Rhode Island's §34-18-19 is URLTA distilled: a one-month cap, one of the country's fastest clocks, and a doubling penalty with fee-shifting.
How much can a landlord charge?
One month's rent, maximum — one of the strictest caps in New England, matching Massachusetts and beating Connecticut.
The 20-day clock
Within 20 days of termination, delivery of possession, and the tenant's forwarding address, the landlord must return the balance with a written itemized notice of deductions — unpaid rent, damage beyond ordinary wear and tear, and (a Rhode Island touch) trash-disposal costs the tenant owed. Twenty days is tight; tenants should hand over the forwarding address in writing at key return to start it immediately.
The penalty
Wrongful withholding or a missed itemization exposes the landlord to double the amount wrongfully withheld plus reasonable attorney's fees and costs. District court small claims (to $5,000) is the venue.
Why Rhode Island deposit disputes are documentation disputes
A tight clock and a lean statute: no inspection rights, no checklists, no receipts machinery. The itemized notice asserts; the condition record decides.
SealMove decides it in your favor. Every photo and video is cryptographically sealed the instant it's captured, independently timestamped, and locked with Face ID into a tamper-evident archive. At move-out, the walkthrough lines up room-by-room against the sealed baseline — and either party can send the other a report to review and acknowledge, no app required.