Rhode Island HOA Fence & Exterior

1. Overview: How fence and exterior rules work in Rhode Island

In Rhode Island, a community's recorded covenants, conditions, and restrictions — the CC&Rs — and its architectural guidelines do most of the work of controlling fences and exterior features. A statute enters the picture only for condominiums. So start by classifying the community. Condominiums created on or after July 1, 1982 fall under the Rhode Island Condominium Act, Chapter 36.1. Condominiums created before that date stay under the older Condominium Ownership Act, Chapter 36, unless they amend their instruments to accept Chapter 36.1. Planned communities — the single-family homeowners associations — have no comprehensive statute at all; their recorded covenants govern, backed by the Nonprofit Corporation Act (R.I. Gen. Laws § 7-6-1 et seq.) and common law.¹ Rhode Island's overrides are thin. No statute limits an association's authority over solar devices, flags, or signs beyond the federal baseline, and the only association-specific enforcement caps are the condominium fine limits in § 34-36.1-3.20.² No statute sets an architectural-review response deadline or a deemed-approval rule, so the declaration sets the application timeline. Nationally, Rhode Island sits at the contractual end for planned communities — a condominium statute, but few exterior overrides — a world away from strong-override states such as California. What follows lays out the legal framework, the compliance mechanics, and the recent activity.

2. The legal framework for exterior and fence control

2A. Where exterior and fence authority comes from

The practical rulebook for fences and exterior features in Rhode Island is the recorded declaration and any architectural guidelines adopted under it. For a condominium, you read that declaration against a statute. The Rhode Island Condominium Act, R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-1.01 et seq., governs condominiums created after July 1, 1982, and the Rhode Island Supreme Court has called it the state's version of the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act — a consumer statute that regulates how condominiums are established and managed.³ It covers condominiums and nothing else. It is not the full Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, and it does not govern planned communities. Condominiums created before July 1, 1982 remain under the older Condominium Ownership Act, R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36-1 et seq., unless all unit owners and the association execute and record an agreement accepting Chapter 36.1 under § 34-36.1-1.02.¹ That same applicability provision reaches an enumerated set of Chapter 36.1 sections — the association-powers, lien, records, and enforcement provisions — back to pre-1982 condominiums for events after July 1, 1982, so don't cross-apply the two chapters wholesale.¹

Planned communities work differently. Rhode Island has no comprehensive planned-community statute, so a single-family HOA draws its authority over fences and exterior features from its recorded covenants, supplemented by the Nonprofit Corporation Act (Chapter 7-6) for corporate governance and by common-law contract and property principles.¹ For a condominium, precedence runs in order: any mandatory provision of the applicable condominium chapter, then the declaration, then recorded architectural guidelines, then duly adopted board rules. The association's power to regulate and to levy reasonable fines after notice and a hearing sits in § 34-36.1-3.02.⁴ For a planned community, the declaration and rules control, the Nonprofit Corporation Act supplies the corporate scaffolding, and the courts apply ordinary contract interpretation.

2B. State-law limits on association exterior authority

Rhode Island imposes very few statutory limits on an association's control of exterior features. Take solar. No Rhode Island statute limits an association's authority to restrict solar-energy systems. The state's only solar provision, R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-40-2, lets any property owner grant a written solar easement — a voluntary conveyancing tool between owners, not an override of association authority, and you should keep it distinct from any HOA solar right.⁵ Where no override exists, the declaration governs solar restrictions (for a condominium, the declaration read against the Condominium Act).

On flags, U.S. flag protection comes from the federal Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005 (Pub. L. No. 109-243); no Rhode Island statute independently limits an association's restrictions on flag display. On political and other noncommercial signs, no Rhode Island statute limits association restrictions, so the declaration governs sign display. On landscaping appearance, water-conserving or native plants, and artificial turf, Rhode Island offers no statutory protection, so the declaration governs those too. On antennas and satellite dishes, the federal OTARD rule (47 C.F.R. § 1.4000) applies. On fences, the safety floor is the adopted state safety code: the Rhode Island Swimming Pool and Spa Code (510-RICR-00-00-14, adopting the International Swimming Pool and Spa Code) requires a barrier for residential pools, with barrier height, gate, and clearance specifications set by that code.⁶ The state building code and local zoning — not an association-specific statute — govern general fence height and placement. Where Rhode Island has no statute on a commonly protected feature, the CC&R restriction generally controls.

