Property Law
Owners get a public warning before buildings are called abandoned
Town and city clerks would have to post and update abandoned-property lists, then mail notice to owners and lienholders before a court case can move forward.
Rhode Island’s bill gives neglected buildings a clearer paper trail before they can be treated as abandoned in court. Owners and lienholders would get notice, and a chance to fix the problem, while cities and towns get a defined process for listing properties.
- Annual abandoned-property lists would be public and searchable.
- Owners and lienholders would get mailed notice before court action.
- People listed would have a chance to fix the problem first.
- Leaving a property off the list would not automatically save it.
- Publishing the list would not itself trigger a claim against the town.
In Rhode Island, towns and cities would have to publish public lists of properties that may qualify as abandoned by April 2, 2025, then update them every year after that. The point is to give owners and lienholders notice, and a chance to fix the problem, before a neglected building can be treated as abandoned in court.
A public warning list
The lists would not sit quietly in a file drawer. They would have to be available in the town or city clerk’s office and on the municipal website, so owners, lenders and neighbors can see which properties local officials think may fall under the abandoned-property chapter.
Local governments would also have to send first-class mail notice to the last known record owner or owners and any lienholder, if that information is available from tax assessor and land-evidence records.
A chance to fix it first
The bill gives owners and lienholders the right, but not the obligation, to cure the conditions that led to the listing before a property is alleged to be abandoned in a judicial proceeding. That matters because it creates a defined window to address neglect before the legal label hardens.
It also says a property’s absence from a town list would not automatically block a court from finding it abandoned if the required findings are made. The list is a warning system, not the last word.
Limits on local liability
The measure also protects cities and towns from a specific kind of blowback. Simply publishing the list would not, by itself, create a legal claim against a municipality from the record owner or another interested party.
For local officials, that keeps the process focused on identifying problem properties. For owners, it means the list is meant to prompt action, not replace the court’s role.