Two more insurance changes in the same bulletin, both loosenings

Roofs come off replacement cost. “The requirement to ensure roofs on a replacement cost basis has been retired. The master property insurance policy must now provide for coverage on a replacement cost basis, excluding roofs. (Roofs must be insured but do not have to be covered on a replacement cost basis.)” For a Rhode Island association that has been priced out of replacement-cost roof coverage, that is genuine relief on eligibility — and a genuine reduction in what the policy will actually pay after a hail or wind loss.

Inflation guard is gone. “The inflation guard requirement has been retired in its entirety.” The practical effect is to move the job of keeping insured values current from an endorsement onto the board. Nothing now automatically escalates the limit.

Why this collides with Rhode Island law in a specific way

Three Rhode Island facts have to be read together with the bulletin, and together they land the cost on the unit owner.

Rhode Island already moved the master-policy deductible onto owners. P.L. 2025, chs. 177 and 178 (H 5585 and S 0507, both enacted June 24, 2025) added § 34-36.1-3.13(k), requiring unit owners, where the association insures the units, to maintain “[i]nsurance for any amount of loss covered by the association property insurance policy but not payable under the association property insurance policy because of the application of the deductible” — and providing that “[t]here shall be no obligation on an association to apply common expenses related to a unit after a unit loss if the unit owner fails to comply with this section.”²

So Rhode Island statute says the owner carries the deductible gap, and the secondary market now says the owner must document an HO-6 wherever a per-unit deductible exists. Those two requirements point at the same policy. Our Rhode Island insurance requirements page covers what the association must carry.

Rhode Island's hurricane-deductible cap does not reach the master policy. The 5% ceiling on hurricane deductibles in 230-RICR-20-05-13 applies, by its own § 13.2, to “residential property insurance policies insuring dwelling houses”, and “this Part is not applicable to commercial insurance policies.” A condominium master policy is a commercial line. The one Rhode Island regulation capping a hurricane deductible does not constrain the policy on which the biggest hurricane deductibles sit.

And the notice rule runs the wrong way. The same 2025 act requires the association to notify owners of the deductible amount “at least thirty (30) days after notice to the association by the insurance carrier of any change in the association property insurance deductible”, with a statement asserting “the unit owner's legal obligation to notify its mortgagee of the change in any deductible.” Read literally, that is a floor on delay rather than advance warning to owners — and it is worth knowing that several accounts of the 2025 law describe it as a thirty-day advance notice requirement, which is not what the enacted words say.

A Rhode Island board's options, in order

Find out whether your master policy has a per-unit deductible at all. Many do not. If it does not, the $50,000 cap and the HO-6 trigger do not apply to your project, and this is a two-minute answer from your agent.

If it does, get the number and compare it to $50,000. Over the cap means units in the project become ineligible for conforming financing on applications from July 1, 2026. That shows up as a failed sale, not as a letter from anyone.

Check whether windstorm coverage includes named storms by name. Not whether it includes “wind”. The bulletin's requirement is specific to storms designated by name or number.

Tell owners about the HO-6 in writing, and tell them what limit. The statutory duty under § 34-36.1-3.13(k) and the lender documentation requirement now overlap. An owner without deductible-gap coverage is exposed twice: by the statute, after a loss, and at refinance.

Put insured-value review on the annual calendar. With inflation guard retired, nothing escalates the limit automatically. Section 34-36.1-3.13(a)(1) still requires the total amount of insurance after deductibles to be “not less than eighty percent (80%) of the actual cash value of the insured property at the time the insurance is purchased and at each renewal date”.

Remember the thirty-day cancellation floor you already have. Section 34-36.1-3.13(g): an insurer “may not cancel or refuse to renew it until thirty (30) days after notice of the proposed cancellation or nonrenewal has been mailed to the association, each unit owner, and each mortgagee”. That is a statutory protection independent of any regulation.

What to watch next

The 2026 Rhode Island bill that would have clarified deductible allocation further — H 7852 and S 2896 — passed the Senate 37-0 on May 19, 2026 and died in House Corporations. If it returns in January 2027 it will be landing into a market where the per-unit deductible question has already been answered by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, which changes what the legislation would be for.