Rhode Island HOA Short-Term Rentals

Quick-Reference Table

Last verified: July 17, 2026

Section 1: Overview — Can an HOA restrict short-term rentals in Rhode Island?

Yes. A Rhode Island condominium restricts short-term rentals through its recorded declaration under the Rhode Island Condominium Act, and a planned community (a non-condominium homeowners association) restricts them through its recorded covenants.¹ For condominiums created on or after July 1, 1982, the governing statute is the Rhode Island Condominium Act, R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-1.01 et seq.; condominiums created before that date remain under the older Rhode Island Condominium Ownership Act, § 34-36, except where Chapter 36.1 expressly reaches back.⁴ Planned communities have no comprehensive Rhode Island statute; they are governed by their recorded covenants, the Rhode Island Nonprofit Corporation Act (§ 7-6) for corporate formalities, and common law.⁵

Rhode Island adopted the 1982 Uniform Condominium Act, which covers condominiums only, not the broader Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act; the state therefore has statutory coverage across the subject for condominiums but is covenant-driven for planned communities.¹⁴ Separately, Rhode Island operates a statewide short-term-rental registration framework administered by the Department of Business Regulation, and the tourism markets regulate locally, most visibly Newport and Block Island (the Town of New Shoreham).^{2 8} Rhode Island has no intermediate appellate court: a contested enforcement action is heard in the Superior Court, and any appeal goes directly to the Rhode Island Supreme Court.¹³ The sections below detail the statutory framework, the amendment and grandfathering analysis, the state and local overlay, and the operational mechanics.

Section 2: The legal framework for HOA short-term rental restrictions

2A. The Condominium Act and the CC&R-primary planned-community framework

The Rhode Island Condominium Act, R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-1.01 et seq., enacted in 1982 and based on the 1982 Uniform Condominium Act, applies to all condominiums created in the state after July 1, 1982.¹⁵ Condominiums created before July 1, 1982 remain governed by the Rhode Island Condominium Ownership Act, § 34-36, although a defined set of Chapter 36.1 sections (including § 34-36.1-3.20 on enforcement and § 34-36.1-3.02(a)(1)–(6) and (11)–(17) on association powers) applies to pre-1982 condominiums for events occurring after July 1, 1982, and a pre-1982 condominium may voluntarily accept Chapter 36.1.⁴ Rhode Island did not adopt the full Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, so planned communities have no comparable statute; they are governed by recorded covenants, the Nonprofit Corporation Act, and common law.⁵

For both community types, the source of rental authority is the recorded governing instrument. In a condominium, the declaration may state use restrictions (§ 34-36.1-2.05), and the association's executive board may adopt rules and enforce the declaration and bylaws (§ 34-36.1-3.02).¹ In a planned community, the covenants are the primary instrument, with the Nonprofit Corporation Act supplying corporate scaffolding. The Condominium Act does not itself impose a rental restriction; it supplies the framework within which a declaration operates. A practical distinction matters: authority over long-term leasing (for example, a minimum six-month lease or a cap on the number of leased units) and authority over short-term or transient rentals (nightly and weekly stays) both flow from the same documents, but a well-drafted restriction states the minimum tenancy and any transient-use prohibition expressly so that enforcement does not turn on ambiguity.¹⁶

2B. Restricting rentals, amendments, and grandfathering

An association adds or strengthens a rental restriction by amending its governing documents. For a condominium, § 34-36.1-2.17(a) requires the vote or agreement of unit owners holding at least 67% of the allocated votes, or any larger majority the declaration specifies.⁶ A critical Rhode Island wrinkle appears in § 34-36.1-2.17(d): no amendment may change "the uses to which any unit is restricted" without the unanimous consent of the unit owners. A rental restriction that changes permitted use can therefore require unanimity rather than the 67% baseline, and this is the central risk point for a Rhode Island condominium board seeking to curtail short-term rentals by amendment.⁶ For a planned community, the amendment threshold is whatever the covenants specify; there is no statutory percentage.

