Landlord Atlas

How much notice is required to raise the rent in Rhode Island?

Verified July 11, 2026 All Rhode Island topics →

Rhode Island landlords must give at least 60 days' written notice before any rent increase takes effect, and at least 120 days' written notice before raising the rent on a month-to-month tenant over age 62.

Both periods were doubled from 30 and 60 days by a 2024 law effective June 24, 2024, making Rhode Island one of the few states with an age-tiered rent-increase notice statute. The 60-day rule is an express requirement covering residential tenancies generally — not just month-to-month — though independent living, assisted living, and congregate care facilities are excluded, and the notice never needs to exceed what another law or housing program already requires. Rhode Island has no statewide rent control and no limit on the size or frequency of increases with proper notice; statewide 4% rent-cap bills died in both the 2025 and 2026 sessions, and Providence's 2026 rent-stabilization ordinance was vetoed by the mayor with the veto surviving an override attempt, so no rent control is in force anywhere in the state.

Rhode Island rent increase notice at a glance

Notice — month-to-month 60 days
Varies by increase size None by increase size. Rhode Island's tier is age-based instead: a landlord must give at least one hundred twenty (120) days' written notice before raising the rent on a month-to-month tenant 'over the age of sixty-two (62) years' (§ 34-18-16.1(b)). The 120-day tier applies only to month-to-month tenancies; the 60-day floor covers all other residential tenancies regardless of the increase amount.
Fixed-term leases § 34-18-16.1(a) covers 'a residential tenancy' generally, not just month-to-month — the 60-day written notice governs any rent increase, including at renewal of a fixed-term lease. During a fixed term, rent cannot change unless the lease itself so provides (ordinary contract law). Excluded from the section entirely: independent living facilities, assisted living facilities, and congregate care facilities. Subsection (c) is a savings clause: the section never requires notice on a longer timeframe than another state or federal law, regulation, or housing-program requirement sets.
Statewide rent control / stabilization No
Rent control details No statewide rent control or percentage cap. Statewide 4%-cap bills (S0580/H5264) and a 10%+CPI cap bill (H5676) died in the 2025 session, and the 4% cap refile (S2271) died when the 2026 session adjourned sine die on June 11, 2026. Providence's rent-stabilization ordinance (4% annual cap tied to the unit, one standard increase per 12 months) passed the city council 9-6 on April 16, 2026, was vetoed by Mayor Smiley on April 17, 2026, and the council's override attempt failed in May 2026 — so no rent control ordinance is in force anywhere in Rhode Island as of this verification.
Local rent control preempted Not addressed by statute
Frequency limits Not addressed by statute

Notes and caveats

notice_days_month_to_month=60 is an EXPRESS rent-increase statute (§ 34-18-16.1), not a termination-notice derivation — in fact the month-to-month TERMINATION notice (§ 34-18-37(b)) is only 30 days, half the rent-increase notice, so termination-derivation logic would understate the requirement. MAJOR STALE TRAP: the figures were 30 days (everyone) / 60 days (m2m tenants over 62) until P.L. 2024 ch. 243/244 (H 7304A / S 2252A) doubled both EFFECTIVE UPON PASSAGE June 24, 2024; pre-mid-2024 charts and many current aggregators still show 30/60. Triple-verified: the codified section read twice plus the enacted chapter law's strike-through text. Age trigger pinned exactly: 'month-to-month tenants over the age of sixty-two (62) years' — OVER 62, and only for month-to-month tenancies (a fixed-term 70-year-old gets the 60-day floor). PREEMPTION: local_control_preempted=null because the question is genuinely unsettled — no RI statute expressly preempts or authorizes municipal rent control; H5954 (2025), which would have expressly AUTHORIZED Providence to adopt rent control and just-cause eviction rules, died (its filing itself signals doubt that home rule alone suffices); Providence proceeded anyway in 2026 but the ordinance was vetoed on 2026-04-17 and the override failed in May 2026, so municipal power was never tested in court. Watch for: Providence council leadership has said it will retry, and the statewide 4% cap (S0580/H5264 2025, S2271 2026) has been refiled twice — re-check next session. frequency_limits=null: verified negative (full ch. 34-18 index sweep; nothing in the 2025/2026 session-law sweeps).

Statute citations

How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text on the official Rhode Island General Assembly site (webserver.rilegislature.gov): sections 34-18-19, 34-18-16.1, and 34-18-26 each read twice independently (WebFetch render + raw curl of the official HTML, verbatim), with every load-bearing figure matching (one-month deposit cap; $5,000 furniture threshold and separate one-month furniture deposit; 20-day return after the later of termination, delivery of possession, or forwarding address; twice-the-amount-wrongfully-withheld penalty plus attorney fees; 60-day rent-increase notice and 120-day notice for month-to-month tenants over 62; two days' entry notice). The 60/120 rent-increase figures were additionally reconciled against the enacted chapter text of P.L. 2024, ch. 243 (H 7304A, effective upon passage 2024-06-24), which shows the strike-through amendment from the former 30/60. Supporting sections read once (34-18-8, 34-18-11, 34-18-15, 34-18-35, 34-18-37, 34-18-45, 34-18-58, 34-18-59, 34-18-61, 34-18-62) plus the full ch. 34-18 section index as the sweep basis for verified negatives (no deposit interest or escrow requirement, no late-fee cap or grace statute, no rent-increase frequency limit, no preemption statute). Session-law sweeps: 2025 confirmed absorbed into the code (34-18-62, P.L. 2025 ch. 395/396, eff. 2025-07-02, is live); the full 2026 public-laws-by-subject table (Law Revision office, session adjourned sine die 2026-06-11) was swept — the only on-topic enactments are P.L. 2026 ch. 147/148 (Survivor Early Lease Termination Act, new secs. 34-18-63 to 34-18-67 plus amended 34-18-11 definitions, EFFECTIVE 2026-07-01 and in force but not yet displayed on the code site; no change to any field in this record) and ch. 165/166 (shoreline rental disclosure, out of scope). Rent control: 2025 bills S0580/H5264 (4% cap), H5676 (10%+CPI), and H5954 (Providence enabling) all died; 2026 refile S2271 died at sine-die adjournment (absent from the enacted-laws sweep; LegiScan status pages 403-blocked); Providence's 4% rent-stabilization ordinance passed the city council 2026-04-16, was vetoed by Mayor Smiley 2026-04-17, and the override failed in May 2026 — no rent control is in force anywhere in Rhode Island.