2C. The architectural review process and procedural limits

No Rhode Island statute imposes an architectural-review response deadline or a deemed-approval rule. For condominiums, the Condominium Act — including the powers of the unit owners' association under § 34-36.1-3.02 — and the declaration govern the process; for planned communities, the declaration alone governs.⁴ If a declaration sets a review window, that window controls. If it stays silent, no statutory clock fills the gap.

For condominiums, enforcement runs through § 34-36.1-3.20, which lets the executive board impose fines to enforce the declaration, bylaws, and rules — but only after it provides notice and an opportunity for a hearing. Fines become a lien on the unit. Daily fines are capped at $100 per day for residential condominiums and $500 per day for commercial condominiums; non-daily fines are capped at $500 for residential and $1,000 for commercial. Any declaration or rule that tries to set its own maximum fine is invalid, and the prevailing party in a hearing recovers costs and, where a Rhode Island Bar member provides the representation, reasonable attorney fees.² These caps apply to condominiums only. For planned communities, fining authority is contractual and depends entirely on the declaration.

In both settings, associations are expected to make architectural decisions in good faith, keep them reasonable, and apply them uniformly. For condominiums, the Act's good-faith obligation reinforces that duty; for planned communities, it rests substantially on Rhode Island common-law contract and property doctrine, since no planned-community statute exists. Architectural standards generally must appear in the recorded instruments, or be duly adopted under them, to be enforceable.

3. Compliance obligations and operational mechanics

A. Association and architectural-committee obligations

Maintain the architectural standards, make them available, and review applications within any timeline the declaration sets. That duty is CONTRACTUAL for both community types; no statutory review clock exists. Apply standards reasonably and uniformly, and document each decision — a practice grounded in the Act's good-faith obligation for condominiums (STATUTORY) and in common-law contract doctrine for planned communities (CONTRACTUAL). For condominiums (Chapter 36.1, and pre-1982 condominiums to the extent § 34-36.1-1.02 extends these sections), observe the § 34-36.1-3.20 notice-and-hearing requirement and fine caps before enforcing through fines (STATUTORY),² and make financial and other records reasonably available within thirty days of a written request under § 34-36.1-3.18 (STATUTORY).⁷ For planned communities, observe the declaration and the Nonprofit Corporation Act (CONTRACTUAL and corporate). And provide notice and an opportunity to be heard before enforcing.

B. Homeowner obligations and rights

Submit an application and obtain approval before installing a fence or doing exterior work, then comply with the approved plans and published standards. That obligation is CONTRACTUAL — set by the declaration — for both condominiums and planned communities. Where an association fails to act within a declared timeline, or acts unreasonably or selectively, the homeowner's remedy generally lies in the declaration and, for condominiums, in the Act's enforcement provisions. Because Rhode Island's overrides are thin, a homeowner has little statutory basis to defeat a CC&R restriction outside the federal baselines — U.S. flag display, OTARD antennas, and fair-housing accommodations. Condominium owners do get the § 34-36.1-3.20 notice-and-hearing protection before any fine (STATUTORY; condominiums only).²

C. Enforcement, remedies, and defenses

Association remedies include injunctive relief, forced removal or restoration, and recovery of enforcement costs or attorney fees where authorized. For condominiums, fines are available subject to § 34-36.1-3.20, and an unpaid fine becomes a lien enforceable like an assessment under § 34-36.1-3.16 (STATUTORY; condominiums, including pre-1982 condominiums to the extent § 34-36.1-1.02 extends the lien and enforcement sections).⁸ For planned communities, enforcement is covenant enforcement under the declaration (CONTRACTUAL). The limits on condominium enforcement include the § 34-36.1-3.20 notice, hearing, and fine caps, plus adherence to the declaration's procedure (STATUTORY). Homeowner defenses include selective enforcement, waiver or abandonment of a covenant, the absence of the required notice and hearing for a condominium fine, and a restriction that exceeds the authority the statute or the declaration grants; these apply across community types, with the notice-and-hearing defense specific to condominium fines.

4. Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

Rhode Island's recent legislative work on condominiums has centered on recording and meeting procedures rather than on fences or exterior features directly. But both changes below reach how an association adopts and enforces its exterior rules.

