Free Rhode Island Landlord Forms
Every Rhode Island landlord form we publish, organised by the stage of the tenancy it belongs to, each one paired with the Rhode Island General Laws section and the deadline that triggers it — plus the registry requirement that can stop a nonpayment eviction before a single notice is served.
Every form linked on this page is free, fillable in your browser, and downloadable as a PDF with no account, no membership and no paywall. Rhode Island landlord forms are governed by chapter 34-18 of the General Laws, and it is a chapter with two habits worth knowing before you draft anything: it measures nearly every deadline from the date of mailing rather than from receipt, and it uses two-number notices where most people quote one.
The short version
- Nonpayment has two conditions, not one. Rent must be fifteen days in arrears before a notice may issue at all; the notice then gives five days from the date of mailing; and suit may be filed no earlier than the sixth day after mailing (§ 34-18-35).
- Any other breach — cure within twenty days of mailing, with termination on a date not less than twenty-one days after mailing (§ 34-18-36).
- There is no add-days-for-mailing rule. Rhode Island periods run from the mailing, so posting the notice starts the clock.
- Month-to-month termination — thirty days, the same for landlord and tenant. Week-to-week is ten days; year-to-year is three months.
- Rent increases are separate — sixty days, and one hundred twenty days for a month-to-month tenant over sixty-two.
- Security deposit — capped at one month’s rent, returned in twenty days, and the section cannot be waived by the lease.
- You must be on the statewide rental registry to commence a nonpayment eviction at all.
Before Any Notice: the Statewide Rental Registry
Most pages about Rhode Island landlord forms begin with the five-day notice. That is the wrong place to start, because a separate requirement sits upstream of it and can end the case on its own.
Under § 34-18-58(g) a landlord cannot commence a nonpayment eviction unless they are in compliance with the statewide rental registry at the time of commencement, and the court requires evidence of that compliance at filing. The Judiciary publishes an Affidavit of Compliance With the Statewide Mandatory Rental Registry for exactly this purpose. A landlord who serves a perfect notice, waits out every day of the arrears period and then files without being registered has not won a delay — they have a filing the court will not take forward.
If you take one action after reading this page, check your registry status before you check anything else. It is the Rhode Island equivalent of a threshold condition, and it is invisible in almost every form pack competing for this search.
Nonpayment: Fifteen Days, Then Five
Section 34-18-35 does something unusual: it sets a precondition before the notice period even begins.
| Stage | Requirement | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Arrears threshold | Rent must be fifteen days in arrears before a demand notice may be mailed at all | § 34-18-35(a) |
| The notice | Gives the tenant five days from the date of mailing to pay | § 34-18-35(b) |
| Filing | Suit may be filed no earlier than the sixth day after mailing | § 34-18-35(b) |
So the practical minimum from a missed rent day to a filed case is twenty days, not five. There is no separate week-to-week variant — § 34-18-35 draws no distinction.
The fifteen days is NOT a grace period, and this is the most widely repeated error about Rhode Island law. A number of commercial landlord sites describe § 34-18-35 as giving tenants a fifteen-day grace period before a late fee may be charged. The section says no such thing. Its fifteen days is the arrears threshold that must be reached before the landlord may mail a demand notice. It is not a grace period, it does not bar a late fee, and chapter 34-18 is silent on both grace periods and late-fee caps. You will also see it claimed that a Rhode Island late fee is capped at four or five per cent — there is no statutory basis for that figure anywhere in Rhode Island law.
Every Rhode Island Landlord Form, by Stage of the Tenancy
Alphabetical form lists are the least useful arrangement, because a landlord arrives knowing what has happened, not what the document is called. The index below is ordered by where you are in the tenancy.
Starting the tenancy
- Rhode Island residential lease agreement — the master document. Note two limits on what it can do: § 34-18-19 says no rental agreement may contain a waiver of the security deposit provisions, and since January 2025 every fee beyond rent must be set out in the lease in the same section as the rent.
- Lead-based paint form — required by federal law, not Rhode Island law, for any dwelling built before 1978.
- Move-in / move-out condition checklist — the most valuable optional form here, because § 34-18-19 confines deductions to four categories and you will have to justify each one.
During the tenancy
- Notice to enter the property — § 34-18-26(c), at least two days, entry only at reasonable times.
- Rent increase notice — § 34-18-16.1 requires sixty days, and one hundred twenty days where the tenant is a month-to-month tenant over sixty-two. This is a separate obligation from termination and was amended in June 2024.
