Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: Connecticut special assessments under 15% of the annual budget take effect automatically without a vote, while larger ones become effective unless a majority of owners vote to reject them.
Key statute: Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-261e (Adoption of budgets. Special assessments. Loan agreements.), together with § 47-257 (Assessments for common expenses) and § 47-258 (Lien for assessments), Connecticut Common Interest Ownership Act, Chapter 828
How Connecticut lets an association approve it
Connecticut uses what amounts to an owner ratification-by-non-rejection model. Under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-261e(b)(1), the executive board may propose a special assessment at any time, and if it, combined with all other special and emergency assessments proposed that calendar year, “does not exceed fifteen per cent of the association’s last adopted periodic budget for that calendar year, the proposed special assessment is effective without approval of the unit owners.” Above that threshold, the board must set a date for a meeting or ballot vote, and if “a majority of all unit owners or any larger number specified in the declaration votes to reject the special assessment, the special assessment shall be rejected…”, the assessment fails; otherwise “the proposed special assessment shall be deemed approved.” Large pre-1991 communities of more than 2,400 residential units follow a different rule under § 47-261e(b)(2): a rejecting vote needs only a majority of those who actually vote, but at least 33 1/3% of owners must turn out for that rejection to count. A separate emergency path under § 47-261e(c) lets the board approve an assessment immediately with a two-thirds vote.
The notice you’re owed
The executive board “shall provide to all unit owners a summary of the proposed special assessment” no later than 30 days after adopting it. When the 15% threshold is exceeded and a vote is required, the board must also “set a date not less than ten days or more than sixty days after providing the summary” for that meeting or ballot vote. For emergency assessments, the law only requires that “notice of the emergency assessment must be provided promptly to all unit owners,” without a fixed number of days or specific required content.
Paying it: plan, interest, and late fees
Connecticut’s statute doesn’t give owners a right to a payment plan for a special assessment; that’s a matter for the declaration and bylaws. The law does address loans: if the board finances something with a loan, it must “disclose in a record to all unit owners the amount and terms of the loan” at least 14 days before signing it. On interest, § 47-257(b) caps what the association can charge: “The association may charge interest on any past due assessment or portion thereof at the rate established by the association, not exceeding eighteen per cent per year.”
Connecticut associations have a statutory lien on a unit for unpaid assessments under § 47-258(a), which gives the association “a statutory lien on a unit for any assessment attributable to that unit or fines imposed against its unit owner,” and that lien can be foreclosed once the owner “owes a sum equal to at least two months of common expense assessments” under § 47-258(m)(1).
Does Connecticut require a reserve study?
No. Connecticut does not have a statutory reserve-study or structural-inspection mandate. The Common Interest Ownership Act only requires that the annual budget summary disclose “the amount of any reserves, and a statement of the basis on which such reserves are calculated and funded” under § 47-261e(a)(1). That’s a disclosure obligation, not a requirement to commission a professional reserve study or structural inspection.
Honest gaps
All figures on this page for Connecticut were confirmed directly from the state’s own General Assembly statute text, Chapter 828 of the Connecticut General Statutes.
Source note. Read from https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_828.htm on September 4, 2026.
Related: HOA rules in a 55+ community · how a special-assessment foreclosure actually works · lump sum vs. a payment plan.
General information drawn from each state’s own statutes as read at its official legislature or code-publisher site (or a verbatim codified mirror where noted), not legal advice. Special-assessment law is state law, and every association’s own declaration and bylaws add rules on top of the statutory floor described here. We are not a law firm and this is not legal advice.