Connecticut · Foreclosure help · 2026

Served foreclosure papers in Connecticut? Your first 15 days

Foreclosure Attorney Hub · Facts checked against statute, court rule and agency pages: 16 Sep 2026

Every Connecticut foreclosure is a lawsuit in Superior Court. The papers you were served are a summons and complaint, and the summons names a return date. Two deadlines run from it. The court rules say a written appearance should be filed on or before the second day after the return date. The mediation statute says the appearance and a foreclosure mediation certificate are filed not later than fifteen days from the return date. Both forms are free to file, and the court’s Foreclosure Mediation Program has no fee. It is open to the borrower on an owner-occupied one-to-four family home, and it puts the case on hold for up to eight months while a court mediator works with you and the lender. Mediation ends at the third session or seven months after the return date, whichever comes first.

You do not have to pay anyone to get through those fifteen days. Volunteer attorneys sit at seven courthouses on the first and third Wednesday of each month, with no income test and no appointment. The Connecticut Fair Housing Center books free fifteen-minute virtual meetings with an attorney and publishes a self-representation guide. Statewide Legal Services screens callers for legal aid, and the Department of Banking runs a foreclosure hotline. Pick your stage in the panel to see which of these fits, then read the plain-English guides to form JD-CL-12 and form JD-CV-108. If you want a lawyer of your own, the Connecticut directory lists firms by town.

The short version. Find the return date on your summons. File the appearance within two days of it and the mediation certificate within fifteen. Neither costs anything, and free advice is available at every stage before you hire anyone.