Rhode Island HOA Assessment Limits

1. Overview

Rhode Island sets no percentage cap on assessment increases. Condominium associations operate under a Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (UCIOA) framework that requires a budget-ratification meeting and backs unpaid assessments with a six-month super-priority lien. Planned communities run almost entirely on what their recorded declarations say.¹

Condominiums formed after July 1, 1982, fall under the Rhode Island Condominium Act, R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-1.01 et seq., which draws from the 1982 UCIOA model. Condominiums created before that date continue under the older Condominium Ownership Act, R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.²

Planned-community associations have no dedicated Rhode Island statute. Their authority to levy assessments and set limits comes from the recorded declaration and bylaws. Associations organized as nonprofit corporations follow the Rhode Island Nonprofit Corporation Act, R.I. Gen. Laws § 7-6.³

For condominiums, the board adopts the budget, owners vote at a ratification meeting under § 34-36.1-3.03, and unpaid assessments attach as a lien under § 34-36.1-3.16. That lien holds priority over a prior first mortgage for six months of common-expense assessments.⁴

Rhode Island sits in the middle of the national assessment-limit spectrum — no statutory ceiling like California's, but a structured owner check for condominiums and pure declaration control for everything else. The sections that follow detail the framework, the procedures in practice, recent legislative and judicial activity, and Rhode Island's national position.

2. The assessment framework

2A. Authority to levy and allocate assessments

Condominium associations levy assessments under R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-3.15. Until the association makes its first common-expense assessment, the declarant pays all common expenses. After that, assessments run at least annually, based on a budget the association adopts at least annually.⁵

The declaration allocates common expenses to units under § 34-36.1-2.07(a) and must state the formula that establishes each unit's share.⁶ The statute also permits targeted allocation: limited-common-element costs can go to the units served, expenses benefiting fewer than all units can go only to those units, and insurance and utility costs can follow risk and usage where the declaration allows.⁷

For condominiums created before July 1, 1982, the predecessor Condominium Ownership Act (§ 34-36) controls. That older statute leaves common-expense assessment and collection largely to the declaration and bylaws.⁸

For planned communities, there is no Rhode Island statute that grants or defines assessment authority. The power to levy and allocate comes entirely from the recorded declaration and the bylaws. Nonprofit associations follow the governance and recordkeeping formalities of the Nonprofit Corporation Act (§ 7-6).⁹

In both settings, the board holds the operative power to set the assessment through the budget. A condominium board's budget faces the statutory owner-ratification step described below. A planned-community board answers only to its governing documents.

2B. Limits on regular assessment increases

Rhode Island imposes no percentage cap on regular assessment increases for either condominiums or planned communities. No statute limits a year-over-year increase to a fixed percentage, and no statutory override vote ties to a numerical threshold.

For condominiums, the check on a regular increase is the budget-ratification meeting under § 34-36.1-3.03(c). Within 30 days after the executive board adopts a proposed budget, the board must deliver a summary to all unit owners and set a ratification meeting date 14 to 30 days after mailing.¹⁰ Unless a majority of all unit owners — or any larger vote the declaration requires — rejects the budget, the budget ratifies whether or not a quorum is present.¹¹ A rejected budget keeps the last ratified budget in force until owners ratify a later board proposal.¹²

This is a ratification meeting, not a no-meeting owner-veto right exercised by mailed objection. The default favors ratification — owners must muster an absolute majority against the budget to stop it.

For planned communities, increases follow the declaration and bylaws, with no statutory ratification meeting and no statutory cap. A condominium board that skips or botches the § 34-36.1-3.03 summary-and-meeting sequence risks having the increase challenged as unratified, with the prior budget treated as the operative one. A planned-community increase that ignores the declaration's procedures faces challenge under the governing documents and ordinary contract and corporate principles.

2C. Special assessments, the super-priority lien, and foreclosure

Special assessments in condominiums draw on the same assessment authority in § 34-36.1-3.15 and on the declaration. The Act does not cap special assessments by percentage and does not currently define the term "special assessment" — a gap that pending legislation, discussed in Section 4, addresses. Any special-assessment approval threshold beyond the board's authority comes from the declaration or bylaws. In planned communities, special assessments are entirely a creature of the declaration.

