Landlord Atlas

Rhode Island Landlord-Tenant Laws

Verified October 1, 2026 Correction October 2, 2026

Local rent regulation in Rhode Island

No Rhode Island statute expressly addresses local rent control, either to authorize it or to prohibit it; the state's landlord-tenant law regulates only the notice a landlord must give before raising rent.

Verified October 1, 2026 · Full Rhode Island rent-increase rules →

Rhode Island landlord-tenant laws by topic

Rhode Island security deposits

Rhode Island caps security deposits at one month's rent, and the landlord must return the deposit with a written itemized statement within 20 days after the later of the tenancy ending, the tenant moving out, or the tenant providing a forwarding address.

Rhode Island rent increase notice

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.

Rhode Island late fees

Rhode Island sets no statutory cap on residential late fees and mandates no grace period, but since January 1, 2025 every fee beyond the rent — late fees included — must be disclosed in writing up front, in the same section of the lease as the rent (or in a written list if there is no lease), and a tenant can recover any fee that was not disclosed as required.

Rhode Island entry notice

Rhode Island landlords must give the tenant at least two days' notice before entering a rental unit, and may enter only at reasonable times.

Rhode Island eviction process

To evict a residential tenant in Rhode Island a landlord serves one statutory written notice, then files an eviction complaint in the Rhode Island District Court, which has exclusive original jurisdiction over landlord-tenant cases: a five-day demand for payment that cannot even be mailed until rent is fifteen days in arrears (R.I. Gen. Laws 34-18-35), a noncompliance notice giving twenty days to cure and terminating no less than twenty-one days after mailing (34-18-36), or a notice terminating a periodic tenancy - ten days week-to-week, thirty days month-to-month, three months year-to-year (34-18-37).

Rhode Island application & screening fees

Rhode Island bans rental application fees outright and lets a landlord recover only the actual cost of an official state criminal background check or a credit report, and only where the applicant has not already supplied one issued within the previous ninety days.

Rhode Island deposit interest

Rhode Island requires no interest on a residential security deposit, and no separate, escrow or trust account for it either.

Rhode Island habitability & repairs

Rhode Island requires a landlord to comply with building and housing codes affecting health and safety, make all repairs needed to keep the premises fit and habitable, keep common areas clean and safe, maintain the supplied electrical, plumbing, heating and air conditioning facilities, provide waste receptacles, supply running water and hot water at all times and reasonable heat between October 1 and May 1, and carry at least $100,000 of general liability insurance with a copy of the declaration page given to the tenant.

Rhode Island lease termination

Either side ends a Rhode Island month-to-month tenancy with at least 30 days' written notice on the form the statute prints, and that form sets the move-out date at the first day after the current rental period ends, so the real lead time is longer than 30 days.

Rhode Island lease disclosures

A Rhode Island landlord must disclose the owner's and manager's name, address and number in writing at or before the start of the tenancy, and must state in the lease every fee beyond the rent, in the same section as the rent, plus which utilities are included and any renters-insurance requirement.

Rhode Island pets & assistance animals

Rhode Island has no pet-deposit statute, so a refundable pet deposit is simply part of the one security deposit, which may never exceed one month's rent however the money is labeled.

Rhode Island mobile home park laws

Rhode Island's Mobile and Manufactured Home Act, chapter 31-44 of the General Laws, governs the tenancy of a resident who owns the home and rents the lot beneath it in a community of four or more occupied homes, and it is one of the more detailed such acts in the country: a change in lot rent or fees takes 60 days' written notice, a lot tenancy may be ended only on one of six listed grounds and never on less than 60 days' notice, and closing a community by selling or leasing it takes a full year's certified-mail notice plus relocation money of up to $4,000 a household.

Rhode Island Fair Market Rents (FY 2027) — HUD's benchmark rents for every Rhode Island metro area and county.

Editable Rhode Island deposit kit · Editable Rhode Island disclosure packet — editable documents built on the verified Rhode Island rules on this page, in Word, fillable PDF and Excel.

Changes since last full verification

The Verified date above (October 1, 2026) marks the last time every figure on this page was verified end-to-end against official sources. The changes below were published since then, each verified against the official source it names (what these dates mean).

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, verbatim, with every key 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; the General Assembly recessed on 2026-06-11) was read — 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 was not passed before the June 11, 2026 recess (absent from the enacted laws); 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 on May 15, 2026 — no rent control is in force anywhere in Rhode Island. October 1, 2026: every section named above, with 34-18-38, 34-18-39 and 23-24.6-28, was read again on the General Assembly's statute server, which has absorbed the 2025 session and not the 2026 session; P.L. 2026, ch. 147/148 was read in its enacted text; every 2025 and 2026 public law was searched for these sections; and the published codes of all 39 cities and towns were checked for a rent control ordinance, with none found.