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General Assembly Raised Bill No. 7140
January Session, 2025
LCO No. 5611
Referred to Committee on JUDICIARY
Introduced by:
(JUD)
AN ACT CONCERNING FAIR RENT COMMISSION PROCEEDINGS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. Section 7-148b of the general statutes is repealed and the 1
following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October 1, 2025): 2
(a) For purposes of this section and sections 7-148c to 7-148f, 3
inclusive, "seasonal basis" means housing accommodations rented for a 4
period or periods aggregating not more than one hundred twenty days 5
in any one calendar year and "rental charge" includes any fee or charge 6
in addition to rent that is imposed or sought to be imposed upon a 7
tenant by a landlord. 8
(b) Any town, city or borough may, and any town, city or borough 9
with a population of twenty-five thousand or more, as determined by 10
the most recent decennial census, shall, through its legislative body, 11
adopt an ordinance that creates a fair rent commission. Any such 12
commission shall make studies and investigations, conduct hearings 13
and receive complaints relative to rental charges on housing 14
accommodations, except those accommodations rented on a seasonal 15
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basis, within its jurisdiction, which term shall include mobile 16
manufactured homes and mobile manufactured home park lots, in 17
order to control and eliminate excessive rental charges on such 18
accommodations, and to carry out the provisions of sections 7-148b to 19
7-148f, inclusive, section 47a-20 and subsection (b) of section 47a-23c. 20
The commission, for such purposes, may compel the attendance of 21
persons at hearings, issue subpoenas and administer oaths, issue orders 22
and continue, review, amend, terminate or suspend any of its orders and 23
decisions. The commission may be empowered to retain legal counsel 24
to advise it. Any hearing held by such commission pursuant to this 25
section shall be considered a contested case and held in accordance with 26
the provisions of chapter 54. The record in such contested case shall 27
include: (1) Written notices related to the case; (2) all petitions, 28
pleadings, motions and intermediate rulings; (3) evidence received or 29
considered; (4) questions and offers of proof, objections and rulings 30
thereon; (5) the official transcript, if any, of proceedings relating to the 31
case, or, if not transcribed, any recording or stenographic record of the 32
proceedings; (6) proposed final decisions and exceptions thereto; and (7) 33
the final decision. Any recording or stenographic record of the 34
proceedings shall be transcribed on request of any party. The requesting 35
party shall pay the cost of such transcript. Any person aggrieved by an 36
order of the commission may appeal such order in accordance with the 37
provisions of section 7-148e. 38
(c) Any town, city or borough required to create a fair rent 39
commission pursuant to subsection (b) of this section shall adopt an 40
ordinance creating such commission on or before July 1, 2023. Not later 41
than thirty days after the adoption of such ordinance, the chief executive 42
officer of such town, city or borough shall (1) notify the Commissioner 43
of Housing that such commission has been created, and (2) transmit a 44
copy of the ordinance adopted by the town, city or borough to the 45
commissioner. 46
(d) Any two or more towns, cities or boroughs not subject to the 47
requirements of subsection (b) of this section may, through their 48
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legislative bodies, create a joint fair rent commission. 49
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 October 1, 2025 7-148b
Statement of Purpose:
To require that a proper record be made in fair rent commission
hearings ensuring that a party aggrieved by an order of a fair rent
commission has a meaningful opportunity to appeal such order under
section 7-148e of the general statutes.
[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except
that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not
underlined.]