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H 7148Housing

Health and Safety - Rehabilitation Building and Fire Code for Existing Buildings and Structures

This bill applies the state's rehabilitation building and fire code to existing one, two, and three-family homes.

Held for study
Population
Affected
45
Email Legislator
Introduced Jan 16, 2026Committee House Municipal Government & Housing

Plain-English Summary

This legislation amends the Rhode Island Rehabilitation Building and Fire Code for Existing Buildings and Structures. It explicitly extends the application of this specific code to existing residential dwellings housing one, two, or three families. The bill repeals any current laws or regulations that exclude these smaller residential properties from the rehabilitation code. Additionally, the bill updates the legislative findings to formally declare that encouraging the continued use and reuse of existing buildings is a purpose of the chapter.

For younger readers

Rhode Island has a special set of rules for fixing up old buildings to make sure they are safe and strong. Right now, some smaller houses where only one, two, or three families live might not use these specific rules. This new law changes that. It says that these small houses must follow the special "fix-up" rules just like other buildings. The state wants to make sure people can easily fix old houses and keep living in them instead of leaving them empty.

Who & Where It Applies

Impacted groups
Owners of 1-3 family homesContractors and BuildersTenantsReal Estate DevelopersBuilding Inspectors
Impacted communities
All

Constitutional & Fiscal Check

None Likely

Estimated cost
None
Estimated revenue
None

Bill Analysis

Both viewpoints
For Progressives
  • Promotes the preservation and reuse of existing housing stock, potentially increasing the availability of affordable housing units for working-class families and preventing urban blight.
  • Encourages environmental sustainability by prioritizing the renovation of existing structures over new construction, thereby reducing construction waste and resisting urban sprawl.
  • Ensures that older one-to-three-family homes meet standardized safety codes, directly improving living conditions and fire safety for tenants in older, often lower-income neighborhoods.
  • Renovation costs associated with mandatory code compliance could be passed on to tenants in the form of higher rents, potentially leading to the displacement of low-income residents.
  • Stricter code enforcement on older properties might burden low-income homeowners who cannot afford mandated upgrades, forcing them to sell their homes to developers.
  • Streamlining rehabilitation for investors could accelerate gentrification in historic neighborhoods without including explicit protections or rent stabilization for current residents.
For Conservatives
  • Streamlines regulations for property owners by applying a consistent rehabilitation code, reducing bureaucratic confusion and the need for complex variances when upgrading property.
  • Stimulates the local economy and creates jobs in the construction and trade sectors by removing barriers to private investment in older properties.
  • Strengthens the local tax base by facilitating the improvement of underutilized or vacant properties into viable, tax-generating assets without requiring direct government subsidies.
  • Imposes new government mandates on owners of small residential properties who were previously exempt, infringing on private property rights and decision-making.
  • Increases the regulatory burden on private homeowners, potentially requiring costly upgrades to meet state-defined standards rather than market demands.
  • Expands the scope of government influence over private residences, moving away from limited government principles by dictating renovation terms for small family homes.

Votes

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Full Bill Text

Changes to existing Rhode Island law · 12 additions · 3 deletions

SECTION 1. Sections 23-29.1-1 and 23-29.1-3 of the General Laws in Chapter 23-29.1 entitled "Rehabilitation Building and Fire Code for Existing Buildings and Structures" are hereby amended to read as follows: 23-29.1-1. Legislative findings and purpose. The general assembly finds and declares:

(1) That there are throughout Rhode Island existing buildings and structures that are vacant or partially vacant and/or underutilized because rehabilitation of such buildings and structures to conform to the requirements for new structures under building and fire safety codes, is prohibitively expensive or impractical;

(2) That buildings and structures that are vacant or partially vacant constitute a public safety threat because of a lack of occupancy and a lack of investment in modernization and maintenance;

(3) That the presence of vacant and or partially vacant buildings and structures contributes to blight and or to the loss of economic viability of traditional city, town or village centers;

