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Connecticut · CT

Sell your land in Connecticut.

Connecticut has no county government. It was abolished in 1960, and the 169 towns and cities do everything a county does elsewhere — assess your land, collect the tax, rule on wetlands, decide zoning. There is no county assessor to call. Everything about your parcel is a town hall question.

Tax sale type
Tax lien
Redemption period
6 months
Rate on redemption
18% annual interest
Closings handled by
Attorney

Figures describe Connecticut generally. Counties administer their own sales and their own calendars — your county treasurer is the only source for a payoff figure or a sale date you can act on.

Local detail

What actually matters about land in Connecticut

The town is the only government

County government in Connecticut was stripped of its functions by legislation passed in 1959 and eliminated in 1960. The eight counties survive as geographic designations and little else. Every function an out-of-state owner expects a county to perform sits with the town: the assessor sets your valuation, the tax collector bills and enforces, the town clerk holds the land records, and the planning and zoning commission controls what can be built. Federal statistical agencies now use the state's nine councils of governments as county equivalents, a change the Office of Management and Budget approved in 2022, but that has no effect on who taxes your land.

PA 490 charges you to sell

Connecticut's use-value program, known as PA 490, runs from Conn. Gen. Stat. § 12-107a and lets the town assessor value farm land, forest land and open space at current use rather than market value. The relief is real and so is the exit charge. Section 12-504a imposes a conveyance tax on land classified as farm, forest, open space or maritime heritage land that is sold or transferred within ten years: ten percent of the sale price in the first year of ownership, falling one point each year to one percent in the tenth, and nothing afterward. The statute excepts certain transfers. Ask the assessor how long the classification has run before you price the land.

Wetlands here are defined by soil

Connecticut does not identify wetlands the way most states do. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 22a-38, part of the Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Act at §§ 22a-36 to 22a-45, defines wetlands as land consisting of soil types designated poorly drained, very poorly drained, alluvial or floodplain by the National Cooperative Soil Survey of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. Vegetation and standing water are not the test; the soil map is. Ground that looks dry and wooded can still be regulated wetland. Section 22a-42 puts administration in the hands of a municipal inland wetlands agency, so every town has one, and each adopts its own regulations and upland review area.

The disclosure report does not reach land

Conn. Gen. Stat. § 20-327b requires a written residential condition report, but it applies to residential real property consisting of not less than one nor more than four dwelling units, including cooperatives and condominiums. Vacant land has no dwelling units, so it falls outside the statute and there is no state form to complete. That does not make the sale simple. Closings here are conducted by attorneys, and the buyer's attorney will run a title search in the town clerk's land records and raise the questions the form never asked: recorded access, whether the lot conforms to current zoning, and whether the local health district will approve a septic system.

Questions

Selling land in Connecticut

Which county office handles my Connecticut land?

None — Connecticut has no county government, and has not had one since 1960. Your town or city is the only local government that touches the parcel. The assessor sets its value and administers PA 490 classification, the tax collector bills and enforces the tax, the town clerk keeps the land records where deeds and mortgages are filed, and the inland wetlands agency and the planning and zoning commission control what can be done on it. The eight counties are geographic labels.

What happens to PA 490 classification when I sell?

Classification does not automatically survive a sale, and selling within ten years can cost you. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 12-504a imposes a conveyance tax on farm, forest, open space or maritime heritage land sold or transferred within ten years of the classified owner's acquisition: ten percent of the sale price in year one, declining a point a year to one percent in year ten, with nothing owed after that. Certain transfers are excepted by statute. A new owner who wants the classification generally has to apply to the assessor.

Do I need a disclosure report for vacant Connecticut land?

No, Conn. Gen. Stat. § 20-327b applies only to residential real property consisting of not less than one nor more than four dwelling units, including cooperatives and condominiums, and bare ground has none. There is no state form for a vacant parcel and no report to deliver before you sign. You still cannot misstate what you know about the land. Because closings are attorney-conducted, expect the buyer's counsel to examine title in the town clerk's records and ask about access, zoning conformity and septic feasibility directly.

Sources for the figures above

These are secondary references, accurate enough to orient you and not a substitute for the statute or your county. Tax procedure changes; nothing here is legal advice.

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