- Late rent notice — useful as a record, but it starts no statutory clock and cannot substitute for the § 34-18-35 demand once the arrears threshold is met.
- Sublease Agreement
When the tenant breaches
- Five-day notice to pay rent or quit — § 34-18-35. Remember the fifteen-day arrears precondition before you mail it, and that the five days run from the mailing.
- Notice to cure or quit — § 34-18-36, and it carries two numbers: twenty days to cure from mailing, terminating on a date not less than twenty-one days after mailing.
- Unconditional quit notice — for the § 34-18-36 grounds that carry no right to cure, described below.
Ending the tenancy without fault
- Notice of non-renewal — used when a fixed term is ending and you do not intend to renew.
- Tenant notice to vacate — the tenant’s side of § 34-18-37, and Rhode Island is even-handed here: thirty days for month-to-month applies to both parties.
After the tenant moves out
- Security deposit itemisation — § 34-18-19(b), itemised in a written notice delivered to the tenant with the balance, inside twenty days.
- Security deposit return letter — the covering document that goes with the refund.
The Twenty / Twenty-One Cure Notice
Section 34-18-36 uses a two-number structure that is routinely reported as a single “twenty-day notice”. It is not. The tenant may cure the breach within twenty days of mailing; the rental agreement terminates on a date specified in the notice that is not less than twenty-one days after mailing; and suit may be filed no earlier than the day after that termination date.
Two consequences follow. A notice that terminates on day twenty understates the tenant’s statutory position. And a landlord who files on day twenty-one has filed a day early. Where a non-rent eviction proceeds, the tenant’s answer period is twenty days from service.
Grounds that carry no right to cure
Section 34-18-36 removes the cure right entirely for a defined set of serious grounds, and for these an eviction may be filed with no prior notice at all:
- Narcotics nuisance under § 34-18-24(8).
- Manufacture, sale or delivery — or possession with intent — of a Schedule I or II controlled substance, under § 34-18-24(9).
- A crime of violence on the premises or on adjacent public property, under § 34-18-24(10).
- Seasonal-tenant misconduct of the kind the section identifies.
A repeat breach is treated differently, and the difference matters. Where the tenant commits substantially the same breach again within six months, the right to cure is gone — but the landlord must still give at least twenty days’ written notice. It is not one of the no-notice grounds. Conflating the two is the commonest way a Rhode Island repeat-breach case is filed prematurely.
Our Rhode Island eviction notice laws guide sets out the notice sequences and the court timetable.
Serving Notices: From the Mailing, Not to It
Section 34-18-14(b) provides that notice is given by taking steps reasonably calculated to inform, and is received when it comes to the person’s attention or is delivered in hand or sent by first class mail to the address held out or the last known residence. The statutory forms in § 34-18-56 direct regular first class mail, postage prepaid, and include a landlord certification of mailing.
Rhode Island has no add-days-for-mailing rule — because it does not need one. The periods are written to run from the date of mailing in the first place: five days from the date of mailing under § 34-18-35, twenty days of mailing and twenty-one days after the mailing under § 34-18-36. Do not import another state’s practice of adding three days for postal delivery; it will simply make your notice longer than it needs to be, and if you also move your filing date you may waste a week. Equally, do not assume the clock starts on receipt — it does not.
Service of the eviction summons is a different matter, governed by § 34-18-10(a): a sheriff or constable serves it by hand, by leaving it at the dwelling with a person of suitable age and discretion residing there, or by conspicuous posting on the door, with the plaintiff mailing a copy first class the same day and filing proof of service. Service must be at least five days before the hearing, and the hearing is set fourteen to twenty-four days after filing.
Security Deposits: One Month, Twenty Days, and No Waiver
The cap under § 34-18-19(a) is one month’s periodic rent.
Rhode Island has no pet-deposit provision at all. There is exactly one permitted add-on, and it is not what landlords expect: a furniture security deposit of up to one further month’s rent, available only where the replacement value of the furniture is five thousand dollars or more at the time the lease is executed (§ 34-18-19(e)). If you are letting a furnished property that clears that threshold, that is a real entitlement most landlords never use. If you are charging a pet deposit on top of one month’s rent, the statute does not provide for it.
The return deadline is twenty days, and the trigger has three parts: the twenty days run from the later of termination of the tenancy, delivery of possession, or the tenant providing a forwarding address for receiving the deposit. A tenant who moves out without leaving an address has not started your clock.
Within that window any deduction must be itemised by the landlord in a written notice delivered to the tenant, delivered together with whatever balance is due. Permitted deductions are confined to four categories: unpaid accrued rent, reasonable cleaning, reasonable trash disposal, and physical damage beyond ordinary wear and tear.