(4) That reinvestment in existing buildings and structures will strengthen local tax bases and provide employment opportunities in construction and building trades;

(5) That it is the purpose of this chapter to provide a code and regulations for repairing, rehabilitating, altering, improving, adding to and changing the use of existing buildings and structures in a manner that assures the health, welfare and safety of occupants and that facilitates designing improvements to existing buildings and structures to the code in an optimum manner with a minimum need to for variances; and

(6) That it is further the purpose of this chapter to provide a single uniform, statewide, harmonious rehabilitation building code with building code and fire safety code elements applicable to existing buildings and structures.; and

(7) That it is further the purpose of this chapter to encourage the continued use and reuse of existing buildings and structures. 23-29.1-3. Content, adoption, and administration of the rehabilitation building code for existing buildings and structures.

(a) Content. The rehabilitation building and fire code for existing buildings and structures shall have a building code element and a fire safety code element and shall make provisions for the repair, renovation, alteration, reconstruction, and change of use of and additions to existing buildings and structures. The code shall set forth standards for different types of uses; and for mixed-use buildings and structures, each portion of the building or structure shall be separately classified as to use. The standards shall include, but not be limited to, standards for building; for load bearing and structural elements; for plumbing, electrical, and mechanical systems; for fire resistant walls and for fire suppression, fire alarm, and fire detection systems; for accessibility, including accessibility for persons with disabilities, means of egress, elevators, escalators, stairways, doors, ramps, fire alarms, floor surfaces, restrooms and corridors; for vents and ventilation systems; and for historic buildings; provided however that such standards shall not affect minimum standards for habitancy.

(b) Committee on drafting. There shall be a sixteen (16) member committee on drafting the rehabilitation building and fire code for existing buildings and structures which shall have as its members the ten (10) voting members of the joint committee, the state fire marshal, the state building code commissioner, a representative of grow smart RI appointed by the chairperson of grow smart RI, a representative of the Rhode Island builders association appointed by the president of the Rhode Island builders association, a representative of the governor’s commission on disabilities, appointed by the chairperson of the governor’s commission on disabilities, and an historical preservation architect appointed by the executive director of the Rhode Island historical preservation and heritage commission. The executive secretary of the joint committee shall serve as secretary of the committee on drafting and be a nonvoting member of the committee. It shall be the duty of the joint committee to develop a rehabilitation building and fire code for existing buildings and structures, which shall have an element pertaining to fire safety and an element pertaining to building standards, and to recommend said rehabilitation building and fire code for consideration by the joint committee. The committee on drafting shall terminate upon an affirmative vote of the joint committee to recommend the rehabilitation building and fire code for existing buildings and structures for adoption by the building code standards committee and the fire safety code board of appeal and review.

(c) Adoption. The building code element shall be effective upon adoption by the building code standards committee pursuant to § 23-27.3-100.1.3 and the fire safety code element shall be effective upon adoption by the fire safety code board of appeal and review pursuant to § 23-28.3- 3. Public hearings required by chapter 35 of title 42 for the adoption, amendment, or revision of the rehabilitation building and fire code for existing buildings and structures and each of the elements thereof shall be conducted by the joint committee.

(d) Administration. Except as set forth in this chapter, the building code element shall be administered as a building code in accordance with the provisions of chapter 27.3 of this title, the fire safety code element shall be administered as a fire safety code by the division of fire safety in accordance with the provisions of chapter 28.2 of this title.

(e) Applicability to residential dwellings. Notwithstanding any provision of law, rule, or regulation to the contrary, the rehabilitation building and fire code for existing buildings and structures shall apply to existing residential dwellings for one, two (2), or three (3) families. Any provision of law, rule, or regulation that expressly excludes one family, two (2) family, or three (3) family residential dwellings from the applicability of the rehabilitation building and fire code is hereby repealed.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.