Homeowner rights in Rhode Island

Which statute covers you depends on one fact: when your condominium's declaration was recorded. Condos created after July 1, 1982 fall under the Rhode Island Condominium Act (R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 34-36.1-1.01 et seq.), a modern, detailed statute modeled on the Uniform Condominium Act. Condos declared before that date stay under the older Condominium Ownership Act (§§ 34-36-1 et seq.) unless the association and every single unit owner unanimously agreed, in a recorded writing, to opt into the newer act instead (§ 34-36.1-1.02). The chapter-continuity clause in § 34-36-39 makes this explicit: the old chapter simply does not apply to declarations filed after 1982, and any older condo that never opted in keeps running on the thinner, older rules for good.

Outside of condominiums, Rhode Island's statute book goes quiet. There is no Rhode Island equivalent of the Property Owners' Association Acts that neighboring states use to cover subdivision HOAs, no state regulator that registers associations, and no codified statement of owner rights handed to you at closing. A subdivision HOA here operates on its recorded declaration and bylaws, general Rhode Island contract and property law, and whatever nonprofit-corporation formalities apply to its corporate structure, none of which is a condo-specific enforcement statute. That gap matters: everything below this point, fine caps, hearing rights, lien limits, is real and enforceable, but it belongs to condominium owners. If you're in a non-condo HOA, treat your declaration as the only rulebook in the room.

What Rhode Island gives condo owners

On fines, the modern act is unusually specific for a small state: § 34-36.1-3.20 requires notice and a hearing before any fine is imposed, caps daily fines at $100 for residential units and $500 for commercial units, caps one-time fines at $500 residential and $1,000 commercial, and then goes further than most states by voiding any declaration, bylaw, or rule that tries to set its own maximum at all. The statutory number is the only number that counts. The older act has nothing like this; § 34-36-8 just says a violation is grounds for a lawsuit for damages or an injunction, with no fine schedule or hearing requirement written into the statute itself.

On money, both acts give the association a lien for unpaid assessments and fines, and both let the association foreclose that lien through a private power-of-sale, without going to court first, under § 34-36.1-3.21 (modern) or § 34-36-20 (older act). That's a real difference from states that require a judicial foreclosure, and it comes with its own notice, publication, and timing rules that are your leverage to slow it down or challenge it. None of this is a favor from the board. It is your statutory floor, generous on fines, unusually thin on judicial protection before a sale.