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Connecticut STR Registry: Clerks, Not Occupancy Ranking

Updated: 17 hours ago

Litchfield Hills CT

If you host a short-term rental in Kent, Washington, Litchfield, or Salisbury, you have probably seen the headlines — or at least a worried post in a local Facebook group — about a looming Connecticut short-term rental registration law in 2027. Somewhere between a news article, a real estate agent's newsletter, and a well-meaning neighbor, a date got attached to a bill that never became law: January 1, 2027.


Here is the short version, and then we will walk through the whole story so you can see exactly how we got here. There is no statewide STR registration requirement in Connecticut today, and there is no January 2027 deadline on the books. What did happen is real and worth understanding: the legislature gave towns the *option* to regulate short-term rentals back in 2024, a bill to create a mandatory state registry got serious traction in back-to-back legislative sessions, and neither attempt has become law. That is a meaningfully different situation than "a new rule takes effect in five months," and if you are budgeting time, money, or stress around a deadline that doesn't exist, this post is for you.


The Law That Did Pass: Public Act 24-143

Let's start with what's actually on the books, because this part is easy to get right and it's the foundation for everything else. This is the part that trips up the most hosts, because it's easy to hear "no STR ordinance" and assume "no STR paperwork at all." Not true. The report identified only a small handful of towns with STR-specific ordinances or registration requirements on the books, concentrated well outside Litchfield County — none of the four towns in this piece (Kent, Washington, Litchfield, Salisbury) appear on that list.


In 2024, Connecticut lawmakers passed Public Act 24-143, which took effect October 1, 2024, and is codified at Connecticut General Statutes §7-148qq. The mechanics matter here: PA 24-143 did not create a statewide STR licensing system. It did not impose any new permit, fee, or registration requirement on hosts anywhere in the state. What it did was hand municipalities discretionary authority — by vote of their own legislative body (town meeting, town council, board of selectmen, depending on the town's form of government) — to adopt their own local ordinance requiring STR licensure and regulating how short-term rentals operate within their borders. The law also lets towns hire outside consultants to help draft those ordinances if they choose to go that route.


In plain English: PA 24-143 opened a door. It did not push anyone through it. Aundré Bumgardner introduced House Bill 5536, "An Act Establishing a State Short-Term Rental Registry and Authorizing an Optional Municipal Supplemental Tax." Unlike PA 24-143, this bill was not framed as a local option — it proposed a mandatory *state* registry administered through the Department of Revenue Services, and its scope was written specifically to sweep in properties in towns that had not adopted their own municipal licensing ordinance.


That distinction is the single most important thing to understand about Connecticut STR regulation as of today, because a lot of the confusion in Litchfield County traces back to conflating "towns *can* regulate STRs now" with "towns *have* regulated STRs now.". It is not "STRs are unregulated in the Litchfield Hills." It is "STRs here are regulated the same way every other residential use is regulated, because the town hasn't chosen to add an STR-specific layer on top of that." Worth confirming directly with your town clerk or land use office periodically, since PA 24-143 gives towns a standing option to change that at any town meeting — but as of today, none of these four towns have.


Who Actually Walked Through That Door — and Who Hasn't

Connecticut's own Office of Legislative Research looked at exactly this question. OLR Report 2024-R-0044, "Municipal Regulation of Short-Term Rentals in Connecticut," published February 15, 2024, surveyed the state's towns to see which ones had adopted STR-specific ordinances or licensing regimes, either under general zoning authority or in anticipation of the new discretionary power. The report identified only a small handful of towns with STR-specific ordinances or registration requirements on the books, concentrated well outside Litchfield County — none of the four towns in this piece (Kent, Washington, Litchfield, Salisbury) appear on that list.


If you host in Kent, Washington, Litchfield, or Salisbury today, that means your town has not adopted an STR-specific licensing ordinance under PA 24-143. There is no local STR permit application to fill out, no local STR license number to display, no town STR inspection to schedule. Your short-term rental operates under the same zoning and building codes that governed the property before PA 24-143 existed — the ordinary town zoning classification for your parcel, standard building and fire safety code, health department rules if you're on well and septic, and any generally applicable noise or nuisance ordinance that every property owner in town is already subject to.


