New Britain, CT Short-Term Rentals: Occupancy Limits (2026)

New Britain folds its overnight headcount limit into the same short-term rental article that requires a special exception and annual zoning permit for every listing. Zoning Ordinance § 270-40-40.300.30 states flatly that no more than six adults and their dependent children may occupy rooms within a short-term rental, a fixed ceiling that does not scale with bedroom count or lot size. The cap sits alongside a life-safety requirement in § 270-40-40.300.40: every room rented for short-term rental use must have emergency escape and rescue openings that conform to the Connecticut State Building Code, so a bedroom that cannot meet that egress standard cannot be counted toward the rental's capacity at all.

Because short-term rentals already operate under a special exception from the Zoning Board of Appeals and an annual zoning permit from the Zoning Enforcement Officer, overcrowding beyond the six-adult limit is not just a fire-code problem, it is also a permit condition. Section 270-40-40.300.10.20 lets the Zoning Enforcement Officer revoke the annual permit on a finding that the rental has become a nuisance to neighbors, and repeated overcapacity complaints are the kind of documented nuisance that provision targets. The article also keeps short-term rentals legally separate from a rooming house, bed and breakfast, hotel or motel; § 270-40-40.300.50 bars operating both uses on the same property at once, which forecloses using an occupancy count from a different licensed use to get around the six-adult ceiling.