Rhode Island Non-resident Landlord Filing

[Lisa Tam]

I just purchased a multi family in RI and they have a law that requires me to file a non-resident landlord filing and assign a registered agent that is in state.  Does anyone have any experience with this?  I have a friend that also own a property in RI with a similar situation and pays her attorney to file and use his address as the registered agent.  I searched online and found a website strictly for registered agents for $50/year.  I'm leaning towards this route but would love feedback.

[Anthony Thompson]

@Lisa Tam the non-resident landlord filing is different than having to register an out of state entity (like an LLC or corporation) to do business in RI. They're two separate, but obviously related, requirements.

Even an individual, who is not an entity but is an out-of-state owner, needs to register with the Secretary of State (RI Department of State) as a non-resident landlord.

You should also contact the building department, zoning, or town clerk for the city/town that the property is in, to make sure that the town itself doesn't have a separate nonresident (sometimes called "absentee") landlord registration requirement - some do (e.g., Pawtucket and Providence).

If you also have an out-of-state entity (e.g., a Massachusetts LLC) you should also register your entity to do business in RI, again with the RI Department of State, and you will also need a Resident Agent in RI on record there (it's part of the registration). An attorney often does that, but it could be a company providing those services, too.

So as an out of state owner, if you own the property with an out of state entity, I think you'd have three requirements: 1) register the foreign entity with the RI Secretary of State to do business in RI; 2) register as a nonresident landlord with the RI Secretary of State; 3) (possibly) also register as a nonresident/absentee landlord in the city/town that the property is in.

Lastly, be aware that anything on these registration forms could be publicly available. For example, I've found non-resident landlord filings in land evidence / title searches, with owners' cell phone numbers on them, and I've also found the same thing in the Secretary of State's online records.

These are legal questions, of course, and I'm not an attorney, you should really ask an attorney licensed to practice law in RI, etc. Since real estate is a legal-intensive business, if you own property in RI you will probably need a legal resource here sooner or later, so this question is a great reason to form such a relationship IMO, if you don't already have one.