Rhode Island Secondhand Dealer Licensing Laws

Rhode Island Statutes
Title 5. Businesses and Professions
Chapter 5-21. Second-Hand Dealers

Chapter 5-21. Second-Hand Dealers [Combined]
•  § 5-21-1. Local licensing - Fees - Penalty - Record of transaction
•  § 5-21-2. Hearing and objections by neighboring landowners
•  § 5-21-3. "Automobile junkyard" defined
•  § 5-21-4. Conditions to licensing of automobile junkyard
•  § 5-21-5. Misdemeanor to operate automobile junkyard in violation of Section 5-21-4 - Enforcement
•  § 5-21-6. Existing licensed automobile junkyards
•  § 5-21-7. Severability
•  § 5-21-8. Warranty to accompany sales of electrical appliances

§ 5-21-1. Local licensing - Fees - Penalty - Record of transaction

(a)    The city or town council of any city or town is authorized to provide by ordinance for the issuing and revocation at pleasure of licenses to all persons selling, purchasing, bartering, and dealing in junk, old metals, and any other second-hand articles, and to all persons establishing, operating, or maintaining automobile junkyards, subject to any conditions and restrictions and for a term not exceeding one year that may be in the like manner prescribed; and also for charging and collecting fees for those licenses. The fees in the like manner prescribed shall not exceed the sum of one hundred dollars ($100) for the keeper of a shop or storehouse for the reception of any junk, old metals, or second-hand articles which is not an automobile junkyard, the sum of five dollars ($5.00) for any foundryperson or other person receiving the same for the purpose of melting or converting the junk, old metals, or second-hand articles into castings, the sum of five dollars ($5.00) for any gatherer of these items in any bag, wagon, or cart, or the sum of one hundred dollars ($100) for any person establishing, operating, or maintaining an automobile junkyard; and also to fix a penalty for carrying on that business without a license, or in violation of any ordinance or regulation made as authorized in this chapter, not exceeding for any one offense a fine of five hundred dollars ($500) or imprisonment not exceeding six (6) months.
(b)    The ordinance shall provide that each person purchasing or receiving old or used metals other than junked automobiles or automobile parts shall maintain a record of each purchase or receipt. The record shall include the date of the transaction, the name, address, telephone number and signature of the person from whom the old or used metals are purchased or received, a description of the old or used metals, and the price paid for the old or used metals. The records so kept shall be produced at the request of law enforcement officials.

Cite as R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-21-1

§ 5-21-2. Hearing and objections by neighboring landowners

(a)    The local licensing authority of a city or town, before granting a license under this chapter to keep a shop or storehouse for the reception of any junk, old metals, or other second-hand articles or to establish, operate, or maintain an automobile junkyard, in any location not lawfully occupied for that purpose at the time of the application for that license, shall hold a public hearing notice of which shall be posted at least seven (7) days but not more than fourteen (14) days prior to the hearing in not less than two (2) public places in that city or town and in a newspaper of general circulation in that city or town where the shop, storehouse, or junkyard is to be established, operated, or maintained. Before the local licensing authority posts or publishes a notice of a hearing, the local licensing authority shall collect from the applicant for the license a fee of ten dollars ($10.00), plus the cost of posting and publishing the notice.
(b)    No license shall be granted under this chapter to the keeper of any shop or storehouse for the reception of any junk, old metals, or other second-hand articles or to a person establishing, operating, or maintaining an automobile junkyard, in any location not lawfully occupied for that purpose at the time of the application for the license, where the owners or occupants of the greater part of the land within two hundred (200) feet of that building or place file with the board, city or town council, respectively, having jurisdiction to grant licenses, their objection to the granting of the license. This subsection does not apply to any applicant who is the keeper of a shop or storehouse, or automobile junkyard, which is being acquired under eminent domain proceedings, who is applying for licensing within § 5-21-1 within the same city or town in which he or she was formerly licensed.

