Additional Topics: Fair Housing, Tenancy, Environment, and Disclosure
Area IV is eighteen scored items spread across eleven separately named bodies of Rhode Island law, from fair housing to condominium resales.
Fair housing and landlord-tenant law
The Fair Housing Practices Act, R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-37-4, protects more classes than federal law does: alongside race, color, religion, sex, country of ancestral origin, disability and familial status it adds sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, lawful source of income, military and veteran status, age, and status as a victim of domestic abuse. Complaints go to the Rhode Island Commission for Human Rights within one year (§ 34-37-5(b)). Under chapter 34-18 a residential security deposit may not exceed one month's rent and must be returned, with a written itemization, within twenty days of the later of termination, delivery of possession, or the tenant giving a forwarding address; failure exposes the landlord to double the amount wrongfully withheld plus attorney fees (§ 34-18-19).
Environmental and structural topics
No one may fill, excavate or otherwise alter a freshwater wetland, buffer or floodplain without the approval of the director of the Department of Environmental Management (§ 2-1-21). Smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector certificates are valid for the period the issuing authority sets, but never less than 120 days (§ 23-28.1-10). A cesspool serving a building that is sold must be removed and replaced with an OWTS, or the building connected to a public sewer, within twelve months of the transfer (§ 23-19.15-12(a)), and the buyer gets a ten-day inspection period to find out whether a cesspool exists (§ 5-20.8-13). When a nonresident sells, the buyer — not the broker, the closing attorney or the lender — withholds six percent of the total payment to an individual, estate, partnership or trust and seven percent to a corporation (§ 44-30-71.3).
Disclosure, condominiums, and agency relationships
Section 5-20.8-2(a) requires the seller to deliver a written disclosure of all deficient conditions actually known, as soon as practicable and in any event before any agreement to transfer is signed; the agent may not communicate the buyer's offer until the buyer has received it and signed a receipt. Lead adds a layer: 216-RICR-50-15-3 § 3.5 requires the EPA pamphlet with its Rhode Island insert, a lead warning statement and disclosure of known lead hazards, and § 3.5.4 gives the buyer of a pre-1978 one-to-four-unit home a ten-day inspection period. On a condominium resale the unit owner must furnish the declaration, bylaws, rules and a resale certificate before the contract is signed (§ 34-36.1-4.09). Chapter 5-20.6 abrogates the common law of agency: every licensee is presumed a transaction facilitator until informed written consent on the mandatory relationship disclosure makes him a designated client representative, which must happen no later than preparing a sales agreement, offer or lease.
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State-specific details
State exam facts
- Exam vendor
- Pearson VUE
- Prelicensing education
- 90 classroom hours
- Passing score
- Scaled score of 70
- Scored questions
- 140
- Time limit
- 240 minutes
Who regulates real estate brokers in Rhode Island?
The Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation, through the Real Estate Section of its Division of Commercial Licensing, sets the qualification requirements and licenses real estate brokers and salespersons under R.I. Gen. Laws chapter 5-20.5 and regulation 230-RICR-30-20-2. A nine-member Rhode Island Real Estate Commission sits inside the Department and has a policy-making role in the examinations. The Department contracts with Pearson VUE to deliver the exams, and your license application must be filed within one year of the date you pass.
What experience and education do I need before the Rhode Island broker exam?
R.I. Gen. Laws 5-20.5-4(b) requires a broker applicant to have been engaged full time as a real estate salesperson for at least the two years immediately before applying, and to have completed at least 90 hours of approved classroom study. The 45 hours used to qualify for your salesperson license cannot be counted toward the 90, and classroom hours more than four years old do not count (230-RICR-30-20-2 s 2.7(C)). The application also needs the names of three unrelated Rhode Island residents who have known you for three years and will attest to your reputation for honesty.
How is the Rhode Island broker exam structured?
Two separately scheduled and separately scored parts: a national/general section of 80 scored items in 2.5 hours, and a Rhode Island state section of 60 scored items in 1.5 hours, so the full exam runs about four hours. Each part also carries unscored pretest items (5 national, 10 state). Scores are scaled and 70 passes at all exam levels. The state section is weighted 3% duties and obligations, 10% licensing requirements, 37% statutory requirements governing licensee activities, 30% additional topics, and 20% broker-only material.
Does Rhode Island require errors and omissions insurance?
Yes. R.I. Gen. Laws 5-20.5-25 makes carrying and maintaining errors and omissions insurance a condition of retaining a broker's or salesperson's license, and a certificate of coverage must be filed with the Department by each annual renewal date. Regulation 230-RICR-30-20-2 s 2.28 sets the minimum for an individual licensee at $50,000 per claim and $150,000 in the aggregate; if your coverage lapses you must stop all licensed activity immediately and notify the Department within five business days.
What continuing education do Rhode Island licensees need?
Twenty-four clock hours of Department-approved courses in each two-year renewal period. At least nine of the 24 must come from the listed core subjects, and at least three of those nine must be federal, Rhode Island and local fair housing law (R.I. Gen. Laws 5-20.5-6(b); 230-RICR-30-20-2 s 2.30). Licensees first licensed before 12 December 1984, and Rhode Island attorneys licensed under 5-20.5-4(d), are exempt.
Sources: https://dbr.ri.gov/real-estate-and-commercial-licensing/real-estate, https://www.pearsonvue.com/content/dam/VUE/vue/en/documents/publications/094000.pdf, https://www.pearsonvue.com/content/dam/VUE/vue/en/documents/publications/094001.pdf, https://webserver.rilegislature.gov/Statutes/TITLE5/5-20.5/INDEX.htm, https://rules.sos.ri.gov/regulations/part/230-30-20-2
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