Connecticut HOA Reserve Studies

Section 1: Overview — Reserve study requirements in Connecticut

Connecticut does impose reserve obligations on its common interest communities. But those obligations arrive as duties to disclose and to budget — not as a hard requirement to commission a reserve study.¹ The Connecticut Common Interest Ownership Act (CIOA), Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-200 et seq. (Chapter 828), sets the framework. The state built it on the 1982 Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, then amended it in 2009 and 2010 to fold in pieces of the 2008 UCIOA revisions.¹² The central reserve provision, § 47-261e, tells the executive board to adopt a proposed budget at least once a year and to tell every unit owner how much the association holds in reserves and how it calculates and funds them.¹ No section of CIOA tells an association to commission a reserve study, and no statute sets a minimum funding percentage.² CIOA generally governs communities created on or after January 1, 1984 (§ 47-214), but the budget-disclosure and resale provisions reach back to older communities for events that occur after that date (§ 47-216); condominiums built before 1984 also answer to the Condominium Act of 1976 (§ 47-68a et seq.).⁴ When an owner resells a unit, the seller's certificate has to disclose what the association holds in reserves for capital expenditures (§ 47-270).⁶ Step back, and Connecticut lands in the middle of the national field: tougher than no-mandate states such as Alaska, looser than hard-mandate states such as California and Florida. It requires reserve disclosure and budgeting, but it fixes no study interval and no funding rule. The sections that follow lay out the framework, the compliance duties, and the recent moves in the legislature and the courts.

Section 2: The reserve framework under Connecticut law

2A. CIOA reserve and budget provisions

The operative reserve text in Connecticut is the budget-adoption statute, § 47-261e.¹ It directs the executive board, at least annually, to adopt a proposed budget for the common interest community. Within thirty days of adoption, the board must hand all unit owners a summary that includes "a statement of the amount of any reserves, and a statement of the basis on which such reserves are calculated and funded."¹ The board then sets a date, between ten and sixty days out, for a meeting or a ballot vote. The budget is ratified unless a majority of all unit owners — not merely those voting — or a larger number the declaration specifies, votes to reject it.⁹ If owners reject a proposed budget, the last ratified budget continues until they ratify a new one.

Two points control the characterization. First, the post-2008 amendments added the reserve language: Public Act 09-225 rewrote the budget process effective July 1, 2010, and Public Act 10-186 inserted "a statement of the amount of" before "reserves."¹ Second, the statute commands disclosure, not a study. It compels the board to state how much it holds in reserve and the basis for that figure, but it does not require a professional reserve study, set a funding target, or prescribe components or useful-life methods. The Community Associations Institute's survey of state reserve laws reaches the same conclusion for Connecticut: "Resale disclosure statement must include the total amount of money held by the association as reserves (Section 47-264(5)). There is no statutory requirement to conduct a reserve study."²

This still puts Connecticut ahead of the 1982-only UCIOA states. The 1982 model produced budget-ratification mechanics; the 2008 amendments added the express reserve-disclosure language Connecticut now carries in § 47-261e, plus the resale and offering-statement reserve disclosures in §§ 47-270 and 47-264.⁷ A board in Connecticut therefore cannot present a budget that says nothing about reserves; it must quantify reserves and explain the basis, which works as an implied push toward documented analysis even though the statute stops short of mandating a study. By CAI's count, only twelve states require condominium associations to conduct reserve studies (California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, Nevada, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, and Washington); Connecticut belongs to the separate group that requires reserve disclosure and funding discipline but not a study.²

2B. Applicability and pre-CIOA communities

CIOA applies in tiers. Section 47-214 makes the chapter generally applicable to common interest communities created in Connecticut on or after January 1, 1984.³ Section 47-216 then lists specific sections that also apply to communities created before that date, "to the extent necessary in construing" them, but only for events and circumstances occurring after January 1, 1984, and without invalidating existing declaration, bylaw, or plan provisions.⁴ The budget-disclosure section (§ 47-261e) and the resale-certificate section (§ 47-270) both appear on that list, so the reserve-disclosure and buyer-disclosure duties reach pre-1984 communities, while the developer-stage public offering statement provisions do not.⁴