That's a genuinely different regulatory posture than a lot of hosts assume. It is not "STRs are unregulated in the Litchfield Hills." It is "STRs here are regulated the same way every other residential use is regulated, because the town hasn't chosen to add an STR-specific layer on top of that." Worth confirming directly with your town clerk or land use office periodically, since PA 24-143 gives towns a standing option to change that at any town meeting — but as of today, none of these four towns have.


The Bill That Would Have Changed Everything: HB 5536

Here's where the "2027 deadline" rumor actually comes from, and it's worth telling this story in full because it explains both why people are confused and why the confusion is understandable. Let's start with what's actually on the books, because this part is easy to get right and it's the foundation for everything else. That distinction is the single most important thing to understand about Connecticut STR regulation as of today, because a lot of the confusion in Litchfield County traces back to conflating "towns *can* regulate STRs now" with "towns *have* regulated STRs now.".


During Connecticut's 2026 regular legislative session (which convened February 4, 2026 and adjourned May 6, 2026), state Rep. Aundré Bumgardner introduced House Bill 5536, "An Act Establishing a State Short-Term Rental Registry and Authorizing an Optional Municipal Supplemental Tax." Unlike PA 24-143, this bill was not framed as a local option — it proposed a mandatory *state* registry administered through the Department of Revenue Services, and its scope was written specifically to sweep in properties in towns that had not adopted their own municipal licensing ordinance. Read that again in the context of the previous section: Kent, Washington, Litchfield, and Salisbury are exactly the kind of towns this bill targeted, because none of them has a municipal STR ordinance of their own.


As introduced, HB 5536 would have required annual state registration for STR properties in non-regulating towns, with a $100 per-property annual fee, and an effective date pointing to January 1, 2027 for registration to begin. That is the real origin of the "Connecticut short-term rental registration law 2027" date circulating online — it was a real number, attached to a real bill, that a real legislator introduced.


The bill also originally included an optional municipal supplemental tax of up to 2.75% on short-term rental stays, which towns could have chosen to layer on top of the existing state lodging tax if they wanted the extra revenue. That provision drew immediate and vocal pushback from STR hosts and from Airbnb itself, and Bumgardner — the bill's own sponsor — stripped the supplemental tax provision out in response before the bill advanced further.


Even with the tax piece removed, HB 5536 did not become law. It stalled on the House calendar and received no floor vote before the legislature adjourned the 2026 regular session sine die on May 6, 2026. (We could not independently confirm a specific tabling date via primary sources — cga.ct.gov's bill-status page and legiscan.com both blocked direct access during research for this piece — so we're stating the confirmed outcome rather than a specific calendar date we can't verify.) The registration requirement, the $100 fee, and the January 1, 2027 effective date all died with it. Nothing in HB 5536 is currently in effect, and nothing about it is scheduled to take effect on any date in 2027 — because it never passed.


This Isn't the First Time This Has Happened

If HB 5536's path sounds like a rerun, that's because it is. Its 2026 session predecessor was House Bill 7238 in the 2025 session, carrying nearly identical language: a state STR registry through DRS, a $100 registration fee, and a similar optional municipal tax component. HB 7238 actually got further than most people realize — it cleared the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee with a joint favorable report in April 2025, which is a real milestone that generated legitimate news coverage at the time. But it stalled on the House calendar and saw no floor vote before the legislature's 2025 regular session adjourned sine die on June 4, 2025. It, too, died without becoming law.


So this is now two consecutive legislative sessions in which a nearly identical state STR registry bill has advanced out of committee, generated real media coverage and real host anxiety, and then quietly expired on the House calendar without a floor vote. That's a pattern worth naming plainly for hosts: it is reasonable to expect a similar bill to be reintroduced when the legislature reconvenes for its 2027 session (typically February through May), and reasonable to expect it will again get committee attention given two sessions of momentum. But "likely to be reintroduced" is not the same as "already law," and there is currently no enacted state registration requirement, no enacted fee, and no enacted January 2027 deadline for Kent, Washington, Litchfield, or Salisbury hosts to prepare for.