Because the Condominium Act is based on the 1982 Uniform Condominium Act rather than the 2008 UCIOA amendments, it does not contain the 2008 rental-restriction owner-protection provision found in some later-adopting states.¹⁵ Grandfathering of an owner who bought before an amendment therefore runs through the declaration, the Condominium Act (including the unanimous-consent limit in § 34-36.1-2.17(d) and the one-year window in § 34-36.1-2.17(b) to challenge an amendment), and Rhode Island common law, which treats a declaration as a contract among owners.⁶ Rhode Island does not provide a Florida-style or California-style statutory grandfathering shield, and no Rhode Island statute limits an association's authority to restrict rentals the way California Civil Code § 4741 or Arizona's A.R.S. § 33-1806.01 limit associations elsewhere. The conservative course is to treat existing short-term-rental operators as potentially protected where an amendment alters permitted use, and to resolve the question against the documents and the statute rather than assume a shield exists.

2C. State law, the statewide registration, tax, and the local layer

Rhode Island requires any short-term rental listed on a third-party hosting platform to register with the Department of Business Regulation under R.I. Gen. Laws § 42-63.1-14, which defines a short-term rental as transient lodging not exceeding 30 nights at a time.² The state-and-local relationship is specific rather than a blanket preemption: § 42-63.1-14(a) provides that a city or town shall not prohibit an owner from offering a unit for transient use through a hosting platform that collects and remits the applicable sales and hotel taxes, but the DBR itself states that state registration is independent of municipal requirements and that municipalities may still require registration and impose requirements as permitted by law.^{2 3} Superior Court decisions have split on where the line falls: on October 2, 2024, Superior Court Justice Sarah Taft-Carter granted a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against Narragansett's ordinance (which capped permits and imposed a seven-night minimum), finding the challengers likely to succeed because short-term-rental regulation "is a matter of statewide concern," while separate decisions upheld Exeter's special-use-permit requirement (finding it regulated land use, not advertising) and Newport's local registration and enforcement.¹⁷

Local regulation is significant in the tourism markets. Newport requires Transient Guest Facility registration and permits short-term rentals only in certain zoning districts.⁷ The Town of New Shoreham (Block Island) adopted a short-term-rental ordinance on July 24, 2024 (Chapter 8, Article XII, §§ 8-320–331) requiring annual registration and a local representative physically present in New Shoreham who must respond to town officials within two hours, with violations subject to a fine of not more than $200 per day.⁸ Narragansett, South Kingstown, Westerly, and other southern-coast towns regulate through zoning, permits, or registration.¹⁷

Short-term lodging is taxed through the 7% state sales tax plus hotel taxes, generally for stays of 30 days or fewer.⁹ Effective January 1, 2026, the local hotel tax rose from 1% to 2%, and a new 5% whole-home short-term-rental tax applies to an entire residential dwelling rented in its entirety, distinct from the 5% state hotel tax on room rentals; no single stay is subject to both 5% taxes, and the applicable rate is set by the date of occupancy rather than the date of booking.¹⁰ The combined lodging tax on short-term stays beginning in 2026 is 14% (whole-home: 7% sales tax, 5% whole-home tax, 2% local; room-only: 7% sales tax, 5% state hotel tax, 2% local).¹⁸ The critical point for association compliance is that state registration and local regulation govern the owner-to-government relationship; they neither grant nor remove association authority. An owner who registers with the DBR, satisfies a Newport or Block Island permit, and pays the hotel tax may still violate the declaration or covenants, and an owner who satisfies the governing documents may still be liable to the state and the town.

