Rhode Island Seller Disclosure Requirements: What Home Sellers Must Reveal
Yes. R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-20.8-2 requires the seller of land or a one-to-four-unit building to give the buyer a written list of known “deficient conditions” before any purchase agreement is signed. Skipping it does not void the deal; it risks a civil penalty up to $1,000 per occurrence (§ 5-20.8-5).
The rules below are chapter 20.8 of title 5 as it read on September 26, 2026, with its 2023 and 2024 amendments.
Which Rhode Island sales need the § 5-20.8-2 statement
The act covers “vacant land or real property and improvements consisting of a house or building containing one to four (4) dwelling units.” A five-unit building or a commercial property is outside it. An installment-sales contract or an option to purchase counts as an “agreement to transfer.”
Section 5-20.8-3 exempts ten kinds of transfer:
- under a court order, including probate, writ of execution, bankruptcy trustee, eminent domain and specific-performance transfers;
- to a mortgagee by the mortgagor or at a foreclosure sale, or by a mortgagee who acquired the property that way;
- by a fiduciary administering a decedent’s estate, guardianship, conservatorship or trust;
- from one co-owner to other co-owners;
- to a spouse, or to a person “in the lineal line of consanguinity” of a transferor;
- between spouses under a divorce or legal-separation decree or its property settlement;
- from any governmental entity;
- of a “new unoccupied dwelling unit” by a builder or developer;
- by a relocation company;
- of title with no consideration.
Siblings are not in the lineal line, and a new home someone has already lived in falls outside item 8.
The deadline: before the purchase agreement, and before the agent passes on an offer
The seller delivers the disclosure “as soon as practicable, but in any event no later than prior to signing any agreement to transfer real estate,” to the buyer and to each agent involved (§ 5-20.8-2(a)). The agent “shall not communicate the offer of the buyer until the buyer has received a copy of the written disclosure and signed a written receipt.” If the buyer refuses to sign, the seller or agent must immediately write up and date the refusal.
The purchase and sale agreement must acknowledge that the completed form was provided (§ 5-20.8-5(a)). The agent is not liable for the accuracy of the seller’s answers or for problems the seller never told the agent about.
What goes on the form
The standard is “all deficient conditions of which the seller has actual knowledge”: “any land restrictions, defect, malfunction, breakage, or unsound condition” on, in, across or under the property. The seller has no duty to inspect.
The statute has the Rhode Island Real Estate Commission approve one form for houses and one for vacant land; the seller may instead use a form “substantially conforming” to the statute. The top of either must say: “This is not a warranty by the seller that no other defective conditions exist, which there may or may not be.”
For a house, § 5-20.8-2(b)(3) lists 38 headings, from basement seepage and roof age to pools. A few carry extra duties or notices:
- Cesspools. A warning that “many properties in the state are still serviced by cesspools,” citing the Rhode Island Cesspool Act of 2007.
- Private wells. The seller hands over “any previous private water supply (well) testing results in the seller’s possession.”
- Surveys. Copies of previous surveys the seller has, plus known easements, encroachments and conservation restrictions.
- Historic district. Must be disclosed, with a notice that renovation may be limited.
- Tanks, UFFI, mold. Underground tanks (under heating), urea-formaldehyde insulation, mold and moisture penetration each have a line.
- Radon. “Radon has been determined to exist in the State of Rhode Island,” and testing before purchase “is advisable.”
Since the 2024 amendment, every form also carries a Shoreline Access notice (§ 5-20.8-2(e)): where shore exists, the public may use wet sand, dry sand or rocky beach “up to ten feet (10′) landward of the ‘recognizable high tide line’,” subject to § 46-23-26 and any general laws to the contrary. The seller reports known public rights of way and hands over any Coastal Resources Management Council permits he has for the property.
Answers can go stale. Information made inaccurate by a later act, passage of time, occurrence or agreement is not a violation (§ 5-20.8-10), and if an item is unknown or not available to the seller, “the seller shall so state and may use an approximation.”
A missing or wrong form: the $1,000 penalty and Stebbins v. Wells
Section 5-20.8-5(b): “Failure to provide the seller disclosure form to the buyer does not void the agreement nor create any defect in title. Each violation of this statute by the seller or his or her agent is subject to a maximum civil penalty in the amount of one thousand dollars ($1,000) per occurrence.” Before P.L. 2023, ch. 71 and 72 (effective June 14, 2023), it was $100.
In Stebbins v. Wells, 818 A.2d 711 (R.I. 2003), a dispute over severe erosion at a Little Compton waterfront house, the Supreme Court declined “to imply the existence of a private right of action in favor of buyers to sue for damages under the act.” It still sent the buyer’s negligence and negligent-omission claims against all defendants, and a breach-of-fiduciary-duty claim against his own agent, to trial. It also held that chapters 20.8 and 20.6 of title 5 give agents a duty to disclose material defects within their personal knowledge to a buyer they know or should know is acting under a misapprehension. That is the licensee’s duty, separate from the seller’s form.
