Rhode Island HOA Budget Approval
Section 1: Overview — How HOA budgets are approved in Rhode Island
Rhode Island approves condominium budgets through a negative-option ratification system. The executive board adopts a proposed budget, and that budget takes effect automatically — unless a majority of all unit owners vote to reject it. That mechanism comes from the Rhode Island Condominium Act (R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 34-36.1), enacted in 1982 as a derivative of the original 1982 Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (UCIOA).1 The statute puts inertia on the association's side: inaction, abstention, or low turnout all favor ratification, and the Act expressly removes any quorum requirement for the ratification outcome.2
The Act covers condominiums created on or after July 1, 1982. Condominiums created before that date stay under the predecessor Condominium Ownership Act (R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 34-36), unless they have voluntarily elected coverage under the newer law.3 Planned-community homeowners associations operate outside this framework entirely. Rhode Island has no comprehensive planned-community statute, so their budgets answer to the recorded covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CC&Rs) and, where the association incorporates, to the Rhode Island Nonprofit Corporation Act (R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 7-6) — though that law sets no budget-approval threshold.4
Rhode Island is a UCIOA-derived condominium state built on the 1982 version of the uniform act, with the negative-option budget mechanism applying only to condominiums. The table and sequence below explain the condominium mechanic, then address older condominiums and planned communities.
Section 2: The budget approval mechanism
The table below reflects the Rhode Island Condominium Act (R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 34-36.1) as it applies to condominiums created on or after July 1, 1982. Condominiums created before that date and planned-community associations follow other frameworks, addressed in the prose that follows.
2A. Quick-Reference Budget Mechanics Table
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Governing statute section(s) | R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-3.03(c) (ratification); § 34-36.1-3.02(a)(2) (budget power); § 34-36.1-3.15 (assessments for common expenses)2 |
| Community types covered | Condominiums created on or after July 1, 1982 (and pre-1982 condominiums that voluntarily elect the Act)3 |
| Body that adopts the proposed budget | The executive board2 |
| Approval model | Negative-option ratification: the board adopts the budget; owners may reject it2 |
| Budget summary distribution deadline | Within 30 days after the board adopts the proposed budget2 |
| Ratification meeting notice window | Meeting set not less than 14 nor more than 30 days after mailing of the summary2 |
| Owner rejection threshold | A majority of all unit owners, or any larger vote specified in the declaration2 |
| Quorum required to ratify | None; the budget is ratified whether or not a quorum is present2 |
| Effect of owner rejection | The periodic budget last ratified by the unit owners continues until a subsequent budget is ratified2 |
| Statutory cap on assessment increase absent owner vote | Not specified by statute; governed by recorded declaration |
| Special assessment approval threshold | Not specified by statute; governed by recorded declaration |
| Reserve study mandate (and frequency) | None; no statutory reserve-study requirement5 |
| Reserve funding mandate | None; no statutory reserve-funding requirement5 |
| Audit or financial review tied to budget cycle | Not specified by statute; governed by recorded declaration |
| Provisions variable by declaration | Rejection threshold (larger vote), special assessments, reserve funding, and audit requirements2 |
2B. The budget approval sequence under the Condominium Act
The Condominium Act assigns the budget power to the association and the adoption step to the executive board. Section 34-36.1-3.02(a)(2) gives the association authority to adopt and amend budgets for revenues, expenditures, and reserves, and to collect assessments for common expenses from unit owners.6 The executive board exercises that power on the association's behalf and adopts a proposed budget.
Within 30 days after adoption, the executive board must send a summary of the budget to all unit owners and set a date for a ratification meeting. That meeting must fall not less than 14 nor more than 30 days after the mailing of the summary.2 This 14-to-30-day window is the verified statutory window; Rhode Island does not use the 10-to-60-day window found in some other UCIOA-derived states for this step.
At the meeting, the budget is ratified by default. Section 34-36.1-3.03(c) states that "[u]nless at that meeting a majority of all the unit owners or any larger vote specified in the declaration reject the budget, the budget is ratified, whether or not a quorum is present."2 This is a negative-option mechanism: owners do not affirmatively vote to approve the budget. Inaction, abstention, or absence all operate in favor of ratification, and the statute expressly removes any quorum requirement for the ratification outcome.
If a majority of all unit owners do reject the budget, the most recently ratified budget continues in force until owners ratify a new one that the executive board proposes.2
Ratifying the budget and levying the assessment are two separate steps. Once a budget governs, Section 34-36.1-3.15(a) requires the association to levy assessments at least annually, based on a budget adopted at least annually.7 Section 34-36.1-2.07 allocates common expenses against units according to the allocations set in the declaration.8 Past-due assessments bear interest at a rate the association sets, not to exceed 21 percent per year.7 The ratification step fixes the spending plan; the assessment step converts that plan into each owner's payment obligation.