The penalty is the amount due plus damages equal to twice the amount wrongfully withheld, plus reasonable attorney fees. And the section is non-waivable — no rental agreement may contain a waiver of its provisions, so a clause purporting to shorten the twenty days or widen the deductions is void. Rhode Island requires no interest on deposits; the section is silent. See our Rhode Island security deposit laws guide.
Entry, Termination Periods and Rent Increases
Entry
Section 34-18-26(c) requires at least two days’ notice of an intent to enter, with entry only at reasonable times. The statute defines no clock hours, imposes no writing requirement and prescribes no contents for the notice beyond the intent to enter — so anyone quoting specific permitted hours for Rhode Island is not quoting the statute.
The exceptions are worth knowing: an emergency, impracticability, a tenant absence exceeding seven days where entry is reasonably necessary to protect the property, a court order, and abandonment or surrender. Our Rhode Island landlord entry laws guide covers each.
Ending a periodic tenancy
| Tenancy | Notice | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Week-to-week | 10 days, either party | § 34-18-37(a) |
| Month-to-month | 30 days, written, the same for landlord and tenant | § 34-18-37(b) |
| Year-to-year | 3 months before the occupation year expires | § 34-18-37(c) |
Rent increases are a separate track
A rent increase is not a termination, and Rhode Island gives it its own section and its own periods. Section 34-18-16.1 requires sixty days’ notice — extended to one hundred twenty days where the tenant is a month-to-month tenant over the age of sixty-two. That over-62 doubling is unusual and easy to miss when a portfolio contains long-standing older tenants. The section was amended in June 2024, so pre-2024 guidance may state something different. See our Rhode Island rent increase laws guide.
What Changed in 2024 and 2025
Rhode Island has legislated actively in this area recently, and while the core notice periods and the deposit rule are unchanged, several new obligations now sit around them.
| Change | Section | In force |
|---|---|---|
| No rental application fees | § 34-18-59 | 1 January 2024 |
| Sealing of eviction records | § 34-18-60 | 1 January 2024 |
| Rent-increase notice periods amended (60 / 120 days) | § 34-18-16.1 | 24 June 2024 |
| Post-death rental grace period for a live-in caregiver or resident, up to three months | § 34-18-38(d) | 28 June 2024 |
| Convenience fees prohibited | § 34-18-61 | 1 January 2025 |
| All fees beyond rent must be stated in the lease, in the same section as the rent; changes need 30 days’ notice | § 34-18-15 | 1 January 2025 |
| Immigration-status inquiries prohibited | § 34-18-62 | 2 July 2025 |
The fee rules deserve particular attention because they change what a lease must look like. Every fee beyond rent has to appear in the same section as the rent, not scattered through the agreement; where there is no written lease, a written fee list is required; a change needs thirty days’ written notice; and the remedy for getting it wrong is that the tenant recovers the undisclosed fees they paid.
Which Rhode Island Form Do I Need?
- Before anything — confirm you are compliant with the statewide rental registry. Without it you cannot commence a nonpayment eviction.
- The tenant has not paid rent. Wait until the rent is fifteen days in arrears, then mail the five-day demand. File no earlier than the sixth day after mailing.
- The tenant has breached the agreement in some other way. Mail the § 34-18-36 notice: twenty days to cure, terminating not less than twenty-one days after mailing.
- The same breach has recurred within six months. No cure right — but still at least twenty days’ written notice.
- There is drug activity or a crime of violence on the premises. No cure right and no prior notice required; proceed to file.
- Nobody is at fault and the tenancy should end. Thirty days for month-to-month, ten for week-to-week, three months for year-to-year.
- You are raising the rent. Sixty days — or one hundred twenty if the tenant is month-to-month and over sixty-two.
- You need to get into the property. Two days, at a reasonable time.
- The tenant has moved out. Twenty days from the latest of termination, delivery of possession and the forwarding address, with a written itemisation.
How to Fill Out a Rhode Island Five-Day Demand
- Check the registry first. Everything below is wasted if you cannot file.
- Confirm the rent is fifteen days in arrears. Mailing on day ten is premature, and the defect is at the front of the case where it is fatal.
- Use the statutory form. Section 34-18-56(a) prescribes a demand notice for nonpayment; using it removes any argument about contents.
- Name every tenant and identify the premises exactly as the agreement does.
- State the rent owed as a figure and the period it covers.
