Rhode Island Caps Condominium Fines at $100 a Day and Voids Any Higher Cap in the Declaration

The fine power comes from two sections of the Rhode Island Condominium Law. Section 34-36.1-3.02(a)(11) gives the association power to impose charges for late payment of assessments and, after notice and an opportunity to be heard, to levy reasonable fines for violations of the declaration, bylaws and rules, expressly as provided in § 34-36.1-3.20. Section 34-36.1-3.20 is the section that supplies the numbers, and it was added by P.L. 1991, ch. 247, § 2.

The caps are split by property type and by whether the fine repeats. For a residential condominium, a daily fine for continued violative conduct may be no more than $100 per day, and a fine that is not a daily fine may be no more than $500. For a commercial condominium the figures are $500 per day and $1,000. The statute says daily fines may be imposed for continued violative conduct in the future, so a board may set a per-day charge going forward rather than re-noticing the same violation each day, provided it stays inside the ceiling.

Subsection (d) is the part owners most often do not know about. It reads that any condominium declaration, bylaw, rule or regulation which purports to establish a maximum fine or daily fine shall be invalid. That cuts both directions. A declaration written in 1985 that authorizes a $250 daily fine cannot be enforced at that figure, and a declaration that promises owners a gentler $25 ceiling is equally without effect, because the General Assembly reserved the fine schedule to the statute rather than to the governing documents.

Procedure is mandatory, not optional. Notice and the opportunity for a hearing must be provided to an alleged violator before a fine is imposed and assessed. Under subsection (e) the hearing is before the executive board itself or a person the executive board designates, so Rhode Island does not require an independent panel of non-board members the way some covenant-enforcement statutes do. Subsection (f) then adds a cost consequence that is unusual: the decision must include costs in all cases, and reasonable attorney's fees if the prevailing party is represented by a member of the Rhode Island Bar. Those fees and costs are themselves a lien on the unit, so an owner who hires counsel, loses the hearing, and faces a board represented by counsel can end up owing far more than the $100 or $500 fine.

The collection route runs through § 34-36.1-3.16 and § 34-36.1-3.21. Section 3.20(a) states that all fines shall be a lien on the unit charged, and § 34-36.1-3.16(a) confirms the association's lien attaches from the time the fine becomes due and is enforceable by foreclosure. Fines sit outside the association's six-month super-priority, however: § 34-36.1-3.16(b)(3) says the priority amount does not include any amounts attributable to special assessments, late charges, fines, penalties and interest. A fine lien is therefore junior to a first mortgage recorded before the delinquency, but it is still a lien that must be cleared on sale, and § 34-36.1-3.16(e) gives the association six years from the date the full amount becomes due to bring proceedings before the lien is extinguished.

One practical check before paying: § 34-36.1-3.21(d) requires the association, on request from anyone with an interest of record in the unit, to give an itemized statement separating common expense assessments under § 34-36.1-3.16(b)(2) from interest, attorney's fees, fines and other charges. Section 34-36.1-3.16(h) separately requires a recordable statement of unpaid assessments within ten business days of a written request. Those two documents are how a Rhode Island owner establishes exactly how much of a demand is fine and how much is assessment.

The executive board enforces. It must give the owner notice and an opportunity for a hearing first, hold the hearing before itself or a designee, and issue a decision that includes costs and, where the winning side used a Rhode Island Bar member, reasonable attorney's fees. 21 lets the association sell the unit at public auction: written notice by certified mail to the owner and to the first mortgagee at least 20 days before publication, publication once a week for two successive weeks in a named daily newspaper, and a sale no sooner than 15 days after the first publication. The first mortgage holder gets a 30-day right of redemption after the sale. 12, which directs that the chapter's remedies be liberally administered. 16(e).