2C. Older condominiums, planned communities, and variation
Condominiums created before July 1, 1982 fall under the predecessor Condominium Ownership Act (R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 34-36), unless they have recorded an instrument voluntarily accepting the newer Act. Section 34-36.1-1.02 applies the Condominium Act to condominiums created after July 1, 1982 and preserves the Condominium Ownership Act for those created earlier.3 The older Act contains no negative-option ratification mechanism. Instead, it directs that budget and common-expense matters be handled through recorded bylaws (Section 34-36-16), with common expenses charged under the Act's common-expense provisions.9 Practitioners determine which act governs by checking the recorded declaration's date and any later election instrument in the land evidence records.
Planned-community associations operate without any comprehensive Rhode Island statute. Their budgets are declaration-governed: the recorded CC&Rs and bylaws set the adoption process, any owner-approval threshold, and any cap on increases. Because most such associations incorporate as nonprofits, the Rhode Island Nonprofit Corporation Act (R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 7-6) supplies corporate formalities such as meetings, recordkeeping, and director duties — but it imposes no budget-ratification threshold and no negative-option mechanism.4
Within the Condominium Act, the ratification procedure, the 30-day summary deadline, and the 14-to-30-day meeting window are mandatory. The declaration may raise the rejection threshold above a majority of all unit owners, but cannot lower it.2 Reserve funding, special-assessment thresholds, and audit requirements are left to the declaration.
Section 3: Budget-adjacent obligations
Reserves in the budget
The Condominium Act authorizes reserves but does not mandate them. Section 34-36.1-3.02(a)(2) lets the association adopt budgets that include reserves, and Section 34-36.1-4.03 requires a developer's public offering statement to disclose budgeted reserves — but the Act, built on the 1982 UCIOA, imposes no reserve-study requirement and no minimum reserve-funding level. The reserve-study requirement entered the uniform framework with the 2008 UCIOA, which Rhode Island has not adopted.5 Planned communities carry no statutory reserve obligation.
Special assessments
The Condominium Act addresses common-expense assessments in Section 34-36.1-3.15 but sets no separate statutory approval threshold for special assessments. The declaration controls whether and how a special assessment is approved.7 For planned communities, special assessments are entirely declaration-governed.
Assessment increase limits
Rhode Island sets no statutory percentage cap on assessment increases for condominiums. The recorded declaration controls any limit on increases; without a declaration limit, the ratified budget governs the assessment level. No Davis-Stirling-style cap applies.
Financial review, audit, and disclosure tied to the budget cycle
The Act contains no audit or financial-review mandate tied to the budget cycle. It does require records access: Section 34-36.1-3.18 directs the association to make financial and other records reasonably available for examination within 30 days of a written request by a unit owner.10 On resale, Section 34-36.1-4.09 requires the association to furnish a certificate that includes the current operating budget and reserve information.11 Incorporated associations also keep books and records under the Nonprofit Corporation Act.4
Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity
A. Recent bills
Two companion acts amended the Condominium Act in 2025, both taking effect June 24, 2025: P.L. 2025, ch. 123 (Senate bill S0509 Substitute A) and P.L. 2025, ch. 136 (House bill H5156 Substitute A). Both acts amended Section 34-36.1-1.02 (applicability) and Section 34-36.1-3.08 (meetings).12
S0509 Sub A / H5156 Sub A · P.L. 2025, ch. 123/136 · 2025 Regular Session
These companion acts changed two sections of the Condominium Act. They added a requirement that the executive board call a special meeting when unit owners holding at least 20 percent of the votes request one — including a meeting to reject the budget. They also authorized electronic and remote participation in association meetings, and electronic notice when an owner has given written consent.12, 13, 14 The acts did not change the negative-option ratification mechanism, the rejection threshold, or any reserve or assessment-cap rule.
| Property managers | Build the 20 percent special-meeting trigger and remote-participation options into meeting calendars and notice templates, and use electronic notice only where owners have given written consent. |
| HOA board members | A qualifying owner petition to reject the budget now compels the board to call a special meeting, so boards must track petition thresholds and document their response every time a petition arrives. |
| Community association attorneys | Review bylaws to confirm alignment with the amended § 34-36.1-3.08 procedures on special meetings, remote participation, and electronic notice consent requirements. |
| Homeowners | Owners can force a special budget-rejection meeting by reaching the 20 percent signature threshold, and may participate and vote remotely where the association provides that option. |
B. Recent rulings
The Rhode Island Supreme Court addressed the special-meeting notice provision of the Condominium Act in a 2025 decision that bears directly on the owner-driven side of the budget process.
Song v. Lemoine
Unit owners Boyang Song and Travis McCune sued the board president and secretary of The 903 Condominium Owner's Association in Providence after the board refused to issue a special-meeting notice the owners properly requested under Section 34-36.1-3.08. The Supreme Court vacated the portion of the trial court's judgment that favored the defendants. It held that the owners had collected the required signatures, that their proposed notice met the statutory requirements, and that the trial judge overstepped by evaluating the merits of the owners' proposed agenda items.15 The decision addresses special-meeting notice rights rather than the budget-ratification threshold directly, but it governs the owner-driven side of the budget rejection process.
