Connecticut's reserve-study bill died without a hearing — and Fannie Mae set the standard instead
Connecticut's reserve-study bill died without a hearing — and Fannie Mae set the standard instead
2026-09-09 · Connecticut · Legislation · Did not pass
Connecticut's most powerful senator introduced a statewide reserve-study mandate for community associations in 2025, and it never received a public hearing. Senate Bill 816 was referred to the Insurance and Real Estate Committee on January 21, 2025. Its bill history has one line. No hearing, no vote, nothing.1
No reserve-study bill was introduced at all in the 2026 session. Connecticut still has no statutory reserve study requirement.
What it proposed
The bill was titled “An Act Concerning Reserve Funds in Common Interest Communities.” Its statement of purpose:
“To require the executive board of any common interest community to perform an annual study of the association's funds in reserve and make recommendations concerning the allocation of funds to such reserves.”1
It was introduced by Senator Martin M. Looney of the 11th District, the Senate President Pro Tempore, and co-sponsored by Senator Herron Gaston of the 23rd.1
The pattern behind it
Reserve funding is the one community-association theme that has recurred in consecutive Connecticut sessions. A reserve-funds bill also ran in 2024 as Senate Bill 144. Neither advanced.
The 2025 session produced nineteen common-interest-community bills; the 2026 short session produced five. Of all of them, exactly one became law — Public Act 26-31, on court-ordered audits and buyer disclosure.
And no inspection mandate either
The wider finding is starker than the single bill. Across the 2025 and 2026 sessions, Connecticut introduced no bill of any kind establishing condominium structural, façade or milestone safety inspections — the reform most widely adopted elsewhere after the 2021 Surfside collapse.2 Connecticut's condominium inspection regime remains what it was.
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Related Connecticut HOA Topics
- SB 816 (2025) bill status, statement of purpose, sponsors and complete history, Connecticut General Assembly ↩
- Public Act No. 26-31, § 2 — the reserve fund report advisory added to the residential condition report ↩
- 2026 Acts Affecting Housing and Real Estate, OLR Report 2026-R-0090 (June 15, 2026) ↩
- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Remove Certain Homeowners Insurance Requirements, Federal Housing Finance Agency (March 18, 2026) ↩
- Legislative Update, Common Interest, Vol. XXI Issue 2 (April 2026), CAI Connecticut chapter ↩
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