How much notice must a landlord give before entering in Rhode Island?

Verified July 11, 2026 All Rhode Island topics →

Rhode Island landlords must give the tenant at least two days' notice before entering a rental unit, and may enter only at reasonable times.

The two-day notice yields in an emergency or when giving notice is impracticable, and no consent is needed at all in an emergency or when the tenant has been absent more than seven days and entry is reasonably necessary to protect the property. Permitted purposes are inspection, necessary or agreed repairs and improvements, supplying services, and showing the unit to prospective buyers, lenders, tenants, workers, or contractors — and the tenant may not unreasonably refuse. The statute expressly forbids using the right of access to harass the tenant. A landlord who enters unlawfully, enters unreasonably, or harasses with repeated entry demands can be enjoined, and the tenant may terminate the lease; the prevailing party in an access dispute recovers actual damages plus costs and attorney's fees. Tenants who unreasonably refuse lawful access face the mirror-image remedies.

Rhode Island entry notice at a glance

Advance notice required	2 days
Notice standard	Not addressed by statute
Permitted reasons	The tenant may not unreasonably withhold consent for the landlord to enter to inspect the premises; make necessary or agreed repairs, decorations, alterations, or improvements; supply necessary or agreed services; or exhibit the unit to prospective or actual purchasers, mortgagees, tenants, workers, or contractors (§ 34-18-26(a)). The landlord may enter WITHOUT consent in an emergency, or during any absence of the tenant exceeding seven (7) days if reasonably necessary to protect the property (§ 34-18-26(b)). Otherwise entry is allowed only by court order, as permitted by § 34-18-39, or after abandonment or surrender (§ 34-18-26(d)).
Emergency exception	Yes
Time-of-day restrictions	None by the clock — entry must be at 'reasonable times' only; the statute sets no hour windows (§ 34-18-26(c)).

Notes and caveats

notice_hours=48 encodes the statutory 'at least two (2) days' notice' per the two-days convention (AZ/AL/KY/HI precedent) — render as '2 days,' not '48 hours.' The notice escape valve is 'except in case of emergency or unless it is impracticable to do so' (§ 34-18-26(c)) — the same broad URLTA valve as NE/ME; render honestly rather than 'emergency-only.' Distinct no-CONSENT grounds in (b): emergency, and the 7-day-absence/property-protection entry — a URLTA feature many charts omit. Remedies live in § 34-18-45, symmetric between the parties: injunction or lease termination, with the PREVAILING PARTY (either side) recovering actual damages and mandatory costs plus reasonable attorney's fees; unlike ME there is no statutory minimum dollar recovery. § 34-18-26 is unamended since enactment (P.L. 1986 ch. 200) — confirmed via the section's history line; the 2026 Survivor Act's lock-change machinery (§ 34-18-65, in force 2026-07-01, not yet on the code site) governs lock changes for abuse victims (2-business-day landlord duty; 2 months' rent + costs + fees for violations) but does not alter entry-notice rules. Both reads of the section (WebFetch + raw curl verbatim) matched; verified negative for any other entry provision via the full chapter index sweep.

Statute citations

R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-18-26 (a)-(d) Official source
R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-18-45 (remedies for abuse of access) (a)-(c) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text on the official Rhode Island General Assembly site (webserver.rilegislature.gov): sections 34-18-19, 34-18-16.1, and 34-18-26 each read twice independently (WebFetch render + raw curl of the official HTML, verbatim), with every load-bearing figure matching (one-month deposit cap; $5,000 furniture threshold and separate one-month furniture deposit; 20-day return after the later of termination, delivery of possession, or forwarding address; twice-the-amount-wrongfully-withheld penalty plus attorney fees; 60-day rent-increase notice and 120-day notice for month-to-month tenants over 62; two days' entry notice). The 60/120 rent-increase figures were additionally reconciled against the enacted chapter text of P.L. 2024, ch. 243 (H 7304A, effective upon passage 2024-06-24), which shows the strike-through amendment from the former 30/60. Supporting sections read once (34-18-8, 34-18-11, 34-18-15, 34-18-35, 34-18-37, 34-18-45, 34-18-58, 34-18-59, 34-18-61, 34-18-62) plus the full ch. 34-18 section index as the sweep basis for verified negatives (no deposit interest or escrow requirement, no late-fee cap or grace statute, no rent-increase frequency limit, no preemption statute). Session-law sweeps: 2025 confirmed absorbed into the code (34-18-62, P.L. 2025 ch. 395/396, eff. 2025-07-02, is live); the full 2026 public-laws-by-subject table (Law Revision office, session adjourned sine die 2026-06-11) was swept — the only on-topic enactments are P.L. 2026 ch. 147/148 (Survivor Early Lease Termination Act, new secs. 34-18-63 to 34-18-67 plus amended 34-18-11 definitions, EFFECTIVE 2026-07-01 and in force but not yet displayed on the code site; no change to any field in this record) and ch. 165/166 (shoreline rental disclosure, out of scope). Rent control: 2025 bills S0580/H5264 (4% cap), H5676 (10%+CPI), and H5954 (Providence enabling) all died; 2026 refile S2271 died at sine-die adjournment (absent from the enacted-laws sweep; LegiScan status pages 403-blocked); Providence's 4% rent-stabilization ordinance passed the city council 2026-04-16, was vetoed by Mayor Smiley 2026-04-17, and the override failed in May 2026 — no rent control is in force anywhere in Rhode Island.