B. Recent rulings

The Rhode Island Supreme Court decided one recent condominium case that bears on how boards run governance and enforcement meetings.

C. Active legislative debates

Recent sessions have brought condominium-focused proposals — among them bills touching manager conduct and older-condominium applicability — but no comprehensive planned-community statute, solar-rights override, or association sign-display bill has passed. As of mid-2026, no such override is in force.

5. National positioning and related coverage

Rhode Island sits at the contractual end of the national spectrum for planned communities. Strong-statutory-override states such as California, Colorado, and Illinois hand homeowners extensive statutory protections that limit association authority directly; California's Solar Rights Act (Cal. Civ. Code § 714), for instance, voids unreasonable solar restrictions and deems a complete solar application approved if the association does not deny it in writing within 45 days. Moderate states supply some of those protections. Rhode Island belongs to the third group for planned communities: it has a condominium statute but no planned-community statute, and it imposes few statutory limits on association exterior authority, which leaves the CC&Rs in control. Its distinctive features are the two-tier condominium framework — Chapter 36.1 for post-1982 condominiums, Chapter 36 for older ones¹ — the § 34-36.1-3.20 condominium fine caps,² and the absence of an intermediate appellate court, so appeals from the Superior Court run directly to the Rhode Island Supreme Court. National momentum has favored the spread of statutory solar and sign protections, and Rhode Island has moved little in that direction.

HOA Weekly's Rhode Island Fence and Exterior coverage updates quarterly as the General Assembly and the Rhode Island Supreme Court act. Federal frameworks also apply to Rhode Island associations regardless of the state framework, including the Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, the FCC OTARD antenna rule (47 C.F.R. § 1.4000), and the Fair Housing Act and ADA for reasonable accommodations affecting exterior features. Rhode Island has no dedicated community-association-manager license and no dedicated state HOA regulator.

1. R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-1.02 (Applicability), setting the July 1, 1982 dividing line, the voluntary-acceptance mechanism for pre-1982 condominiums, and the enumerated Chapter 36.1 sections (§§ 34-36.1-3.02, 3.16, 3.18, 3.20) that reach them; Rhode Island General Assembly, P.L. 1994, ch. 356 ↩
2. R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-3.20 (Enforcement of declaration, by-laws and rules): notice and opportunity for a hearing before a fine; fines as a lien; daily caps of $100 (residential) and $500 (commercial); non-daily caps of $500 (residential) and $1,000 (commercial); invalidity of self-set maximums; costs and attorney fees ↩
3. America Condominium Ass'n v. IDC, Inc., No. 2001-469-Appeal (R.I.) (describing the Rhode Island Condominium Act as based on the Uniform Condominium Act and as a consumer statute regulating how condominiums are established and managed) ↩
4. R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-3.02 (Powers of unit owners' association), including authority to regulate use and modification and to levy reasonable fines after notice and an opportunity to be heard as provided in § 34-36.1-3.20 ↩
5. R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-40-2 (Creation of solar easements), a voluntary written easement mechanism between property owners ↩
6. Rhode Island Swimming Pool and Spa Code, 510-RICR-00-00-14 (adopting the International Swimming Pool and Spa Code), state safety-barrier requirements for residential pools, Rhode Island Department of State ↩
7. R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-3.18 (Association records), requiring financial and other records to be made reasonably available within thirty days of a written request; § 34-36.1-1.02 extends this section to pre-1982 condominiums for events after July 1, 1982 ↩
8. R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-3.16 (Lien for assessments), providing that the association has a lien for assessments and fines and that fines and related charges are enforceable as assessments unless the declaration provides otherwise ↩
9. 2024 H 7867 Sub A, An Act Relating to Property — Condominium Law, amending § 34-36.1-3.06 to require recording of condominium bylaws and rules in municipal land evidence records with certification by at least two executive-board members (signed June 17, 2024), Rhode Island General Assembly ↩
10. R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-3.08 (Meetings), as amended by P.L. 2025, ch. 123 and ch. 136 (effective June 24, 2025), permitting electronic board and unit-owner meetings with simultaneous communication and requiring in-person meetings in the county where the condominium is located ↩
11. Song v. Lemoine, No. 2024-34-Appeal (R.I. May 19, 2025), on the limits of board discretion over special-meeting notices and agendas under § 34-36.1-3.08 ↩