New RI Rental Registry & Lead Paint Cert. Requirements - registration due 10/1/24

[Anthony Thompson]

Hi folks, this has been all over the news and social media so I hope it's not a surprise to anyone but I just wanted to cover all the bases.

Due to legislation spearheaded by the RI attorney general earlier this year, there is a new RI rental registry in place that requires all rental unit owners (even short term rentals) to register every rental property and rental unit in the state of RI, by October 1, 2024.

The website is www.rentalregistry.ri.gov and you will also need to upload a current lead certificate ("Certificate of Lead Conformance") for each rental unit.

The demand is so high that lead inspectors are currently booked out into November and December, so I hope you already have lead paint certs for all your units. If not, well you know the old saying, "the best time to get a lead paint certificate for your units was last year; the second best time is now".

I've been told that the RI DOH may not start hitting people with fines for failure to register on October 1 as the law allows them to, due to the insufficient # of inspectors in the state to meet the demand.

However, I've also been told that the other part of the law, the one that makes it so you cannot file for an eviction in RI without a current lead paint certificate, is expected to take effect sharply on October 1st.

For anyone who hasn't submitted their properties/units to the new registry, I have a 15-page guide (with screenshots) that walks you through it. I'll try to post it here but it's 2MB so might not work. Happy to send it directly if someone wants to DM me.

The guide is unattributed and has no promotional content other than on the last page there is a brief mention of the RI Coalition of Housing Providers (a landlord advocacy group which tried to work with the legislature to mitigate the challenge of this new law) and RI Real Estate Investors Group (a networking and education group that has educated RI landlords on new laws like this since 2003).

Hopefully everyone reading this is already aware of this new law and has already submitted their info to the new registry!