The Condominium Act of 1976, Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-68a et seq. (Chapter 825), also governs condominiums created before January 1, 1984.⁵ Its only reserve-specific provision, § 47-88e, requires that "any declarant of a conversion condominium shall provide in the proposed budget for the condominium adequate reserves for capital expenditures."⁵ That duty falls on the declarant of a converted building at the outset, not on an established owner-controlled board, and it sets no funding level. To pin down which framework applies to a given community, a manager checks the creation date and the declaration: post-1984 communities are full CIOA communities; pre-1984 condominiums sit under the 1976 Act plus the CIOA sections that reach back through § 47-216, and they may amend their declarations to opt further into CIOA.¹³

2C. The declaration and fiduciary backstop

CIOA's reserve provisions operate alongside the recorded declaration. Section 47-203 prohibits varying certain CIOA provisions by agreement, but much of the chapter sets defaults that the declaration may modify.¹⁴ The practical order of precedence runs this way: CIOA's non-variable provisions first; then CIOA defaults as the declaration modifies them; then the declaration's own reserve and assessment terms; then bylaws and rules. Section 47-261e itself is built for the declaration to supplement — it may, for example, raise the vote threshold needed to reject a budget.¹

Because CIOA fixes no reserve-funding level, the funding decision sits with the board, and a fiduciary standard binds it. Section 47-245 holds declarant-appointed board members to the degree of care and loyalty a trustee owes and non-declarant members to the standard of a corporate director, and it subjects them to conflict-of-interest rules.⁸ The operational implication for managers is specific: in Connecticut a board can point to a statutory reserve obligation — the duty to disclose the reserve amount and its basis — but the declaration and the board's fiduciary judgment govern the level and method of funding, not a numeric statutory floor.¹

Section 3: Compliance obligations

A. Study and inspection obligations

No statute obligates an association to commission or update a reserve study, and none sets an inspection interval (CIOA contains no study provision; this draws on the text of § 47-261e).² The substitute duty is disclosure: the board must state the amount of any reserves and the basis on which it calculates and funds them in each annual budget summary (§ 47-261e; applies to all CIOA communities and to pre-1984 communities for post-1984 events under § 47-216).¹ Producing a defensible "basis" is where many boards bring in a professional, but that step is contractual or prudential — not statutory.²

B. Funding obligations

CIOA imposes no minimum reserve-funding level. The funding amount is contractual (the declaration sets it) and fiduciary (board judgment sets it), and the statute requires only that the board disclose the chosen amount and its basis (§ 47-261e; the declaration may supplement it).¹ For a conversion condominium, the declarant must include adequate reserves for capital expenditures in the initial proposed budget (§ 47-88e, Condominium Act of 1976; applies to conversion condominiums, including pre-1984 ones).⁵ No funding obligation reaches an ordinary established association as a numeric mandate.²

C. Disclosure obligations

The budget summary must disclose the reserve amount and basis to members every year (§ 47-261e; mandatory, and it reaches pre-1984 communities via § 47-216).¹ At resale, the unit owner must furnish a certificate that states the amount of any reserves for capital expenditures (§ 47-270(a); mandatory, and it reaches pre-1984 communities via § 47-216).⁶ Before a developer first sells units, the public offering statement budget must state the amount it includes as a reserve for repairs and replacement, or that there is none (§ 47-264; applies to declarant sales in post-1984 communities).⁷

D. Account and governance obligations

CIOA does not require associations to segregate reserve funds, nor does it restrict borrowing from reserves; the declaration and bylaws set the account structure.² Where the board proposes to assign association income as security for a loan, it needs unit-owner approval (§ 47-261e(e); the declaration may limit it).¹ Special assessments that, together with other special and emergency assessments in the same calendar year, exceed fifteen per cent of the last adopted budget run through the same owner-ratification process as a budget (§ 47-261e(b)).⁹ During declarant control, the declarant must give owners a financial statement every six months disclosing the amount of any funded replacement reserves (§ 47-245(i)).⁸

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

Two recent bills tried to turn Connecticut's reserve-disclosure rule into a reserve-study mandate. Neither passed. A third measure, which did become law, touched the financial-records framework next door rather than reserves themselves.

