To de-lead or not to de-lead?
One of my clients wrote me this email:
Dear Rona,There might be a remote chance that we will move from this house, either to go to another state (California maybe) or to upgrade to a bigger place if we stay in the Boston area. In either case, I am thinking to keep this house as an investment and rent it. I know that there is lead paint in this house… Do you know if the house needs to be deleaded to be rented (or can the landlord have the tenant sign a release form in which the tenant acknowledges the presence of lead and relieves the landlord of any legal responsibility)?
First to answer the direct question:
Can the landlord have the tenant sign a release form in which the tenant acknowledges the presence of lead and relieves the landlord of any legal responsibility?
NO.
The owner of a property is responsible to anyone living there to provide a lead-safe environment for any children under the age of six. If a child is lead poisoned in the property, the owner is responsible.
I have covered lead paint regulations before on this site.
The Massachusetts lead paint law is very clear: the owner of the property is responsible for making the property lead-safe if a child under six lives there. Once a child is born, that child has the right to a lead-safe environment. It is a health and safety law, just like a landlord must maintain a working toilet in a rental unit.
As a landlord, you must present this form to prospective tenants. Landlords may not discriminate against families with children. They cannot ask pregnant women or children to leave.
The client who wrote me, above, owns a three-bedroom house; it would be a great rental for a young family. Most of the interior was renovated just before he bought it in the late 1990s. It has vinyl siding outside and replacement vinyl clad windows inside. There is some original woodwork and some replacement woodwork and wallboard.
If you were he, would you delead before renting? I’d love to hear from experienced landlords on this. Has anyone had problems with lead poisoning in a rental?
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From the (former) renters perspective: If you live in any rental, just be sure to have your kids tested for lead. Usually, this is annually (I think by law). We had the pediatrician test our kids a little more frequently. Any sign of lead ingestion will show up very easily and you can quickly take action. I've been told by the doctor that the window sills and such are where most of the lead comes from. If this is redone, you are probably OK.
I cannot picture a tenant demanding to have the lead removed. This takes time and you have to move out to have it occur unless you want to expose your kids to more lead. A big pain in the but, and easier to just move.
It doesn't sound like the house would be that expensive to delead and I would certainly encourage the owner to do so. There are tax breaks, low cost loans, and even some grant money available for deleading.
A landlord who doesn't delead could get into real legal trouble. Children are routinely tested for lead paint; if some is found not only does the landlord have to move the renters out at his expense, delead, and then move them back, he can also be liable for damages. And it doesn't matter if the child was poisoned from a toy or piece of clothing; the assumption is that the paint in the house is at fault.
It comes down to a single question that you must ask yourself (per Dirty Harry). "Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya,....." Not to de-lead is a gamble. There is no legal recourse if you have bad luck............
You can't ask a pregnant mother or child under six to leave... but you can do what our landlord did and simply raise the rent by $500. Despicable!
He should get a lead inspection and take one of the free deleading classes that Boston offers. Then do the deleading work himself on his own schedule. Do a little bit each weekend. Much of it is covering or replacing a threshold, door jamb, baseboard, etc. Windows are the biggie. This isn't brain surgery.
RE Mary's comment (#2): construction workers can also bring home lead dust inadvertently. If the landlord deleads while the apartment is vacant, he protects himself against having to delead later, unexpectedly. Certain cities will also help the landlord out financially if he deleads and rents to low-income families, and that will reduce the net expense.
or he could just skip the nightmare that landlording in Mass. can be. Its not a job to do remotely, or not knowing what you are doing. Mass gives tenants basically all the rights (though not all tenants are savvy enough to know this).
Its a really tough way to make money, and should not be engaged in casually.
Which is why, unsurprisingly, Mass rental housing is expensive and far from plentiful.
Bottom line is the house is most likely to be rented out by a family. You can discriminate without getting caught if you are sneaky. But just given the fact that the person is asking these questions suggests to me that they are not prepared to rent such a property. I personally don't have the time or the stomach for risk to deal with such properties so I stay away from them and rent properties that appeal to rich people and young academic types in Cambridge.
Cambridge landlord pretty much explains why the rental market is the way it is above. Which I in no way mean as a critique - he'd be crazy to do otherwise, and I did the same as a landlord.
But that's why rentals in Mass are how they are. Renting to a family is sadly nuts.
This blogger might want to review your comment before posting it.
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