Security Deposit Return in Connecticut: The 21-Day Rule

A Connecticut landlord has 21 days after the tenancy ends to return your deposit with interest — or 15 days after you give them a written forwarding address, whichever comes later. Most guides online still say 30 days. They are out of date: Public Act 23-207 cut it to 21 in 2023.

The phrase that matters is “whichever is later.” Sending your forwarding address late pushes the deadline back, so the one thing to do on moving day is send it.

Send the forwarding address on the day you leave

Connecticut defines a forwarding address as the address to which the deposit may be mailed to a former tenant, and says you may notify the landlord of it in writing when the tenancy ends.

Because the deadline is the later of the two dates, a tenant who sends the address six weeks after moving out has handed the landlord six extra weeks. One email on moving day removes that, and gives you a dated record of when the 15 days started.

The cap is lower if you are 62 or older

Two months’ rent is the general limit. For a tenant aged 62 or over it drops to one month, and a landlord holding two months from an older tenant is holding more than the statute allows. This is easy to miss because it depends on a fact about you rather than about the property.

The interest belongs to you

The deposit sits in an interest-bearing escrow account at a federally insured institution, and the landlord must tell you in writing which institution holds it. Interest on deposits held over a year is paid to you annually or credited against your rent. The rate is set by the state each year and has been low recently — 0.52% for 2025 — so the sum is modest, but it is part of what you are owed and naming it signals you have read the statute.

The deadline has passed

1. Work out both dates — 21 days from the end of the tenancy, and 15 days from when you sent the address — and use the later one. That is your deadline.
2. Send one written demand naming § 47a-21(d), the date that deadline fell, and the deposit plus interest.
3. Say what the statute allows: twice the deposit plus court costs. If the landlord is working from the old 30-day figure, correct them and cite Public Act 23-207.
4. Small claims is the normal venue and needs no lawyer.

What can legitimately be deducted

Unpaid rent and damage beyond ordinary wear and tear. Not wear: faded paint, worn carpet, small marks, the ordinary condition of somewhere lived in. Deductions have to be set out, so a single line covering “cleaning and repairs” is not an accounting and you can ask for the detail.

What your lease controls

Little of this. The cap, the escrow account, the interest, the notice naming the institution and the deadline are statutory, and a lease cannot waive them. A clause calling the deposit non-refundable, or a move-out fee working as a deposit, does not change what § 47a-21 requires.

When this needs a lawyer

Usually not, for an ordinary deposit. Get advice if the damage claim is far larger than the deposit, if there is a disputed counterclaim for rent, or if the landlord held more than the cap allowed for a tenant over 62 and you want that addressed too. Connecticut’s legal services offices and the Department of Banking, which oversees deposit escrow, both answer tenant questions.

Sources

Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 47a-21, 47a-22 and 47a-22a — cga.ct.gov. Public Act 23-207, which reduced the deadline from 30 days to 21. Checked October 2026. Statutes change; open the section before relying on a date.

Moving out of Connecticut to somewhere else? The deposit return deadline for all 50 states and DC is in one table, each row citing its own statute.