B. Recent appellate rulings

No recent Connecticut appellate decision interprets the reserve provisions head-on. Two 2024 rulings still shape the reserve picture — one on which limitation clock governs repair duties, and one on how precisely a lien payoff must track the statute.

C. Active legislative debates

The recurring debate is whether to convert CIOA's reserve-disclosure standard into a mandatory annual reserve study — the goal of SB 816 (2025) and SB 144 (2024), neither of which passed.¹⁵

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Connecticut occupies the middle of three national groups. Hard-mandate states set fixed study intervals and funding rules: California's Civil Code § 5550(a) requires that "at least once every three years, the board shall cause to be conducted a reasonably competent and diligent visual inspection of the accessible areas of the major components" and shall "review this study, or cause it to be reviewed, annually," and Florida's Senate Bill 4-D (2022), codified at Fla. Stat. § 718.112(2)(g), requires a Structural Integrity Reserve Study at least every ten years for each condominium or cooperative building three stories or more in height, with the reserve-waiver prohibition effective December 31, 2024.²⁰ A second group, where Connecticut sits, comprises UCIOA states that adopted the 2008 reserve provisions and so carry reserve-disclosure obligations through CIOA but no study or funding mandate.¹ A third group — the 1982-only UCIOA and no-mandate states such as Alaska — runs reserves entirely on the declaration and fiduciary duty. Connecticut went beyond the 1982 UCIOA by adopting the 2008 reserve-disclosure language, unlike Alaska, but it stopped short of the California-style fixed study interval.¹² For a multi-state operator moving into Connecticut, the practical takeaway is that compliance turns on accurate budget and resale disclosures rather than on a study calendar, while the declaration governs how much to fund.

HOA Weekly's Connecticut Reserve Studies coverage updates quarterly as the legislature and the courts act. Federal frameworks — the Fair Housing Act, the ADA, the FDCPA, the SCRA, and the FCC OTARD rule — also apply to Connecticut associations regardless of the state framework.

Recommendations

1. Treat the budget summary as the compliance anchor, not the study. For every CIOA community, confirm that each annual budget summary states the reserve amount and the basis on which the board calculates and funds reserves, and that the board delivers it within thirty days of adoption (§ 47-261e). A missing or boilerplate "basis" is the most likely point of statutory failure. The benchmark that would change this step: enactment of a bill like SB 816 that converts disclosure into a mandatory annual study.
2. Commission a professional reserve study even though no statute requires it. A study is the most defensible source for the "basis" disclosure and the standard lenders, insurers, and buyers increasingly expect. A practical cadence pairs a full study with on-site inspection at longer intervals and a financial update in the intervening years, but this is prudential, not statutory. Escalate when a community has major common elements — roofs, siding, elevators, structural decks — and no current funding analysis.
3. Map each community to the correct framework before you advise on reserves. Pull the creation date and the declaration: post-1984 communities are full CIOA; pre-1984 condominiums sit under the 1976 Act plus the CIOA sections reaching back through § 47-216; conversion condominiums carry the declarant's § 47-88e adequate-reserves duty. Do not assume a uniform rule across a multi-property portfolio.
4. Tighten resale and foreclosure mechanics. Make sure resale certificates state reserves for capital expenditures (§ 47-270) and that any lien payoff or redemption figure rests strictly on § 47-258 after Stonybrook Gardens. Confirm that you track document-based maintenance duties, given the six-year contract limitation Canner recognized.
5. Monitor the legislature each session. The annual-study concept has appeared in two consecutive sessions. Boards that adopt a study cycle now will absorb a future mandate with minimal disruption. The benchmark to watch: committee passage of a reserve-study bill beyond the Insurance and Real Estate Committee, where both prior bills died.

