Conn. Gen. Stat. § 7-24

This is the official text of Conn. Gen. Stat. § 7-24, part of Connecticut’s Gen. Stat — part of the compiled statutory law of Connecticut, published by the state as "Gen. Stat." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

Not legal advice. This page reproduces the official text of a government statute for reference only. Laws change, and how a statute applies depends on your specific facts. For advice about your situation, consult a licensed attorney in your state.

Sec. 7-24. Recording of instruments; safekeeping of records; recording of illegible instruments; form of instruments.

Official statutory text

(b) There shall be kept in each town proper books, or in lieu thereof a recording system approved by the Public Records Administrator, in which all instruments required by law to be recorded shall be recorded at length by the town clerk within thirty days from the time they are left for record.

(c) The town clerk shall, on receipt of any instrument for record, write thereon the day, month, year and time of day when the town clerk received it, and the record shall bear the same date and time of day; but the town clerk shall not be required to receive any instrument for record unless the fee for recording it is paid to the town clerk in advance, except instruments received from the state or any political subdivision thereof. When the town clerk has received any instrument for record, the town clerk shall not deliver it up to the parties or either of them until it has been recorded. When any town clerk has, upon receiving any instrument for record, written thereon the time of day when the town clerk received it and the day and year of such receipt, and when any town clerk has noted with the record of any instrument the time of day when the town clerk received the record, such entries of the time of day shall have the same effect as other entries that are required by law to be made.

(d) Each town clerk shall also, within twenty-four hours of the receipt for record of any such instrument, enter in chronological order according to the time of its receipt as endorsed thereon, (1) the names of sufficient parties thereto to enable reasonable identification of the instrument, (2) the nature of the instrument, and (3) the time of its receipt.

(e) If the town clerk receives an instrument for record which the town clerk deems to be illegible, the town clerk shall record such instrument, write thereon that it is being recorded as an illegible instrument and, if there is a return address appearing on such illegible instrument, give notice to the return addressee that a legible instrument should be submitted for rerecording forthwith. The fact that the town clerk records the instrument as an illegible instrument shall not affect its priority or validity.

(f) Each instrument for record shall have a blank margin, that shall be not less than three-fourths of an inch in width, surrounding each page of the instrument. Each such instrument that is to be recorded in the land records shall have a return address and addressee appearing at the top of the front side of the first page of the instrument. The town clerk shall not refuse to receive an instrument for record that does not conform to any requirement set forth in this subsection, and the fact that the town clerk records an instrument that does not conform to any requirement set forth in this subsection shall not affect its priority or validity.

See Sec. 11-8(b) re appointment of Public Records Administrator.

See Sec. 11-8i et seq. re historic documents preservation grant program for municipalities.

See Sec. 47-16a re acceptance for recording of certified copy of deed or other instrument recorded in land records of another town.

Under former statute, re whether payment of recording fee is a condition precedent to lodging for record. 132 C. 554.

Under 2005 revision, town clerk required by law to record affidavit of facts relating to title or interest in real estate on land records. 149 CA 239.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

Need a lawyer in Connecticut?

Find a Connecticut lawyer
About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.