(a)  Every financial institution making loans within this state secured by an interest in real estate may require applicants for loans to disclose whether or not the applicant or applicants have been convicted of any degree of the crime of arson as described in chapter 4 of Title 11 within ten (10) years prior to the date of application.

Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws 19-9-32

  • Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
  • Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
  • person: may be construed to extend to and include co-partnerships and bodies corporate and politic. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-6
  • real estate: may be construed to include lands, tenements, and hereditaments and rights thereto and interests therein. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-10

(b)  A financial institution may use the existence of an arson conviction within ten (10) years of the application date as a reason to deny the application.

(c)  Failure to disclose the existence of an arson conviction when requested upon a mortgage application shall be a misdemeanor punishable by a sentence of not more than one year imprisonment.

(d)  The mortgage application form shall indicate the existence of a criminal penalty for failure to disclose a conviction for arson.

(e)  For the purpose of this section, the term “applicant” means a natural person, trust, partnership, association, corporation, or other form of business organization; provided, however, that if the applicant is a trust, the beneficiaries of the trust shall be included, and if the applicant is a partnership, association, corporation, or other form of business organization, each member, director, shareholder owning more than twenty percent (20%) of the common stock issued by the corporation, and principal officer of the organization shall be included.

History of Section.
P.L. 1995, ch. 63, § 1; P.L. 1998, ch. 244, § 1.