The Rhode Island Motor Vehicle Damage Appraiser license

27-10.1-1(a) is one sentence with the whole requirement in it: no person may appraise motor vehicle physical damage claims for an insurer or for a firm engaged in adjusting or appraising them without a license and a $150 fee for each biennial term, and "the license shall be issued only upon the successful passage of the examination". The statute then obliges the commissioner to give that examination no less often than quarterly, which is the only sitting frequency written into Rhode Island insurance law. No course is anywhere in the chapter. The Department’s own instruction sheet opens with the part that has no equivalent in any other Rhode Island license: "This license type is not reciprocal with any other state or jurisdiction. All applicants must pass the Rhode Island Motor Vehicle Damage Appraiser exam."The paper is exam series 38, forty five minutes, the shortest Pearson gives here, and its 2025 first-time pass rate was the highest of any Rhode Island insurance examination, 190 of 213 in person. Two more things sit on the application. Every applicant provides a certified background check from their resident state, and an applicant who is not an employee of an insurance company files an employment affidavit, in one of four versions chosen by whether they work at an automobile body repair shop and whether they intend to use the license straight away. That affidavit is where 27-10.1-3 lands in practice: the section requires everyone in the appraisal business to operate separate and apart from any body repair shop or dealership and to keep a permanent address open to the public in business hours, and the Department asks the question on the form rather than refusing the class of applicant outright.

Read at webserver.rilegislature.gov on 2026-08-18