A Rhode Island 20 Day Notice To Vacate is a letter which complies with state legal requirements to begin eviction against a tenant for repeating a lease violation within a 6-month period of a previous notice of noncompliance. Because it’s a repeat violation, the tenant is not allowed further opportunity for corrective action, and must move out within twenty (20) calendar days of receiving notice.
When To Use a Rhode Island 20 Day Notice To Vacate
A Rhode Island 20 Day Notice To Vacate begins the eviction process when the tenant repeats a lease violation within a six (6) month period of a notice of noncompliance for the same or similar issue.
Some types of Rhode Island lease termination notice may allow different reasons for termination, or different notice periods. This may also apply to an eviction notice issued because of a lease or legal violation.
How To Write a Rhode Island 20 Day Notice To Vacate
To help ensure the legal compliance of a Notice To Vacate:
- Use the full name of the receiving party, and address of record, if known
- Specify the termination date of the lease or tenancy
- Specify the basis for terminating the tenancy
- Fill in the full address of the rental premises
- Provide updated/current address and phone number information
- Print name and sign the notice
- Complete the certificate of service by indicating the date and method of notice delivery, along with printed name and signature
It is easy to lose an otherwise justified legal action because of improper notice. Check carefully to ensure enough time after notice is delivered, not when it’s sent.
How To Serve a Rhode Island 20 Day Notice To Vacate
Rhode Island landlords may deliver a Notice To Vacate by any method which adequately informs the tenant. The law recognizes these methods as having a presumption of legal validity:
- Hand delivery to the tenant
- Mailed delivery via first class mail, to the tenant’s address of record or last known residence
By default, notice is considered complete when it is received. Mailed notice extends the notice period by one (1) calendar day, to account for variable delivery times.
Sources
- 1 RI Gen L § 34-18-36
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Eviction for Noncompliance with the Rental Agreement.
If substantially the same act or omission which constituted a prior noncompliance, of which good faith notice was given, recurs within six (6) months, the landlord may terminate the rental agreement upon at least twenty (20) days’ written notice, specifying the breach and the date of termination of the rental agreement. No allowance of time to remedy noncompliance shall be required.
Source Link - 2 R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-18-14
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(a) (1) A person has notice of a fact if:
(i) He or she has actual knowledge of it;
(ii) He or she has received a notice or notification of it; or
(iii) From all the facts and circumstances known to him or her at the time in question he or she has reason to know that it exists.
(2) A person “knows” or “has knowledge” of a fact if he or she has actual knowledge of it.
(b) A person “notifies” or “gives” a notice or notification to another person by taking steps reasonably calculated to inform the other in ordinary course whether or not the other actually comes to know of it. A person “receives” a notice or notification when:
(1) It comes to his or her attention; or
(2) It is delivered in hand or sent by first class mail to him or her at a place held out by him or her as the place for receipt of the communication, or in the absence of such designation, to his or her last known place of residence.
(c) “Notice,” knowledge or a notice or notification received by an organization, is effective for a particular transaction from the time it is brought to the attention of the individual conducting that transaction, and in any event from the time it would have been brought to his or her attention if the organization had exercised reasonable diligence.
- 3 R.I. Super. Ct. R. Civ. P. 6(D)
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Additional Time After Electronic Service or Service by Mail. Whenever a party has the right or is required to do some act or take some proceedings within a prescribed period after the service of a notice or other paper upon the party, and the notice or paper is served upon the party electronically or by mail, one (1) day shall be added to the prescribed period.
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