Rhode Island General Laws

R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-18-8 (2026)

Exclusions from application of chapter

✓ current as of July 2026
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Unless the parties expressly agree to be governed by the provisions of this chapter, the following arrangements are not governed by this chapter:

(1) Residence at an institution, public or private, if incidental to detention or the provision of medical, geriatric, educational, counseling, religious, or similar service;

(2) Occupancy under a contract of sale of a dwelling unit or the property of which it is a part, if the occupant is the purchaser or a person who succeeds to his or her interest;

(3) Occupancy by a member of a fraternal or social organization in the portion of a structure operated for the benefit of the organization;

(4) Transient occupancy in a hotel, motel, or other lodging as defined under § 44-18-7(11), which is subject to the state sales and use tax, or lodgings tax as allowed by state enabling legislation;

(5) Occupancy by a paid employee of a landlord, whose right to occupancy is conditional upon employment substantially for services, maintenance, or repair of premises containing more than eleven (11) units;

(6) Occupancy by a holder of a proprietary lease in a cooperative;

(7) Commercial letting and any other estate governed by chapter 18.1 of this title;

(8) Residence at a transitional housing facility.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 5 cases, 1971–1985 · leading case: Coolbeth v. Berberian, 313 A.2d 656 (R.I. 1974).
Coolbeth v. Berberian, 313 A.2d 656 (R.I. 1974). “” (2) repealed §34-18-8, the right of a landlord under certain circumstances to reenter and repossess premises upon nonpa3'ment of rent.”
Coolbeth v. Berberian, 354 A.2d 120 (R.I. 1976). “1956 (1969 Reenactment) §34-18-17, which reads as follows: “The right of a landlord or a reversioner to utilize ‘self help,’ so called, whether pursuant to the common law or pursuant to any agreement in writing or by parol, to re-enter and repossess himself of land, buildings or…”
Latina v. Burdick, 320 A.2d 601 (R.I. 1974). · cites it 4× “Prior to 1970 under §34-18-8 2 landlords frequently resorted to self- *326 help to recover possession of property when a tenant was in arrears on his rent.”
MacLure v. Mascaro (In Re MacLure), 50 B.R. 134 (Bankr. D.R.I. 1985). · cites it 2× “In Rhode Island prior to 1970, under § 34-18-8 1 landlords were authorized by statute to use self-help to evict tenants.”
Parker v. Pleasant Realty Co., 273 A.2d 486 (R.I. 1971). · cites it 6× “” The statutory authority on which this request was made provides as follows: General Laws 1956 (1969 Reenactment) §34-18-8. “34-18-8. Right to repossession for delinquency in rent.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.