she
reaches 13 months of residency in a qualifying unit.)
Principal Residence for Landlord or Family Member
The bill establishes an additional eviction ground, applicable only to
tenants who are not at least age 62 or an individual with a disability,
based on a landlord’s genuine intention to use the dwelling unit as the
principal residence of certain family members (a child, grandchild,
parent, or grandparent). However, it also requires the following
conditions be met for this ground to apply: 2025HB-06889-R000262-BA.DOCX
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1. the landlord is a natural person;
2. he or she gave the tenant at least 90 days’ advance written notice;
3. there is currently no other unit in the building, complex, or
mobile home park reasonably available to the landlord or family
member, or one that will become available within a reasonable
time period; and
4. the landlord genuinely believes that he or she, or the family
member, will use the dwelling unit as a principal residence for at
least six months.
The bill also applies these conditions to existing law’s eviction
ground based on a landlord’s intention to use the dwelling unit as his
or her own principal residence (see above). As under existing law for
this ground, a landlord’s intention to use the dwelling unit as a family
member’s principal residence is not applicable to common interest
community conversion tenants.
PROTECTION AGAINST E XCESSIVE RENT INCREA SES
As under existing law for protected tenants at least age 62 or with a
disability (and their family members in the household), the bill requires
rent increases for all protected tenants to be “fair and equitable” based
on the same factors a fair rent commission must consider in determining
excessive rent increases (see BACKGROUND). It allows these tenants, if
aggrieved by a rent increase (or proposed increase), to (1) file a
complaint with the municipality’s fair rent commission, or (2) if living
in a municipality without one, to go to court to fight the increase.
Existing law, unchanged by the bill, requires the court to determine
whether the rent increase is fair and equitable based on the factors fair
rent commissions must use.
BACKGROUND
Conversion Tenants
By law, common interest community conversion tenants are
generally those who live in a dwelling unit or on a mobile home park
space or lot both before and after it becomes part of a common interest 2025HB-06889-R000262-BA.DOCX
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community or is offered for sale as part of one (i.e. a converted unit)
(CGS § 47-283).
Fair Rent Commissions and Fair and Equitable Rent Increases
The law authorizes municipalities (and requires those with a
population of at least 25,000) to establish fair rent commissions to (1)
control and eliminate excessive (i.e. harsh and unconscionable) rental
charges and (2) enforce landlord-tenant statutes prohibiting landlord
retaliation and establishing eviction protections for certain protected
tenants (as described above).
Fair rent commissions must consider certain factors, as applicable,
when determining whether a rental charge or proposed rent increase is
excessive to the point of being “harsh and unconscionable” (e.g., rents
for comparable units and the amount and frequency of rent increases)
(CGS § 7-148b et seq.).
Related Bills
sSB 12 (§ 6), sSB 1264, sSB 1266 (File 72), HB 6892, and sHB 6943 (§ 3),
all reported favorably by the Housing Committee, make various
changes affecting fair rent commissions.
COMMITTEE ACTION
Housing Committee
Joint Favorable Substitute
Yea 11 Nay 8 (03/06/2025)