Caveats

• CIOA's reserve regime is disclosure-and-budgeting, not a fixed-interval study mandate; do not read this page as imposing a California- or Florida-style requirement on Connecticut associations.
• The Connecticut General Assembly's published statutes and official reports confirm the section numbers and statutory text here. Several commercial summaries wrongly attribute a reserve-fund or reserve-study mandate to "§ 47-261b"; that section is titled "Rules" and contains no reserve provision. The reserve-disclosure anchor is § 47-261e.
• No dedicated state agency enforces reserve compliance; the remedies are private (Superior Court under § 47-278), so "enforcement" depends on owner or lender action rather than a regulatory audit.
• The absence of a standalone 2026 reserve-study bill is an absence-of-evidence finding based on a review of the 2026 session record; a late-filed or amended measure could exist outside the searched record.

1. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-261e, Adoption of budgets; special assessments; loan agreements (Title 47, ch. 828), Connecticut General Assembly ↩
2. Community Associations Institute, Summary of State Reserve Fund Laws (Sept. 2024) ↩
3. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-214, Applicability of chapter and amendments thereto (Title 47, ch. 828), Connecticut General Assembly ↩
4. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-216, Applicability to preexisting common interest communities (Title 47, ch. 828), Connecticut General Assembly ↩
5. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-88e, Reserves for capital expenditures (Condominium Act of 1976, Title 47, ch. 825), Connecticut General Assembly ↩
6. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-270, Resales of units (Title 47, ch. 828), Connecticut General Assembly ↩
7. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-264, Public offering statement; general provisions and requirements (Title 47, ch. 828), Connecticut General Assembly ↩
8. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-245, Executive board members and officers; duties; declarant control; current financial statement (Title 47, ch. 828), Connecticut General Assembly ↩
9. Office of Legislative Research, Common Interest Ownership Act — Approval of Budgets and Capital Expenses, Report 2011-R-0315, Connecticut General Assembly ↩
10. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-278, Enforcement (Title 47, ch. 828), Connecticut General Assembly ↩
11. Office of Legislative Research, Regulation of Common Interest Communities, Report 2022-R-0153, Connecticut General Assembly ↩
12. Conn. Gen. Stat. ch. 828, Common Interest Ownership Act, § 47-200 et seq., Connecticut General Assembly ↩
13. Office of Legislative Research, Applicability of the Common Interest Ownership Act, Report 2012-R-0315, Connecticut General Assembly ↩
14. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-203, Variation by agreement and waiver of rights prohibited; exceptions (Title 47, ch. 828), Connecticut General Assembly ↩
15. S.B. 816 (2025), An Act Concerning Reserve Funds in Common Interest Communities, Connecticut General Assembly Bill Status ↩
16. S.B. 144 (2024), An Act Concerning Reserve Funds in Common Interest Ownership Communities, Connecticut General Assembly Bill Status ↩
17. H.B. 5265 (2026), Public Act 26-31, An Act Concerning Court-Ordered Accountings of Common Interest Community Financial Records and Revising the Disclosure Requirements Relating to Common Interest Communities, Connecticut General Assembly ↩
18. Canner v. Governors Ridge Assn., Inc., 348 Conn. 726 (2024), Connecticut Judicial Branch ↩
19. Stonybrook Gardens Cooperative, Inc. v. NewRez, LLC, 225 Conn. App. 1 (2024), Connecticut Judicial Branch ↩
20. Cal. Civ. Code § 5550 (reserve study; amended by Stats. 2024, Ch. 288 (SB 900)); Fla. SB 4-D (2022), codified at Fla. Stat. § 718.112(2)(g) ↩