- Count five days from the date you mail it — not from receipt, and without adding days for postal delivery.
- Mail it first class and complete the certification of mailing that the statutory form contemplates.
- Diarise the sixth day after mailing. That is your earliest filing date.
What Happens If the Form Is Wrong
Rhode Island puts more of its risk at the front of a case than most states, which changes what a landlord should worry about. Filing before the fifteen-day arrears threshold, filing before the sixth day after mailing, terminating a cure notice on day twenty instead of twenty-one, or filing while not registered — each of these goes to whether you can bring the action at all, and none is a drafting nicety.
A defect that lengthens a period, or gives the tenant more information than the statute requires, generally works in the tenant’s favour and creates no problem for the landlord. So if you are unsure whether the arrears threshold is met, waiting an extra week costs you a week; guessing wrong costs you the filing.
The specifically Rhode Island trap is the mailing date. Because the statute measures from mailing, a landlord who prepares a notice on Monday, posts it Thursday, and counts from Monday has given a shorter period than they think. Date the notice and mail it the same day.
What This Page Does Not Have
We would rather scope this honestly than promise documents we do not host. Rhode Island landlords also commonly want a rental application, a sublease or assignment agreement, a rent receipt, and an abandoned-property notice. Those are not yet published as Rhode Island-specific forms.
Two further scoping notes. The statutory forms in § 34-18-56 and the Judiciary’s registry affidavit are the state’s documents, not ours, and you should take the current versions from the source. And we have deliberately not published Rhode Island court form numbers beyond the tenant’s Answer, or a filing fee for an eviction: the District Court publishes an eighty-dollar civil entry fee but no eviction-specific line, and the complaint form numbers we found were search snippets we could not confirm against the official documents. Ask the District Court clerk.
Common Rhode Island Landlord Form Mistakes
- Mailing the demand before the rent is fifteen days in arrears. The threshold is a precondition, not a suggestion.
- Treating those fifteen days as a grace period or a late-fee bar. They are neither, and chapter 34-18 is silent on both.
- Publishing or relying on a four or five per cent late-fee cap. No such rule exists in Rhode Island.
- Filing on the fifth day after mailing. The earliest is the sixth.
- Collapsing the cure notice to twenty days. Termination is not less than twenty-one days after mailing.
- Treating a repeat breach as a no-notice ground. It removes the cure right, not the twenty days’ notice.
- Adding three days for mailing. Rhode Island counts from the mailing itself.
- Charging a pet deposit on top of one month’s rent. The only statutory add-on is a furniture deposit, and only above the five-thousand-dollar threshold.
- Starting the deposit clock at move-out. It needs the forwarding address too.
- Writing a deposit waiver into the lease. Section 34-18-19 cannot be waived.
- Giving sixty days’ rent-increase notice to a month-to-month tenant over sixty-two. They are entitled to one hundred twenty.
- Filing a nonpayment eviction without registry compliance.
Free Fillable Forms Versus the Paid Rhode Island Form Sites
The Rhode Island results are dominated by subscription form packages, with the deepest ranking page a paid landlord-tenant forms product, and the usual membership-walled association directory listing about a dozen Rhode Island form titles with no Rhode Island law attached.
What none of them does is separate the myths from the statute. The fifteen-day figure in particular is repeated as a grace period across a large part of this search result, and a landlord who believes it will both misunderstand their late-fee position and mis-time their demand. Every figure on this page was read from the General Laws themselves on the state’s own statute server.
Every form linked from this page is free, fills in the browser, and downloads as a finished PDF. There is no account, no trial, and no upsell attached to the documents themselves. What we ask in return is straightforward: if you are about to hand keys to someone, run the screening first, because nearly every dispute described on this page is cheaper to prevent than to litigate.
Rhode Island Landlord Forms: FAQ
How many days is a Rhode Island notice to pay rent or quit?
Five days from the date of mailing — but the notice may only be mailed once the rent is fifteen days in arrears, and suit may be filed no earlier than the sixth day after mailing (§ 34-18-35).
Does Rhode Island have a fifteen-day grace period?
No. The fifteen days in § 34-18-35 is the arrears threshold that must be reached before a landlord may mail a demand notice. It is not a grace period, it does not bar a late fee, and chapter 34-18 contains no grace period and no late-fee cap at all. The commonly published four or five per cent Rhode Island late-fee cap has no statutory basis.
What is the Rhode Island notice period for a lease violation?
A two-number notice under § 34-18-36: the tenant may cure within twenty days of mailing, and the agreement terminates on a date not less than twenty-one days after mailing. Suit may be filed no earlier than the day after that termination date.