| Property managers | Process a compliant owner petition promptly and keep it intact — the board cannot narrow or reframe the owners' proposed agenda. |
| HOA board members | When owners meet the signature threshold and present a statutorily compliant notice, the board must issue the special meeting as requested, including a budget-rejection agenda. |
| Community association attorneys | Cite Song v. Lemoine for the mandatory nature of the special-meeting duty and the limits on board and judicial review of owner-proposed agendas. |
| Homeowners | Collect the required signatures and submit a compliant notice, and the board must hold your special meeting — neither the board nor the trial court can override your statutory agenda rights. |
C. Active legislative debates
House bill H5330, introduced in the 2025 session, proposed adding a statutory definition of "special assessment" — specifically, as an assessment that is not part of the association budget. That definition was not carried into the enacted 2025 meeting-procedure amendments, and no comprehensive planned-community statute is pending.16
H5330 · 2025 Regular Session
This bill proposed defining "special assessment" in Rhode Island's Condominium Act as an assessment that is not part of the association budget. The definition would have given associations and owners a clear statutory baseline for distinguishing special assessments from regular operating charges. The bill did not advance and was not carried into the 2025 meeting-procedure amendments that did become law.16
| Property managers | No change; continue to rely on the declaration for special-assessment authority, and watch for a revised version of this definition in future sessions. |
| HOA board members | Your special assessment process remains declaration-governed; no statutory definition has been enacted to supplement or override your CC&Rs. |
| Community association attorneys | The definitional gap this bill addressed remains open — advise clients that "special assessment" is still a declaration-controlled concept in Rhode Island with no statutory baseline. |
| Homeowners | Special assessments are still defined by your CC&Rs, not state law; check your declaration for the specific threshold and notice requirements that apply to you. |
Section 5: National positioning and related coverage
Rhode Island sits among the states that adopted the 1982 version of the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act in condominium-focused form. Its condominium budgets run on the same negative-option system used across the UCIOA family: a board-adopted budget is ratified unless a majority of all owners reject it. That places Rhode Island alongside other 1982-UCIOA condominium states and apart from full-UCIOA states that extend the uniform framework to planned communities and cooperatives.
Rhode Island also differs from California's Davis-Stirling model, which caps assessment increases absent an owner vote, and from reserve-mandate states such as Florida, Nevada, New Jersey, and Oregon, none of whose reserve-study or funding rules Rhode Island has adopted. For a multi-state operator entering Rhode Island, the picture is straightforward: the negative-option mechanism governs condominium budgets, and planned communities follow their recorded declarations.
Federal frameworks — including the Fair Housing Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and the FCC's OTARD rule — apply to Rhode Island associations regardless of the state budget framework.
- R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-1.01, Short title ("Rhode Island Condominium Act"; P.L. 1982, ch. 329) ↩
- R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-3.03(c), Executive board members and officers (budget summary within 30 days; ratification meeting "not less than fourteen (14) nor more than thirty (30) days"; ratified "whether or not a quorum is present") ↩
- R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-1.02, Applicability (applies to condominiums created after July 1, 1982, with voluntary election for earlier condominiums; Condominium Ownership Act, ch. 34-36, does not apply to condominiums created after July 1, 1982) ↩
- R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 7-6, Rhode Island Nonprofit Corporation Act (governing incorporated associations' corporate formalities) ↩
- Community Associations Institute, Reserve Requirements and Funding (Rhode Island: "There is no statutory requirement to conduct a reserve study and no statutory requirement to fund reserves"; citing R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 34-36.1-3.02, 34-36.1-4.03) ↩
- R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-3.02(a)(2), Powers of unit owners' association ("Adopt and amend budgets for revenues, expenditures, and reserves and collect assessments for common expenses") ↩
- R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-3.15, Assessments for common expenses (assessments "at least annually, based on a budget adopted at least annually"; interest not exceeding 21% per year) ↩
- R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-2.07, Allocation of common element interest, votes, and common expense liabilities ↩
- R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 34-36, Condominium Ownership Act (§ 34-36-16, Bylaw provisions; § 34-36-20, Common expenses — Payment) ↩
- R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-3.18, Association records (financial and other records reasonably available within 30 days of a written request) ↩
- R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-4.09, Resale of units (certificate to include current operating budget and reserves for capital expenditures) ↩
- R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-3.08, Meetings and notice (History of Section: P.L. 2025, ch. 123, § 1, and P.L. 2025, ch. 136, § 1, both effective June 24, 2025) ↩
- Rhode Island Association of REALTORS, "New RI Condo Laws" (July 3, 2025) (executive board must hold a special meeting if requested by 20% of unit owners, or a lower bylaw percentage, for purposes including "rejecting the budget") ↩
- P.L. 2025, ch. 123 (S0509 Sub A), amending R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-3.08 (electronic and remote meeting participation; electronic notice with the unit owner's written consent) ↩
- Song v. Lemoine, No. 24-34 (R.I. Sup. Ct. May 19, 2025) (vacating judgment for defendants; owners satisfied signature threshold and statutory special-meeting notice requirements under § 34-36.1-3.08) ↩
- Rhode Island Condominium Association, Inc., testimony in support of H5330 (Mar. 3, 2025) (proposing to define "special assessment" as "an assessment that is not part of the association budget") ↩