Sec. 17b-79. (Formerly Sec. 17-82c). Eligibility of person having interest in real property. Lien of state.
Sec. 17b-79. (Formerly Sec. 17-82c). Eligibility of person having interest in
real property. Lien of state. No person shall be deemed ineligible to receive an award
under the state supplement program, medical assistance program, temporary family
assistance program, state-administered general assistance program or food stamps program for himself or herself or for any person for whose support he or she is liable by
reason of having an interest in real property, maintained as his or her home, provided
the equity in such property shall not exceed the limits established by the commissioner.
The commissioner may place a lien against any property to secure the claim of the state
for all amounts which it has paid or may thereafter pay to such person or in such person's
behalf under any such program, or to or on behalf of any person for whose support he
or she is liable, except for property maintained as a home in aid to families of dependent
children cases, in which case such lien shall secure the state only for that portion of the
assistance grant awarded for amortization of a mortgage or other encumbrance beginning with the fifth month after the original grant for principal payment on any such
encumbrance is made, and each succeeding month of such grant thereafter. The claim
of the state shall be secured by filing a certificate in the land records of the town or
towns in which any such real estate is situated, describing such real estate. Any such
lien may, at any time during which the amount secured by such lien remains unpaid, be
foreclosed in an action brought in a court of competent jurisdiction by the commissioner
on behalf of the state. Any real estate to which title has been taken by foreclosure under
this section, or which has been conveyed to the state in lieu of foreclosure, may be sold,
transferred or conveyed for the state by the commissioner with the approval of the
Attorney General, and the commissioner may, in the name of the state, execute deeds
for such purpose. Such lien shall be released by the commissioner upon payment of the
amount secured by such lien, or an amount equal to the value of the beneficiary's interest
in such property if the value of such interest is less than the amount secured by such
lien, at the commissioner's discretion, and with the advice and consent of the Attorney
General, upon a compromise of the amount due to the state. At the discretion of the
commissioner, the beneficiary, or, in the case of a husband and wife living together, the
survivor of them, as long as he or she lives, or a dependent child or children, may be
permitted to occupy such real property.
(1969, P.A. 730, S. 18; June 18 Sp. Sess. P.A. 97-2, S. 29, 165; P.A. 06-196, S. 208.)
History: Sec. 17-82c transferred to Sec. 17b-79 in 1995; June 18 Sp. Sess. P.A. 97-2 made technical and conforming
changes, effective July 1, 1997; P.A. 06-196 made technical changes, effective June 7, 2006.
Annotations to former section 17-82c:
Provision for the recording of a lien re an AFDC award is a limit on the security obtainable by the state to ensure
repayment of benefits and not a limit on the obligation of the beneficiary to repay. 168 C. 112. Cited. 185 C. 180. "... filing
of state's liens pursuant to" statute "... did not create liens that were, in advance of foreclosure proceedings, choate as a
matter of federal law". 207 C. 743.
Cited. 34 CS 265.