The condominium assessment lien is the most powerful collection tool in Rhode Island common-interest law. Under § 34-36.1-3.16(a), the association holds a lien on a unit for any assessment or fine from the time it comes due, and recording the declaration perfects the lien — no further recordation required.¹³ The lien is generally junior to a first mortgage recorded before the delinquency, but § 34-36.1-3.16(b)(2) gives it priority over that first mortgage for the six months of common-expense assessments under the periodic budget preceding foreclosure, plus collection attorney's fees up to $2,500 and foreclosure costs up to $5,000 — a $7,500 aggregate.¹⁴ That priority amount excludes special assessments, late charges, fines, penalties, and interest.¹⁵ The association forecloses the lien under § 34-36.1-3.21 by non-judicial sale, with a 30-day post-sale right of redemption running to the first mortgagee.¹⁶

The Rhode Island Supreme Court confirmed in Twenty-Eleven, LLC v. Botelho, No. 2014-10-Appeal (R.I. 2015), that a condominium foreclosure sale conducted under the Act extinguishes a prior-recorded first mortgage when the mortgagee fails to exercise the right of redemption under § 34-36.1-3.21(c). In that case, the unit sold at the association's lien sale for $21,000.¹⁷

Planned-community liens rest on the declaration and carry no statutory super-priority. The operational point is clear: condominium associations hold a priority position that can override a bank, while planned communities collect through whatever lien and remedies their declarations create.

3. Assessment limits and procedures in practice

A. Regular assessment increase procedure

Condominiums (§ 34-36.1): The executive board adopts the annual budget, delivers a budget summary to all owners within 30 days, and holds a ratification meeting 14 to 30 days after mailing. The budget and any increase it contains take effect on ratification, which happens automatically unless a majority of all owners rejects it.¹⁸

Pre-Act condominiums (§ 34-36): The increase procedure follows the declaration and bylaws; the older Act sets no ratification meeting.¹⁹

Planned communities: The board adopts the increase under the declaration with no statutory ratification step. The effective date follows whatever the governing documents specify.²⁰

B. Special assessment procedure

Condominiums (§ 34-36.1): Authority flows from § 34-36.1-3.15 and the declaration. The Act sets no separate notice rule or member-approval threshold for special assessments, so any owner-vote requirement is declaration-defined.²¹

Planned communities: Special-assessment authority, notice, and any approval threshold are entirely declaration-defined, with no statutory rule.²²

C. Caps, ceilings, and override mechanisms

All Rhode Island associations: There is no statutory percentage cap on regular or special assessments. Any cap or ceiling is declaration-defined.²³

Condominiums (§ 34-36.1): The functional check is the § 34-36.1-3.03 ratification meeting, not a numerical limit.²⁴

D. Notice, documentation, and disclosure tied to assessments

Condominiums (§ 34-36.1): The board must send the 30-day budget summary and set the 14-to-30-day ratification meeting. On default, the recorded lien under § 34-36.1-3.16 secures the debt, and the association must send a delinquency notice to the owner and the first mortgagee once any common-expense share runs 60 days past due.²⁵ On request, the association must furnish a recordable statement of unpaid assessments within 10 business days.²⁶

Planned communities: Notice and disclosure follow the declaration and the Nonprofit Corporation Act (§ 7-6), including its books-and-records provisions. Assessment status is typically disclosed on resale through the governing documents rather than a condominium-style statutory certificate.²⁷

4. Recent legislative and judicial activity

Recent Legislation

Rhode Island's 2025 session addressed both the structure of condominium assessments and the mechanics of how owners can call meetings to contest them. One measure became law in June 2025; the other remains in committee.

Recent Court Rulings

The Rhode Island Supreme Court's 2025 docket included a decision that directly shapes how owners can push back on the way their association allocates shared costs.

