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H 7766Real Estate

Property - Residential Landlord and Tenant Act

This bill allows tenants to seal eviction court records more frequently and removes the five-year wait for certain dismissed cases.

Held for study
Population
Affected
15
Email Legislator
Introduced Feb 12, 2026Committee House Judiciary

Plain-English Summary

This legislation amends the "Residential Landlord and Tenant Act" regarding the sealing of court files in eviction cases. Currently, there are restrictions on how often a person can ask the court to seal an eviction record, and a waiting period for cases dismissed due to inactivity. This bill removes the rule that limits a person to one record-sealing request every five years. It also removes the five-year waiting period for sealing cases that were dismissed because the landlord did not pursue them (lack of prosecution). This makes it easier for tenants to keep their rental history private.

For younger readers

When a person rents a home and has a disagreement with the owner in court, a record is made. Sometimes, people want to hide this record later so they can rent a new home without problems. Before, people had to wait a long time or could only hide one record every five years. This bill changes the rules so people can ask to hide these records more often. It also says they don't have to wait as long if the court case was dropped because the owner stopped coming to court.

Who & Where It Applies

Impacted groups
TenantsLandlordsProperty ManagersCourt ClerksHousing Advocates
Impacted communities
All

Constitutional & Fiscal Check

None Likely

Estimated cost
None
Estimated revenue
None

Bill Analysis

Both viewpoints
For Progressives
  • Promotes housing stability by removing permanent stains on a tenant's record, making it easier for working-class individuals to secure safe housing in the future.
  • Acknowledges that financial hardship can happen more than once in a five-year period and prevents the legal system from permanently punishing the poor for temporary economic instability.
  • Reduces the power imbalance between landlords and tenants by ensuring that resolved disputes or dropped cases do not act as a blacklist against renters.
  • Requires the tenant to file a motion rather than making the sealing of records automatic, which places a procedural burden on those who may not have legal representation or knowledge of the system.
  • Does not address the issue of private data-mining companies that may have already scraped the court data before it was sealed, meaning the eviction might still appear on private background checks.
  • Relies on judicial discretion and specific satisfaction of terms, meaning that tenants who are still struggling to pay off a judgment may not benefit immediately.
For Conservatives
  • Encourages personal responsibility by incentivizing tenants to pay off monetary judgments in full in order to be eligible to have their records sealed.
  • Protects the privacy of individuals who were wrongly accused or involved in cases that were dismissed, preventing government records from damaging their reputation unjustly.
  • Reduces the long-term administrative burden on the court system by facilitating the closure and sealing of files that are no longer active or relevant.
  • Interferes with the free market by restricting a landlord's access to public court records, which are essential for vetting potential tenants and assessing financial risk.
  • Potentially enables "serial squatters" or habitual non-payers to hide their history of multiple evictions, increasing the risk for property owners and small businesses.
  • Reduces transparency in the judicial system by allowing more public records to be hidden from view, limiting the community's ability to know who they are doing business with.

Votes

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Full Bill Text

Changes to existing Rhode Island law · 1 addition · 5 deletions

SECTION 1. Section 34-18-60 of the General Laws in Chapter 34-18 entitled "Residential Landlord and Tenant Act" is hereby amended to read as follows: 34-18-60. Sealing and unsealing of court files.

(a) Actions arising under §§ 34-18-35, 34-18-36, and 34-18-38 may be sealed by the court upon motion by any party or parties filed at least thirty (30) days after the expiration of the appeal period following the conclusion of the underlying civil action.

(b) In ruling on the motion to seal, the court shall grant the motion and seal the record of the civil action upon a finding that the underlying civil action was dismissed as a result of a motion to dismiss, the action was resolved by stipulation and the terms of the stipulation have been satisfied by the parties, any monetary judgment against the moving party has been satisfied in full, or the action has been dismissed for lack of prosecution after a five-year (5) period. The court shall also make a finding that the moving party notified all parties to the underlying civil action of their motion to seal the record and that motion is the only request made under this section by the moving party within the previous five (5) years.

(c) Any party to an action arising under §§ 34-18-35, 34-18-36, and 34-18-38 may file a motion to seal the record of the action upon satisfaction of the requirements set forth in subsections

(a) and (b) of this section. Parties requesting seal of their record under this section are limited to one request every five (5) years.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.