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H7513AReal Estate

Businesses and Professions - Real Estate Sales Disclosures

This bill requires residential properties to be tested for radon gas and mitigated if unsafe before being sold.

Introduced67 Yea0 Nay8 Not voting
Population
Affected
45
Email Legislator
Introduced Feb 6, 2026Committee House Corporations

Plain-English Summary

This bill requires homes, apartments, and other residential properties to be tested for radon gas before they are sold. The test must be completed within a year before the sale closes. If the test shows unsafe levels of radon, a licensed professional must install a radon mitigation system to fix the issue before the sale is finalized, or money must be held in escrow to pay for it later. Foreclosures, inheritances, and homes being demolished are exempt, along with homes that recently had a mitigation system installed. The buyer usually pays for the test.

For younger readers

This bill makes a new rule for when people sell a house. Before the house is sold, it must be tested for a gas called radon. Radon is a gas that comes from the ground and can make people sick if there is too much of it inside. If the test finds too much radon, the person selling the house or buying the house has to hire a special worker to put in a system that clears the gas out. Usually, the person buying the house pays for the test.

Who & Where It Applies

Impacted groups
Home buyersHome sellersReal estate agentsRadon testing professionalsRadon mitigation contractors
Impacted communities
All

Constitutional & Fiscal Check

None Likely

Estimated cost
Home Buyers: Cost of radon test (Amount unknown), Home Sellers/Buyers: Cost of radon mitigation system if unsafe levels are found (Amount unknown)
Estimated revenue
None

Bill Analysis

Both viewpoints
For Progressives
  • Improves public health and community welfare by ensuring that residential properties are free from dangerous levels of radioactive radon gas before they are sold.
  • Protects low-income and disadvantaged homebuyers from inheriting costly and hazardous environmental issues by mandating mitigation before or at the time of the property transfer.
  • Promotes environmental justice and safer indoor air quality by establishing strict, science-based standards (EPA limits) for residential housing.
  • Places the financial burden of paying for the mandatory radon test on the buyer by default, which could create an additional barrier to homeownership for low-income individuals.
  • Exempts foreclosures and tax sales, which are often purchased by lower-income buyers or investors, potentially leaving disadvantaged communities exposed to unsafe radon levels.
  • Mandatory mitigation costs could increase the overall price of homes, further exacerbating the affordable housing crisis and making it harder for working-class families to buy a house.
For Conservatives
  • Protects private property buyers from fraud or hidden defects by ensuring full transparency regarding the safety and condition of a home prior to closing.
  • Exempts banks and lenders dealing with foreclosures from the burdensome testing requirements, protecting corporate financial interests and streamlining the resale of distressed properties.
  • Allows buyers and sellers the freedom to privately negotiate and agree on how the mitigation funds are distributed in escrow if the work cannot be completed before closing.
  • Infringes on private property rights and personal freedom by forcing homeowners to conduct government-mandated tests and repairs before they are allowed to sell their own property.
  • Increases government regulation and creates unnecessary red tape in the real estate market, potentially delaying home sales and complicating private transactions.
  • Forces citizens to hire state-licensed contractors for radon mitigation, restricting free market choices and preventing property owners from performing the work themselves.

Votes

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Full Bill Text

2 versions
Changes to existing Rhode Island law · 52 additions

SECTION 1. Chapter 5-20.8 of the General Laws entitled "Real Estate Sales Disclosures" is hereby amended by adding thereto the following section: 5-20.8-14. Radon inspection and mitigation required.

(a) As used in this section, the following words shall have the following meanings, unless the context indicates otherwise:

(1) "Radon" means a radioactive gas found in the air that comes from the natural breakdown of uranium, thorium, or radium in soil, rock, and water.

(2) "Radon test" means measuring the amount of radon in an indoor space:

(i) With a device made for this purpose;

(ii) Which is conducted by a certified or licensed individual in accordance with § 23-61-5; and

(iii) In accordance with the protocols specified for the device used.

(3) "Residential real estate transaction" means an agreement to sell real property for residential purposes including, but not limited to, single family homes, duplexes, multi-family homes, and apartment complexes. "Residential real estate transaction" does not include property sold for non-residential commercial property, or property used for tourist or transient residential purposes as defined in § 42-63.1-2.

(4) "Unsafe radon levels" means radon levels that exceed the Environmental Protection Agency action level of 4.0 picocuries per liter (pCi/L).

(b) Transactions that do not require radon testing.

(1) The following transactions shall not be considered a residential real estate transaction, and shall not require a radon test if the transaction is:

(i) By a lender or an affiliate or subsidiary lender that acquired the home by foreclosure or deed in lieu of foreclosure;

(ii) A sheriff’s sale, tax sale, or sale by foreclosure, partition, or by court appointed trustee;

(iii) A transfer of a home to be converted by the buyer into a use other than residential or to be demolished; or

(iv) A devise pursuant to a will or an intestate inheritance.

(2) A residential real estate transaction property that has an existing radon mitigation system installed by a licensed radon contractor within three (3) years of the execution of the purchase and sale agreement; or

(3) A residential real estate transaction property that has an existing radon mitigation system installed by a licensed radon contractor mare than three (3) years prior to the execution of the purchase and sale agreement but has been tested for radon within three (3) years of the execution of the purchase and sales agreement.

(c) Mandatory radon testing and disclosure.

(1) Any purchase and sale agreement executed on June 1, 2027 and thereafter, as a prerequisite to a residential real estate transaction not covered in subsection (b) of this section, a radon test shall be performed no earlier than one year prior to the closing date of the residential real estate transaction.

(2) The results of any radon test performed up to one year prior to the closing shall be made available to the selling and buying parties of the transaction, as well as any lender designated by the buying parties.

(d) Unless otherwise agreed to by the parties, the buyer shall bear the burden of covering the cost of the radon test if it is completed after the execution of the purchase and sale agreement and the seller provided no certified test completed within one year prior to the execution of the purchase and sale agreement indication no unsafe radon level.

(e) Mitigation required. In the event that a radon test conducted in accordance with this section yields a result indicating unsafe radon levels, a radon mitigation system shall be installed, by a certified or licensed individual in accordance with § 23-61-5, prior to the closing of the residential real estate transaction, if possible. In the event it is not possible to complete the work prior to the closing, the estimated amount of the cost of the mitigation system shall be held in escrow until the work is completed at which time the amount in escrow shall be distributed in accordance with an agreement signed by the seller and buyer to the closing.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect on June 1, 2027.