---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT RELATING TO PROPERTY (Eliminates the penalty of abating rent in cases where a non-resident landlord fails to designate an agent for service of process and would clarify that the fine for violating this section is civil.)"
description: "AN ACT RELATING TO PROPERTY (Eliminates the penalty of abating rent in cases where a non-resident landlord fails to designate an agent for service of process and would clarify that the fine for violating this section is civil.)"
jurisdiction: "us/states/ri"
legislature: "Rhode Island General Assembly"
session: "2018"
identifier: "SB 2695"
citation: "Rhode Island SB 2695 (2018)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Property"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Lynch Prata"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 11
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2018-03-20"
last_action: "2018-07-02"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/88dab7e6-e39a-47f1-ae9c-1be2c171d803"
source_url: "http://status.rilin.state.ri.us/"
source_hash: "bb04e420451c03961222933bc6f3f5ee650e35ee3ee4f9c4a3621e6580f95e5b"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ri"]
---

# Rhode Island SB 2695 (2018) — AN ACT RELATING TO PROPERTY (Eliminates the penalty of abating rent in cases where a non-resident landlord fails to designate an agent for service of process and would clarify that the fine for violating this section is civil.)

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **2695 SUB A** (committee substitute) — [source](http://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/BillText/BillText18/SenateText18/S2695A.pdf)

## Votes

- Passage — **37–0** (pass) · upper
- IN CONCURRENCE — **66–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Lynch Prata — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2018-03-20** 03/20/2018 Introduced, referred to Senate Judiciary `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2018-04-06** 04/06/2018 Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration (04/10/2018)
- **2018-04-10** 04/10/2018 Committee recommended measure be held for further study
- **2018-06-20** 06/20/2018 Scheduled for consideration (06/21/2018)
- **2018-06-21** 06/21/2018 Committee recommends passage of Sub A `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2018-06-21** 06/21/2018 Placed on Senate Calendar (06/21/2018)
- **2018-06-21** 06/21/2018 Senate passed Sub A `passage`
- **2018-06-22** 06/22/2018 Placed on the House Consent Calendar (06/22/2018)
- **2018-06-22** 06/22/2018 House passed Sub A in concurrence `passage`
- **2018-07-02** 07/02/2018 Transmitted to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2018-07-02** 07/02/2018 Signed by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/88dab7e6-e39a-47f1-ae9c-1be2c171d803`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Rhode Island legislature records).