No Rhode Island Supreme Court opinion within the June 2023 to June 2026 window squarely addresses an assessment cap, the validity of a specific increase or special assessment, the budget-ratification meeting, or the § 34-36.1-3.16 lien. Twenty-Eleven, LLC v. Botelho (2015) remains the controlling lien-priority precedent.³²

Active Legislative Debates

The 2025 session also produced proposals to add a statutory definition of "special assessment" and to require reserve studies. Both were held for further study — reflecting continuing interest in adding financial-planning structure to the Condominium Act without imposing a percentage cap.³³

5. National positioning

Rhode Island sits in the middle of the national assessment-limit spectrum. It is not a statutory-cap state like California, where Cal. Civ. Code § 5605(b) bars a board from imposing a regular assessment more than 20% greater than the preceding year's, or special assessments that in the aggregate exceed 5% of the budgeted gross expenses, without member approval.

On the condominium side, Rhode Island is a UCIOA ratification-mechanism state with a super-priority assessment lien, alongside Connecticut, Vermont, and other UCIOA jurisdictions. On the planned-community side, Rhode Island is declaration-driven — the recorded declaration sets the limits, and the statute supplies no cap, similar to how states like Oklahoma treat associations.

Rhode Island's distinctive feature is a split within one state: a structured statutory process for condominiums and near-total declaration control for everything else. For multi-state operators entering Rhode Island, the practical takeaway is to read each community's documents closely, treat the condominium lien as a genuine priority weapon, and keep in mind that any appeal runs from the Superior Court directly to the Rhode Island Supreme Court — there is no intermediate appellate court in between.

Federal frameworks also bear on Rhode Island assessment practice, regardless of the state structure — including the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act for assessment collection, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and the bankruptcy treatment of assessments.

1. R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-3.16, Lien for assessments ↩
2. R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-1.02, Applicability ↩
3. R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 7-6, Rhode Island Nonprofit Corporation Act ↩
4. R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-3.03(c), Budget ratification ↩
5. R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-3.15(a), Assessments for common expenses ↩
6. R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-2.07(a), Allocation of common expense liability ↩
7. R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-3.15(c), Targeted allocation provisions ↩
8. R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 34-36, Condominium Ownership Act ↩
9. R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 7-6, Rhode Island Nonprofit Corporation Act ↩
10. R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-3.03(c), Budget ratification meeting procedure ↩
11. R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-3.03(c), Ratification default rule ↩
12. R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-3.03(c), Prior budget continuation on rejection ↩
13. R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-3.16(a), (d), Lien attachment and perfection ↩
14. R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-3.16(b)(2), Six-month super-priority lien ↩
15. R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-3.16(b)(3), Exclusions from priority amount ↩
16. R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-3.21, Foreclosure of condominium lien ↩
17. Twenty-Eleven, LLC v. Botelho, No. 2014-10-Appeal, 127 A.3d 897 (R.I. 2015) ↩
18. R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-3.03(c), Annual budget ratification procedure ↩
19. R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 34-36, Condominium Ownership Act ↩
20. R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 7-6, Rhode Island Nonprofit Corporation Act ↩
21. R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-3.15, Assessments for common expenses ↩
22. R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 7-6, Rhode Island Nonprofit Corporation Act ↩
23. R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 34-36.1, Condominium Law (no statutory percentage cap on assessments) ↩
24. R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-3.03(c), Ratification meeting as functional check ↩
25. R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-3.16(b)(4), Delinquency notice requirement ↩
26. R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-3.16(h), Statement of unpaid assessments ↩
27. R.I. Gen. Laws § 7-6-30, Books and records ↩
28. Rhode Island S 0724 (2025), bill summary and text ↩
29. Rhode Island S 0724 (2025), legislative history (held for further study) ↩
30. R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-3.08 (P.L. 2025, ch. 136, eff. June 24, 2025), Electronic and remote meetings ↩
31. Song v. Lemoine, No. 2024-34 (R.I. May 19, 2025) ↩
32. Rhode Island Supreme Court Published Opinions ↩
33. Rhode Island Condominium Association testimony on H5330 (2025), defining "special assessment" ↩