Attorney Kate Cerrone

10/06/2026

🔒 Before you wire money for a closing, pick up the phone.

It's , and this is the version that costs Connecticut buyers their down payment. Someone gets into an email account in the transaction, reads along for weeks, then sends new wiring instructions the same week you were expecting them. Right thread. Right property. Wrong account number.

📞 Verify by voice, using a number you already had — never the one in the email
🚩 Any change to an account or payment method stops the wire
✅ Call after you send to confirm it landed

If something goes wrong, call your bank and report it at ic3.gov immediately. Recovery depends on hours, not days. ⏱️

Questions about how your closing funds will move? Call my office at 860-928-2429.

General information, not legal advice.

10/05/2026

🌾 Putnam's 17th Annual Scarecrow Contest is here!

As PBA President, this is one of my favorite traditions of the year — our downtown filled with the creativity of local businesses, families, and neighbors. 🍂

📅 Register by October 12
🎨 Give it a name and a visible 11x17 sign
⏰ Have it standing by noon on October 15
🏆 Five judges score creativity, use of materials, and theme
🎃 Displays stay up through Halloween

A friendly tip from watching this every October: build it to hold up through two weeks of New England weather.

Rules and registration are at discoverputnam.com. I can't wait to see what you all come up with! 👏

10/04/2026

Started at 10am at the Putnam Armory the PBA ducks need to take a ducky bath and be tucked into their bins until next year. There are refreshments and good conversation. Still happening, come volunteer at the Putnam Armory Building 15 Keech St.

10/03/2026

10am at the Putnam Armory the PBA ducks need to take a ducky bath and be tucked into their bins until next year. There will be refreshments and good conversation. Come volunteer!

WE NEED YOUR HELP!
🌟VOLUNTEERS NEEDED! 🌟
SUNDAY, OCT 4 | 10am-2:00pm
Putnam Armory, Wicker Drive, Putnam CT

🦆Help us get our ducks in a row! Before we let our ducks hibernate for the winter, we need to dry and store our rubber ducks away in their proper bins.

🦆Whether you can volunteer for 1, 2, 3 or 4 hours, your help is greatly appreciated. We will have refreshments and beverages for all.

🦆This is a great opportunity for students in need of community service hours!

Able to join us? Questions? Call Beth 860-324-8309 or email [email protected]

10/01/2026

📌 New Connecticut workplace rules take effect today. Here's the short list for local business owners.

Public Act 26-12 is now in effect, and most of it applies to every employer in the state, whether you have one employee or one hundred.

📋 Job postings. Internal and external postings need the wage or wage range plus a general description of benefits. Benefits covers health insurance, retirement, fringe benefits, and paid leave.

📄 ADA accommodation notice. Written notice goes to new hires at the start of employment, to your current staff by January 29, 2027, and within 10 days of an employee telling you about a disability. The Labor Commissioner's poster satisfies this.

🍼 Lactation accommodation. Reasonable break time beyond regular breaks, plus a private space that is not a bathroom, with electricity and access to refrigeration. This applies even with a single employee.

💻 Electronic monitoring. Effective today, new hires must receive a written plan language explanation about which locations of the workplace, including computers, are monitored for security purposes.

✅ For most businesses in our towns, this is paperwork rather than a rebuild. One posting template, one handbook update, one poster on the wall.

🤝 Not sure where you stand? Let's walk through your postings, offer letters, and handbook together.

📞 860-928-2429
📧 [email protected]
🌐 KateCerroneLaw.com

09/30/2026

🍂 The nights are turning cold in Northeast Connecticut. If you own rental property, the time to read your lease is now, not in December.

Three things landlords ask me about every fall:

🔥 Heat. There is no calendar date in Connecticut where heat "switches on." Where your lease requires you to furnish heat, the minimum temperature standard applies, and your equipment has to be in safe working order. Servicing the furnace in September beats hunting for a technician on a holiday weekend.

🏚️ Habitability. State law requires you to keep the premises fit and habitable and to maintain heating systems in good repair. Deferred fixes get expensive fast once temperatures drop.

❄️ Snow and ice. This is where leases go quiet. Who shovels the walk? Who salts the steps? Who pays for plowing? If your lease does not answer that, someone else decides later.

📋 A lease review before the first frost is one of the least expensive things a landlord can do all year.

🏡 Own rental property in our towns? Let's look at your lease language together before heating season is underway.

📞 860-928-2429
📧 [email protected]
🌐 KateCerroneLaw.com

09/29/2026

💧 Buying a home in Northeast Connecticut? Odds are it has a private well and septic system.

If you're coming from a town with municipal water and sewer, this is new territory. And the contingency language in your contract matters more than most buyers realize.

Here's what it should spell out:

⏱️ A realistic timeline. Enough room to test, get results, and retest if needed.

📏 A clear standard. "Satisfactory results" invites a dispute. Name the standard the results have to meet.

💵 A repair cap. Who pays, and up to how much, if something comes back short.

🚪 Your exit. If the numbers don't work, can you walk away with your deposit intact?

📁 Permit history. A septic system that was never permitted with the town shows up in the land records, not the inspection report.

🔎 The testing itself belongs to a licensed inspector or your local health district. My job is making sure your contract gives you real options when the results come in.

🏡 Under contract on a rural Northeast Connecticut property? Let's review your contingencies together before the clock starts.

📞 860-928-2429
📧 [email protected]
🌐 KateCerroneLaw.com

09/23/2026

🏢 Buy a business in whole, and you buy its history too. 📜

The name and the customers, yes. But also whatever came before you. 👀

In Connecticut, a buyer can end up responsible for the seller's unpaid taxes. 🧾 That's one of eight things worth knowing before you sign.

The other seven cover the ground most buyers assume is already settled: 🔍

💰 What the business owes, not only what it owns
📝 Which contracts actually carry over, and which need someone's permission first
👥 The employee obligations that follow the company
📋 The licenses that don't automatically come with a change in ownership
🛡️ And how your purchase agreement can protect you when something surfaces later

📖 The blog covers what to check first. Read it before the closing table, not after.

🤝 Buying in Northeast Connecticut? Let's review your agreement together.

📞 860-928-2429
📧 [email protected]
🌐 KateCerroneLaw.com

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09/22/2026

🍂 Hoping to be in your new home before the holidays? Now is the time to get moving.

Fall is one of the busiest stretches on the closing calendar, and here's where delays usually show up:

🔍 **Title issues.** Old liens or unclear ownership surface during the search, not before.

💧 **Well and septic testing.** Contractor availability thins out in late fall.

🏦 **Lender conditions.** Underwriting requests arrive in waves, and each round adds days.

🏛️ **Municipal records.** Permits and land records move at town hall speed, and holiday closures shorten the month.

📅 Starting title work early means we fix problems while they're small, not the week of your closing.

🏡 Planning a fall closing in Northeast Connecticut? Let's talk timelines now.

📞 860-928-2429
📧 [email protected]
🌐 KateCerroneLaw.com