Can a Rhode Island landlord evict without notice?
For a defined set of serious grounds, yes — narcotics nuisance, manufacture or sale of a Schedule I or II controlled substance, and a crime of violence on the premises or adjacent public property, under § 34-18-36 read with § 34-18-24(8) to (10). A repeat of the same breach within six months is different: it removes the right to cure but still requires at least twenty days’ written notice.
Must a Rhode Island landlord be on the rental registry to evict?
Yes, for nonpayment. Under § 34-18-58(g) a landlord cannot commence a nonpayment eviction unless in compliance with the statewide rental registry at the time of commencement, and the court requires evidence of compliance at filing.
Does Rhode Island add days for mailing a notice?
No, and it does not need to — the periods are written to run from the date of mailing. Section 34-18-35 gives five days from the date of mailing and § 34-18-36 measures twenty and twenty-one days from the mailing. Do not add postal days, and do not count from receipt.
How much notice ends a month-to-month tenancy in Rhode Island?
Thirty days in writing, and the same period applies to the landlord and the tenant, under § 34-18-37(b). A week-to-week tenancy takes ten days; a year-to-year tenancy takes three months before the occupation year expires.
How much notice is required for a rent increase in Rhode Island?
Sixty days under § 34-18-16.1 — and one hundred twenty days where the tenant is a month-to-month tenant over the age of sixty-two. The section was amended in June 2024, so older guidance may state different periods.
What is the Rhode Island security deposit cap?
One month’s periodic rent under § 34-18-19(a). There is no pet-deposit provision; the only permitted add-on is a furniture security deposit of up to one further month’s rent, available only where the furniture’s replacement value is five thousand dollars or more when the lease is executed.
How long does a Rhode Island landlord have to return a deposit?
Twenty days, running from the later of termination of the tenancy, delivery of possession, or the tenant providing a forwarding address. Deductions must be itemised in a written notice delivered with the balance, and are confined to unpaid accrued rent, reasonable cleaning, reasonable trash disposal and physical damage beyond ordinary wear and tear.
What is the penalty for withholding a Rhode Island deposit?
The amount due plus twice the amount wrongfully withheld, plus reasonable attorney fees, under § 34-18-19(c). The section is also non-waivable — no rental agreement may contain a waiver of its provisions.
How much notice must a Rhode Island landlord give before entering?
At least two days under § 34-18-26(c), with entry only at reasonable times. The statute sets no clock hours and prescribes no contents for the notice. Exceptions include emergency, impracticability, a tenant absence exceeding seven days where entry is reasonably necessary to protect the property, a court order, and abandonment.
Related Rhode Island Guides
- Rhode Island landlord-tenant laws — the full statutory overview.
- Rhode Island eviction notice laws — the arrears rule and the two-number cure.
- Rhode Island security deposit laws — twenty days and the non-waiver rule.
- Rhode Island lease termination laws — the periodic tenancy periods.
- Rhode Island breaking lease laws — early termination and mitigation.
- Rhode Island rent increase laws — the sixty and one hundred twenty day periods.
- Rhode Island late fee laws — why the fifteen-day myth is wrong.
- Rhode Island landlord entry laws — the two-day rule and its exceptions.
- Rhode Island habitability laws — the landlord’s repairing duties.
- Rhode Island pet and ESA laws — pet policies and assistance animals.
- Rhode Island tenant screening laws — background checks and adverse action.
Published by Tenant Screening Background Check · Editorial Team
Established 2004. Our editorial team has spent two decades helping landlords and property managers run lawful tenant screening and follow state landlord-tenant codes across all fifty states. For this page we read chapter 34-18 section by section on the Rhode Island General Assembly’s own statute server, and checked each history note against today’s date — which is how we can say that the core notice periods are unchanged while the fee and application rules around them are new, and why we do not repeat the fifteen-day grace period that much of this search result publishes.
Screen Rhode Island Applicants Before They Sign
Most Rhode Island landlord-tenant disputes trace back to a tenant a thorough screening would have flagged. Order FCRA-ready credit, criminal and eviction reports and start every tenancy on solid ground.
Last reviewed 2026. This page is general information about Rhode Island landlord-tenant law, not legal advice. Several obligations around fees, application charges and eviction records changed between January 2024 and July 2025. We have deliberately omitted eviction complaint form numbers and a filing fee we could not confirm from a primary source. Confirm the current requirements with the District Court clerk or with a Rhode Island attorney before you serve a notice or file a case.
