Warwick, RI Rental Property Rules: Repairs & Habitability (2026)

Article V of the Warwick housing code, Sections 26-141 through 26-147, spells out the sanitary equipment every dwelling unit must have to be habitable. Section 26-141 requires a kitchen sink in the kitchen or an adjacent pantry, properly connected to an approved water supply and disposal system in good working condition. Section 26-142 requires a private room or compartment with an approved flush toilet and lavatory basin connected to an approved disposal system. Section 26-143 requires a bathtub or shower in a private room, a standard that applied to every unit within three years of the chapter's effective date.

Section 26-144 ties these together: every kitchen sink, lavatory basin, and bathtub or shower required under Sections 26-141 through 26-143 must be connected to both hot and cold lines, with hot water maintained at not less than 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Section 26-145 requires bathroom and toilet-room floors to be water-impervious, or covered with fitted linoleum or paint/varnish that makes them reasonably so, kept dry and sanitary by the occupant. Section 26-146 requires adequate garbage and rubbish storage facilities of a type and location approved by enforcement officers, cross-referenced to the separate garbage and debris chapter, Chapter 22.

Section 26-147 requires water-heating facilities capable of delivering that same 120-degree minimum at every kitchen sink, lavatory, and bathtub or shower. A landlord who fails to provide or maintain this equipment is subject to the same inspection and enforcement mechanism as the rest of Chapter 26: the director may inspect, issue a notice of violation, and escalate to a compliance order enforceable through the housing board of review.