Rhode Island’s laws do not specify whether a tenant can change their own locks. As such, Rhode Island tenants should check their lease agreement to see if their individual lease provides a provision for performing this kind of modification. If it does not, then that tenant should ask their landlord for permission and set up a system in which they provide their landlord with a new key as soon as possible.
The information for this answer was found on our Rhode Island Landlord Tenant Rights answers.