Under § 5-20.8-9, neither seller nor agent is liable for an error that “was not within the personal knowledge of the seller or agent; was based on information timely provided” by a public agency or an expert under §§ 5-20.8-7 and 5-20.8-8; “and ordinary care was exercised in obtaining and transmitting it.” Delivering a report or opinion by an engineer, land surveyor, geologist, home inspector, pest control operator, contractor or other expert, on matters within that professional’s license or expertise, is sufficient compliance for that exemption (§ 5-20.8-8(a)).
Four inspection windows that can let a buyer void the contract
The disclosure form has no cancellation clock of its own. The rights to void sit in four sections that require clauses in the purchase and sale agreement. In each, the buyer voids by written notice to the seller before title transfers at closing.
| Section | Clause the contract must contain | Buyer may void if |
|---|---|---|
| § 5-20.8-4, any inspection | Ten days, “exclusive of Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays,” unless the parties agree otherwise; the buyer may waive in writing | the clause is missing |
| § 5-20.8-11, lead (1-4 family built before 2011) | Ten days for a lead risk assessment or inspection, unless the parties agree otherwise | the clause is missing, inspection results required by § 23-24.6-16(a) are not provided, or results show a lead exposure hazard |
| § 5-20.8-12, private well | Ten days for water testing, unless the parties agree otherwise | the clause is missing, earlier test results are not provided, or results exceed Department of Health limits |
| § 5-20.8-13, cesspool | Ten days to inspect for a cesspool, unless the parties agree otherwise | the clause is missing or earlier inspection results are not provided |
A missing lead clause, or missing lead results or educational materials, also carries a civil penalty of $100 to $500 per violation against the seller or agent (§ 5-20.8-11(b), (c)). The buyer pays for the well test “unless otherwise agreed in writing.”
Lead paint: the 2011 state line and the 1978 federal line
P.L. 2023, ch. 333 moved the cutoff in § 5-20.8-11 from homes built before 1978 to homes built before 2011, so the state clause reaches newer houses than federal law. The federal rule covers “target housing,” built before 1978 (40 CFR 745.103, except housing for the elderly or persons with disabilities and 0-bedroom dwellings, unless a child under 6 lives or is expected to live there), and exempts foreclosure sales (745.101). It requires the EPA pamphlet and any lead reports the seller has (745.107), plus a 10-day evaluation period “unless the parties mutually agree, in writing, upon a different period of time,” which the buyer may waive in writing (745.110).
Radon testing from June 1, 2027
P.L. 2026, ch. 101 and 102 added § 5-20.8-14. For “any purchase and sale agreement executed on June 1, 2027, and thereafter,” a radon test by a certified or licensed individual must be performed no earlier than one year before closing, with results made available to both parties and to any lender the buyer designates. The section covers residential sales “including, but not limited to, single family homes, duplexes, multi-family homes, and apartment complexes,” but not property sold as non-residential commercial property or used for tourist or transient residential purposes as defined in § 42-63.1-2. Above the EPA action level of 4.0 picocuries per liter, a mitigation system goes in before closing “if possible”; if not, its estimated cost is held in escrow until the work is done.
No test is required for: a sale by a lender (or its affiliate or subsidiary) that acquired the home by foreclosure or deed in lieu of foreclosure; a sheriff’s sale, tax sale, or sale by foreclosure, partition or court-appointed trustee; a home to be converted by the buyer to a non-residential use, or to be demolished; a devise under a will or an intestate inheritance; a home whose radon mitigation system was installed by a licensed radon contractor within three years of the signing of the purchase and sale agreement; or a home whose system was installed by a licensed radon contractor more than three years before signing, if the home has been tested for radon within three years of signing.
Death in the house
Under § 5-20.8-6, the fact or suspicion that a home was the site of “a homicide, other felony, or suicide,” or that an occupant had HIV/AIDS or any other disease “determined by medical evidence to be highly unlikely to be transmitted through the occupying of a dwelling place,” is “not a material fact requiring disclosure,” and no cause of action arises for leaving it out. The section is not authorization “to make any misrepresentation of fact or false statement,” so answer a direct question truthfully.
Related reading: the home selling guide, a home inspection, the inspection red flags list, the Rhode Island state page and closing costs in Rhode Island. Next door: Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Rhode Island seller and buyer questions
I’m the executor selling my late father’s house. Do I fill out the form?
Not if you sell as executor or administrator: § 5-20.8-3(3) exempts a transfer “by a fiduciary in the course of the administration of a decedent’s estate.” The list has no entry for an heir who sells in his own name after taking title, and the federal lead-paint rule has no estate exemption.
The seller never gave us a disclosure. Can we walk away?
Not on that ground alone: § 5-20.8-5(b) says the failure “does not void the agreement.” The seller and agent face the civil penalty instead. If the agreement lacks the general inspection clause, or a lead, well or cesspool clause where that section applies, you may void by written notice before title transfers at closing.
Can I check “unknown” on questions I can’t answer?
Yes, when it is true: § 5-20.8-10 lets the seller say an item is unknown or not available and use an approximation. It does not cover a condition you know about, and an as-is sale is not on the § 5-20.8-3 exemption list.
Do I need a radon test to sell this year?
No, not under an agreement signed before June 1, 2027. After that date § 5-20.8-14 applies, and if the test is done after signing without a clean certified test from the seller for the prior year, the buyer pays unless the parties agree otherwise.