Section 47-260(a) requires a CIOA association to retain eleven specific categories of records: detailed receipts, expenditures, and reserve accounting; minutes of member and board meetings other than executive sessions; the owner roster and vote counts; governing documents, bylaws, and current rules; three years of financial statements and tax returns; current board and officer contact information; the association's most recent annual report; current contracts; ballots and proxies for a year after the vote; and, notably, records of the board's own decisions approving or denying design or architectural requests (useful if you're fighting an ARC denial — see the architectural guide). Section 47-260(b) requires those records to be made available for examination and copying, in person or electronically, once you submit a written request that reasonably identifies the specific records you want; the association then has five business days to offer you two dates on which to inspect and copy them.
Section 47-260(c)-(d) lists what can be withheld: personnel and medical records, unredacted ballots or proxies that would identify how someone voted, anything whose disclosure would violate other law, and, at the association's discretion, active contract negotiations, pending or potential litigation, attorney-client communications, executive-session records, and other owners' individual unit files. The association can charge a reasonable fee for copying and for supervising your inspection, but it isn't required to compile or synthesize information that doesn't already exist in that form, and you can't use what you get for commercial purposes.
Older condos get a thinner but real right
If the 1976 Condominium Act governs your community, § 47-81 requires the declarant and association to keep accounting records, including a per-unit ledger and reserve balances, and makes those records, plus board minutes and voting records, available for examination and copying by any owner or their authorized agent during normal business hours, at the owner's expense. It also requires an annual certified audit while the declarant controls the board, and lets 25% of owners force one afterward, though it's less detailed than CIOA's specific response-time rules.
The authority
The statutes behind this
Cited by name as authority, for your own reading. Informational only, not legal advice.
Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-260
CIOA's records-retention list and access rules, including the five-business-day response clock, the categories that can be withheld, and the reasonable fees the association may charge.
Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-81
The 1976 Act's parallel accounting-records and inspection duty for older condos, plus the periodic certified-audit rights available to owners.
Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-258(h)
Requires the association to furnish, within ten business days of a written request, a binding statement of the unpaid assessments against your unit.
Step by step
How to request HOA or condo records in Connecticut
A clean, statute-anchored records request that invokes § 47-260 (CIOA) or § 47-81 (1976 Act) and preserves your remedies.
- 01
Confirm which act covers you
CIOA's § 47-260 and the 1976 Act's § 47-81 have different response timelines. Confirm which one applies before you set your expectations for how fast the association has to respond.
- 02
Put the request in writing and be specific
Name the exact records you want: minutes, the budget, reserve accounting, current contracts, and the board's own architectural-approval decisions. The association isn't required to 'compile or synthesize' information for you.
- 03
Track the five-business-day clock
Under CIOA, once your written request reasonably identifies the specific records, § 47-260(b) gives the association five business days to offer you two dates for examination and copying.
- 04
Make them name any exemption
Section 47-260(c)-(d) lists specific categories that can be withheld. A blanket refusal that doesn't point to one of those categories isn't a valid basis to deny you access.
- 05
Use the payoff-statement shortcut for your own account
Section 47-258(h) forces a binding, written answer on what you owe within ten business days of your request, faster than a general records request.
Straight answers
Common questions
What Connecticut association records am I entitled to see?
Under § 47-260, a CIOA association must retain and make available financial records, meeting minutes, the owner roster and vote records, governing documents and current rules, three years of financials and tax returns, current contracts, and its own record of design and architectural decisions, subject to a short list of protected categories.
How fast does the association have to respond to my records request?
Once you've submitted a written request that reasonably identifies the records you want, § 47-260(b) gives the association five business days to offer you two dates on which you can examine and copy them.
Can the association charge me for copies?
Yes, a reasonable fee for copying and for supervising your inspection is allowed under § 47-260(e), but that fee can't be used to block inspection outright, and the association isn't required to compile information into a new format for you.
My condo is older and predates CIOA. Do I still get records access?
Yes, through a different, thinner statute. Section 47-81 requires the declarant or association to keep accounting records and board minutes and make them available for examination and copying by any owner during normal business hours, at your expense, without CIOA's specific five-business-day response clock.