East Providence, RI Short-Term Rentals: Insurance Requirements (2026)

Short-term rental insurance in East Providence is unregulated at both the state and local level. The Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation, which administers the statewide Short-Term Rental Registry under R.I. Gen. Laws 42-63.1-14, confirms in its official FAQ that neither the statute nor the implementing regulation contains any insurance requirement for operators. East Providence's own short-term rental rule, codified at Section 19-103 of the Chapter 19 Zoning Ordinance and adopted in May 2020, requires only owner-occupancy, an annual Temporary Use Permit, fire-extinguisher visibility, and printed egress diagrams in English, Spanish, and Portuguese; it does not impose a liability-insurance minimum. Standard Rhode Island homeowner (HO-3) and condominium (HO-6) policies typically exclude business or short-term rental activity, so most East Providence hosts either add a short-term rental endorsement to their homeowner policy or carry a dedicated landlord/STR policy. Major hosting platforms also publish per-occurrence coverage: Airbnb's AirCover Host Liability Insurance and Vrbo's Liability Insurance both advertise $1,000,000 limits, but reliance on platform coverage is a business decision rather than a legal requirement in East Providence.