Notice to Vacate in Rhode Island

[Jeremy Trier]

Hi BP fam,

I purchased a triplex in Pawtucket that I intend to live in.  There are month-to-month tenants in the owners unit, I read that I had to give them 30 days notice, which I did (I gave them 42 days) so we could move in December 1st.  Today they handed me a piece of paper that they claim they got from a lawyer saying if a property comes under new ownership and the new owners are going to use the property as their residence they must give 90 days notice.

I'm talking to my lawyer tomorrow and I'm not asking legal advice but I wanted to know if anyone has ever heard of that or has read about that in Rhode Island legislature.  If this has happened to any of you, what was the outcome.

The tenant has refused to pay rent for this month and next month.  They claim they will move out December 15th and that they'll have to pay me back.  This is just a little background info.  I am mostly concerned with the 90 days notice.

Thank you all in advance.

[Anthony Thompson]

@Jeremy Trier you could also try Googling specific phrases that are present on the paper. If the paper purports to quote a law or ordinance, you should be able to find it relatively easily online - if it's legit. Be sure to put the phrases in quotes to try to limit the results to things with those exact phrases.

Also, if they are month to month to begin with, I think it's extremely unlikely that there would be something requiring landlords to give 90 days notice. The whole benefit of month to month is that either party can give 30 days notice to end the rental relationship. I would be extremely surprised if there were something which overrode that.

I do remember that in the wake of the financial crisis there was talk of some legislation to protect tenants in the case where the owner hasn't paid her/his bills and loses the property. For example, see RI Passes Just Cause Eviction Bill and the legislation.

So it is remotely possible that the tenants found some reference to that and are trying to use its language to stall or scare you off into giving them more time. However, if that's what they were referring to then it wouldn't seem to apply to your situation - a retail purchase, not bank-owned or via foreclosure, and where you actually need the unit vacant to move in yourself.

But as you said, it's more likely it's just a stall tactic which will buy them a few days at most. Please update us with what your attorney says though, I'm curious too!