What "No Local Ordinance" Does NOT Mean

It's worth being precise here, because the absence of an STR-specific local ordinance in your town creates a real gap in some areas and zero gap in others. Your property is still subject to whatever residential zoning classification it already carried, the state building and fire code, health department requirements if you're on a private well and septic (which describes a lot of the Litchfield Hills housing stock), and any generally applicable noise or nuisance ordinance the town already had before short-term rentals were a meaningful part of the local economy.


It does not mean you're exempt from state tax registration and filing. This is the part that trips up the most hosts, because it's easy to hear "no STR ordinance" and assume "no STR paperwork at all." Not true. Connecticut's Department of Revenue Services requires every short-term rental host in the state — regardless of whether your town has adopted a local licensing ordinance — to register as a room occupancy tax collector through myconneCT, pay an one-time $100 registration fee, and collect and remit the state's 15% room occupancy tax on every taxable stay. You're also required to file Form OP-210 monthly, and that filing obligation does not pause just because you had a slow month or a stretch with no bookings — a zero-tax month still requires a return; it just reports zero.


It does not mean anything goes on zoning, noise, septic, or nuisance rules. PA 24-143 added a new *optional* layer that towns can adopt; it didn't remove any of the rules that predate it. Your property is still subject to whatever residential zoning classification it already carried, the state building and fire code, health department requirements if you're on a private well and septic (which describes a lot of the Litchfield Hills housing stock), and any generally applicable noise or nuisance ordinance the town already had before short-term rentals were a meaningful part of the local economy. A neighbor complaint about noise, parking, or trash doesn't need an STR-specific ordinance to result in enforcement — those tools already exist and already apply to you.


It does not create a permit to transfer if you sell. Because none of these four towns currently has an STR-specific licensing regime, there is, quite literally, no local STR permit attached to your property to transfer to a buyer today. That's worth flagging for anyone buying or selling an STR-operating property in this corridor: don't assume a "license" conveys with the sale, because none exists yet. If Kent, Washington, Litchfield, or Salisbury does adopt an ordinance in the future — which PA 24-143 permits at any town meeting — it would be reasonable to expect that new regime to treat a change of ownership as triggering a fresh application rather than an automatic transfer, consistent with how most municipal licensing schemes elsewhere in the country handle STR licenses on resale. Nothing is certain here since no ordinance exists yet, but it's the safer assumption to plan around.


Host Action Checklist

Given all of the above, here's a practical, non-alarmist punch list for hosts in Kent, Washington, Litchfield, and Salisbury:. If you host in Kent, Washington, Litchfield, or Salisbury today, that means your town has not adopted an STR-specific licensing ordinance under PA 24-143. If you host a short-term rental in Kent, Washington, Litchfield, or Salisbury, you have probably seen the headlines — or at least a worried post in a local Facebook group — about a looming Connecticut short-term rental registration law in 2027.

  • Confirm your town's current ordinance status directly with the town clerk. PA 24-143 gives every Connecticut municipality standing authority to adopt an STR ordinance at any town meeting, so "no ordinance today" is a snapshot, not a permanent guarantee. A quick call or email to the town clerk's office is the most reliable way to know if anything has changed since this was published.

  • Register with DRS via myconneCT and pay the $100 fee if you haven't already. This is the one piece of "STR paperwork" that genuinely is mandatory statewide right now, and it applies whether or not your town has a local ordinance.

  • File Form OP-210 every month, including zero-tax months. Missing a filing because a month had no bookings is a common and avoidable mistake — the return is still due even when the tax owed is zero.

  • Don't budget time, money, or operational changes against a January 2027 requirement that doesn't exist. HB 5536 is dead. There is no enacted state registration deadline for 2027.

  • Watch the 2027 legislative session (typically February through May) for a reintroduced bill. Given that this is now two sessions running where a similar registry bill cleared committee before stalling, it would be reasonable to expect another attempt. Keep an eye on committee activity rather than assuming either outcome in advance.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a Connecticut short-term rental registration law taking effect in 2027?