Section 3: Operational mechanics and enforcement

3A. Adopting a valid restriction (the tools)

The most common and most defensible mechanism is a minimum-lease-term restriction stated in the declaration or covenants (for example, no tenancy shorter than 30 days or six months), because it defines the prohibited conduct without reference to any outside regulator. A Rhode Island condominium board should confirm whether adding or tightening such a restriction changes the uses to which a unit is restricted, which triggers the unanimous-consent requirement of § 34-36.1-2.17(d), rather than the 67% amendment baseline of § 34-36.1-2.17(a).⁶ Rental caps (a ceiling on the number or percentage of units that may be leased) are governed by the declaration for condominiums and by the covenants for planned communities; the Condominium Act does not set a statutory cap. An association may also impose internal registration, owner-information, and lease-filing requirements through its rules under § 34-36.1-3.02, and these are separate from and additional to the DBR's statewide registration; satisfying one does not satisfy the other.^{1 3}

3B. Enforcement and the appellate path

For condominiums, § 34-36.1-3.20 requires notice and an opportunity for a hearing before the executive board imposes a fine, and it makes all fines a lien on the unit; daily fines are capped at $100 per day for residential condominiums, and a declaration provision purporting to set its own maximum fine is invalid.¹¹ Available remedies include fines where authorized, injunctive relief to stop a continuing violation, and the association's assessment lien, which may be foreclosed under § 34-36.1-3.21.¹² For planned communities, remedies and any notice-and-hearing procedure derive from the covenants, the bylaws, and the Nonprofit Corporation Act rather than the Condominium Act. A contested enforcement action is filed in the Rhode Island Superior Court (smaller civil matters may originate in the District Court), and because Rhode Island has no intermediate appellate court, any appeal proceeds directly to the Rhode Island Supreme Court.¹³ Association enforcement is separate from state and local-government enforcement: the DBR can fine an unregistered operator and a town can pursue a zoning or registration violation, but only the association can enforce the declaration or covenants, and each track proceeds independently.²

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

Two further Condominium Act amendments took effect in June 2025 addressing special meetings, electronic meetings, and property-insurance deductibles; neither addresses rentals.²¹

B. Recent rulings

No Rhode Island Supreme Court decision in the past 36 months addresses short-term-rental restrictions specifically. The leading Rhode Island decision on enforcing a declaration leasing restriction remains Town Houses at Bonnet Shores Condominium Association v. Langlois, 45 A.3d 577 (R.I. 2012), which enforced a declaration clause limiting a unit to no more than two leases per calendar year according to its plain terms; it predates the reporting window but remains the controlling illustration.²³

C. Active legislative or local debates

Short-term-rental regulation remains contested at the municipal level: the 2024 Superior Court injunction paused Narragansett's ordinance while litigation over state preemption proceeds, and Newport continues aggressive local enforcement, so association boards in the coastal markets should monitor both the litigation and any further General Assembly action on § 42-63.1-14.¹⁷

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Rhode Island sits in a distinct position among the states. It adopted the Uniform Condominium Act for condominiums but is covenant-driven for planned communities, having declined the full UCIOA; it runs a statewide short-term-rental registration framework through the Department of Business Regulation; and it has no intermediate appellate court. That profile differs from states that preempt local short-term-rental bans (such as Florida and Arizona) and from states that limit HOA rental authority through a single statutory provision (such as California and Arizona). The state registration, the local ordinances in Newport and Block Island, and the hotel tax restrain state and local governments and owners, not associations, whose authority continues to flow from the declaration or covenants. For a multi-state operator entering Rhode Island, the practical implication is a market with statutory coverage across the subject for condominiums, covenant-driven planned communities, a statewide registry, and a small but tourism-heavy footprint concentrated in the coastal towns.

HOA Weekly's Rhode Island Short-Term Rentals coverage updates quarterly as the General Assembly, the Rhode Island Supreme Court, the Department of Business Regulation, and local governments act. Federal frameworks, including the FHA, the ADA, the FDCPA, the SCRA, and OTARD, also apply to Rhode Island associations regardless of the state framework.

