Judge Weise in Hartford Housing Session held that a notice to quit was defective when it named the right street, right room number, but wrong floor. Lim v. Dasilva (Doc. No. HDSP-144141 (Weise J.). The defendant resided in room number six on the third floor and the notice to quit described the premises as room number six on the second floor.
A defective notice to quit deprives the court of jurisdiction over the case and results in the dismissal of the action. In my opinion, Judge Weise reached the correct legal result in Lim.
This case illustrates just how technical Connecticut landlord/tenant law is. Of course, the landlord maybe able to start another eviction against the tenant but doing so has cost the landlord both time and money.
Simply changing the word “second” to “third” in describing the premises would have given the court subject matter jurisdiction over the eviction action.