Cite as R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-21-2

§ 5-21-3. "Automobile junkyard" defined

As used in this chapter, "automobile junkyard" means a place where one or more unserviceable, discarded, worn-out or junked automobiles, or bodies, engines, tires, parts, or accessories of junked automobiles are gathered together.

Cite as R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-21-3

§ 5-21-4. Conditions to licensing of automobile junkyard

No license shall be granted for an automobile junkyard under § 5-21-1 unless:
(1)    It is to be operated and maintained entirely within a building;
(2)    It is to be operated and maintained exclusively for the purpose of salvaging the value as scrap of the material collected, as opposed to reselling parts to be used for the purpose for which they were originally manufactured, and is to be located in a built-up industrial area, or contiguous to a railroad siding, or on or contiguous to docking facilities; or
(3)    It is:
(i)    More than one thousand (1,000) feet from the nearest edge of any highway on the interstate or primary system;
(ii)    More than six hundred (600) feet from any other state highway;
(iii)    More than three hundred (300) feet from any park, bathing beach, playground, school, church, or cemetery and is not within ordinary view from those places; and
(iv)    Screened from view either by natural objects or well constructed and properly maintained fences at least six (6) feet high acceptable to that city or town and in accordance with regulations as promulgated by the director of public works and as specified on the license.

Cite as R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-21-4

§ 5-21-5. Misdemeanor to operate automobile junkyard in violation of Section 5-21-4 - Enforcement

(a)    Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter except § 5-21-6, it is a misdemeanor to operate or maintain an automobile junkyard unless:
(1)    It is to be operated and maintained entirely within a building;
(2)    It is to be operated and maintained exclusively for the purpose of salvaging the value as scrap of the material collected, as opposed to reselling parts to be used for the purpose for which they were originally manufactured, and is to be located in a built-up commercial or industrial area, or contiguous to a railroad siding, or on or contiguous to docking facilities; or
(3)    It is:
(i)    More than one thousand (1,000) feet from the nearest edge of any highway on the interstate or primary system;
(ii)    More than six hundred (600) feet from any other state highway;
(iii)    More than three hundred (300) feet from any park, bathing beach, playground, school, church, or cemetery and is not within ordinary view from those places; and
(iv)    Is screened from view either by natural objects or well-constructed and properly maintained fences at least six (6) feet high.
(b)    It is the duty of the state police and the police of the cities and towns to enforce this section, and any person violating this section shall, upon conviction for the first offense, be punished by a fine of not less than fifty dollars ($50.00) nor more than one hundred dollars ($100), or by imprisonment for not less than ten (10) days nor more than thirty (30) days, or by both the fine and imprisonment, and shall for a second or subsequent conviction be fined not less than one hundred dollars ($100) nor more than five hundred dollars ($500), or by imprisonment for not less than thirty (30) days nor more than six (6) months, or by both the fine and imprisonment.

Cite as R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-21-5

§ 5-21-6. Existing licensed automobile junkyards

The provisions of subdivisions (1), (2), (3)(ii), and (3)(iii) of § 5-21-4 and subdivisions (a)(1), (a)(2), (a)(3)(ii) and (a)(3)(iii) of § 5-21-5 do not apply to any automobile junkyard in existence and having a valid license issued pursuant to § 5-21-1 on May 6, 1966.

Cite as R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-21-6

§ 5-21-7. Severability

If any clause, sentence, paragraph, or part of this chapter or their application to any person or circumstance is, for any reason, adjudged by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, that judgment does not affect, impair, or invalidate the remainder of this chapter or its application to other persons or circumstances.

Cite as R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-21-7

§ 5-21-8. Warranty to accompany sales of electrical appliances

Any dealer licensed under this chapter to sell second-hand electrical appliances is required to provide the purchaser of the electrical appliance with a three-day warranty of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose as defined by title 6A. The dealer is not allowed to exclude that warranty by expressions like "as is", "with all faults", or other language which, in common understanding, calls the buyer's attention to the exclusion of warranties.

Cite as R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-21-8