1. R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-3.02, Powers of unit owners' association (authority to adopt and amend bylaws, rules and regulations, and enforce the declaration) ↩
2. R.I. Gen. Laws § 42-63.1-14, Offering residential units through a hosting platform (statewide DBR registration; 30-night definition; local-authority provision in subsection (a)) ↩
3. Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation, Short-Term Rentals FAQs (state registration independent of municipal requirements; municipalities may still require registration) ↩
4. R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-1.02, Applicability (Chapter 36.1 applies to condominiums created after July 1, 1982; enumerated sections reach pre-1982 condominiums; Condominium Ownership Act, ch. 36, governs earlier condominiums) ↩
5. R.I. Gen. Laws § 7-6, Rhode Island Nonprofit Corporation Act (corporate governance for associations organized as nonprofit corporations; no comprehensive planned-community statute exists) ↩
6. R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-2.17, Amendment of declaration (67% of allocated votes under subsection (a); unanimous consent to change uses to which a unit is restricted under subsection (d); one-year challenge window under subsection (b)) ↩
7. City of Newport, Short Term Rental Regulations (Transient Guest Facility registration; zoning review) ↩
8. Town of New Shoreham, Short-Term Rentals Ordinance (adopted July 24, 2024; Ch. 8, Art. XII, §§ 8-320–331; local representative and two-hour response requirement; fine up to $200 per day) ↩
9. Rhode Island Division of Taxation, Hotel Tax (applies to first 30 consecutive days of each rental; residential dwelling units used or advertised for transient occupancy) ↩
10. Rhode Island Division of Taxation, Advisory ADV 2025-16, Taxation of Short-Term Rentals (effective Jan. 1, 2026: local hotel tax 1%→2%; new 5% whole-home STR tax distinct from 5% state hotel tax; taxes based on date of occupancy) ↩
11. 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; all fines a lien on the unit; $100/day residential cap; document-set maximum fine invalid) ↩
12. R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 34-36.1-3.16 (lien for assessments) and 34-36.1-3.21 (foreclosure of condominium lien) ↩
13. Rhode Island Judiciary, Supreme Court (appeals from the Superior Court proceed directly to the Supreme Court; Rhode Island has no intermediate appellate court) ↩
14. Song v. Lemoine, No. 2024-34-Appeal (R.I. May 19, 2025) (noting the General Assembly in 1982 adopted Rhode Island's version of the Uniform Condominium Act, applicable to condominiums created after July 1, 1982) ↩
15. R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-36.1-1.01, Short title (Rhode Island Condominium Act; P.L. 1982, ch. 329), based on the 1982 Uniform Condominium Act ↩
16. Town Houses at Bonnet Shores Condominium Association v. Langlois, No. 2011-181-Appeal (R.I. 2012) (enforcing declaration leasing terms by their plain meaning) ↩
17. Partridge Snow & Hahn, Short Term Rentals in Rhode Island: Municipality Restrictions and Subsequent Litigation (summarizing Narragansett 2100, Inc. v. Town of Narragansett, No. WC-2024-0372 (R.I. Super. Oct. 2, 2024); Hughes v. Town of Exeter, No. WC-2024-0058 (R.I. Super. Jan. 6, 2025); Newport enforcement) ↩
18. Avalara MyLodgeTax, Rhode Island lodging taxes will rise in 2026 ("Beginning January 1, 2026, both whole-home and room-only STRs will be subject to a total combined 14% lodging tax rate") ↩
19. Rhode Island Association of REALTORS, New State-Wide Short-Term Rental Registration Requirements Effective January 30, 2025 (P.L. 2024, chs. 413 and 437; registration before listing; number and expiration on listing; one-year term; platform reporting) ↩
20. Thomson Reuters, Rhode Island Enacts Budget Bill (FY 2026 budget, H5076/ch. 278, enacted without the Governor's signature June 30, 2025; local hotel tax to 2% and 5% whole-home STR tax effective Jan. 1, 2026) ↩
21. Rhode Island Association of REALTORS, New RI Condo Laws (two Condominium Act amendments effective June 2025 on special meetings, electronic meetings, and insurance deductibles) ↩
22. Song v. Lemoine, No. 2024-34-Appeal (R.I. May 19, 2025) (special-meeting rights under § 34-36.1-3.08; judgment evaluating the merits of owners' proposed motions vacated) ↩
23. Town Houses at Bonnet Shores Condominium Association v. Langlois, 45 A.3d 577 (R.I. 2012) (declaration limiting a unit to two leases per calendar year enforced by its plain terms) ↩