The January 1, 2027 date that circulates online comes from House Bill 5536, a 2026 legislative proposal that stalled on the House calendar and received no further action before the session adjourned sine die on May 6, 2026. It never became law, so no statewide registration requirement takes effect in 2027. That is the real origin of the "Connecticut short-term rental registration law 2027" date circulating online — it was a real number, attached to a real bill, that a real legislator introduced.


Do Kent, Washington, Litchfield, or Salisbury currently require an STR-specific permit or license?

None of these four towns has adopted a short-term rental ordinance under Public Act 24-143, based on the Office of Legislative Research's February 2024 survey of municipal STR regulation. Hosts in all four towns currently operate under standard town zoning and building codes rather than an STR-specific permit process. OLR Report 2024-R-0044, "Municipal Regulation of Short-Term Rentals in Connecticut," published February 15, 2024, surveyed the state's towns to see which ones had adopted STR-specific ordinances or licensing regimes, either under general zoning authority or in anticipation of the new discretionary power.


What is Public Act 24-143, and does it require anything of me right now?

PA 24-143, effective October 1, 2024 and codified at CGS §7-148qq, gives Connecticut municipalities discretionary authority to adopt their own STR licensing ordinance if their legislative body votes to do so. It doesn't impose any requirement directly on hosts — it only authorizes towns to create requirements if they choose to, and as of today, Kent, Washington, Litchfield, and Salisbury have not.


If my town hasn't adopted an STR ordinance, am I exempt from all state requirements?

Every Connecticut STR host, regardless of local ordinance status, must register with the Department of Revenue Services via myconneCT, pay a $100 registration fee, and collect and remit the state's 15% room occupancy tax, filing Form OP-210 monthly — including months with zero taxable stays. Connecticut's Department of Revenue Services requires every short-term rental host in the state — regardless of whether your town has adopted a local licensing ordinance — to register as a room occupancy tax collector through myconneCT, pay an one-time $100 registration fee, and collect and remit the state's 15% room occupancy tax on every taxable stay.


What happened to HB 7238, the 2025 version of this bill?

HB 7238 proposed a nearly identical state STR registry and cleared the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee with a joint favorable report in April 2025. It stalled on the House calendar afterward and received no floor vote before the legislature's 2025 regular session adjourned sine die on June 4, 2025, so it also died without becoming law.


Will a state STR registry bill come back in 2027?

It's reasonable to expect one. HB 5536 and its 2025 predecessor, HB 7238, both advanced out of committee before stalling — two consecutive sessions of the same basic proposal getting real traction. That pattern makes reintroduction in the 2027 session (typically February through May) plausible, but nothing is guaranteed, and no deadline exists until a bill actually passes and is signed into law.


Does "no local ordinance" mean I can ignore noise, septic, or zoning rules?

PA 24-143 only added an optional new layer of STR-specific regulation that towns can choose to adopt — it didn't remove any existing rules. Your property remains subject to whatever zoning classification, building and fire code, septic/health department requirements, and general noise or nuisance ordinances already applied before the law existed. Your property is still subject to whatever residential zoning classification it already carried, the state building and fire code, health department requirements if you're on a private well and septic (which describes a lot of the Litchfield Hills housing stock), and any generally applicable noise or nuisance ordinance the town already had before short-term rentals were a meaningful part.


If I sell my STR property, does a local permit transfer to the buyer?

There's currently nothing to transfer, since none of these four towns has an STR-specific permit system in place. If a town later adopts one under PA 24-143, it would be reasonable to expect a change of ownership to trigger a new application rather than an automatic transfer, similar to how most municipal STR licensing programs elsewhere handle resales — though this can't be confirmed until an actual ordinance exists.


About the Authors

Crest & Cove Creative is a short-term rental marketing agency founded by Thomas Garner and Jacob Mishalanie. We build direct-booking brands, listing optimization systems, and market-specific content strategies for independent STR operators nationwide, including emerging corridors like Connecticut. That is the real origin of the "Connecticut short-term rental registration law 2027" date circulating online — it was a real number, attached to a real bill, that a real legislator introduced.


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