Lead Paint Disclosure

Lead-based paint has been banned in the U.S. since 1978. For this reason, homes built before 1978 should check for lead. As lead-based paint was already on the decline by the time the ban came into effect, your home is more likely to contain lead-based paint if it is older. Let’s learn all about Lead Paint Disclosure.

Why Is Lead-Based Paint Dangerous?

Historically, lead-based paint has caused health hazards due to dangerous contaminants. The poison can also harm children. In addition to causing severe brain damage and mental impairment in children, lead poisoning can also cause severe health effects in adults.

Additionally, it can cause mental retardation and poor physical health. Adults can become poisoned with lead, resulting in poor muscle growth, nerve damage, reproductive issues, high blood pressure, and even death.

Most likely, children’s injuries causes happen by lead paint. Lead paint often flakes or dissolves in older homes, causing it to fall to the ground and cause injury to children. Young children will often swallow the flakes of lead paint because they are prone to swallowing foreign objects.

How Does Lead Paint Cause Injuries?

As mentioned above, several injuries can occur from lead paint. Lead-based paint includes:

• Symptoms of nerve damage
• Trauma to the brain
• Anxiety and convulsions
• Dementia
• Defective growth of a child
• Coma
• Death

Do Homes Still Contain Lead-Based Paint?

However, older homes can still contain lead-based paint despite recent U.S. laws regulating lead-based paint in new residential buildings. Victorian homes are especially susceptible to this. It is possible to disturb lead particles lying dormant in a building by stripping the paint and applying new coats.

What are the Seller’s Obligations to Lead Paint in Homes?

In 1996, the “Lead Based-Paint Disclosure Regulation” required home sellers to disclose lead-based paint hazards on their property.

What are the Seller’s Obligations to Lead Paint in Homes?

The regulation requires home sellers to:

• The EPA has issued a pamphlet that helps buyers recognize lead-based paint hazards.
• Provide information regarding existing lead-based paint hazards. Sellers must disclose the paint’s location and the current condition of the painted areas.
• Ensure that the seller has submitted a Lead Warning Statement to the buyer in the home sales contract.
• Home buyers should have a 10-day inspection period to assess lead-based paint risk.
• It’s important to report violations or injuries and to pursue legal action if necessary. Injuries, breaches of home sales contracts, and other issues may be the subject of legal action.

What Are Some Lead-Based Paint Disclosure Laws?

Despite recent regulation laws, lead-based paint remains in many buildings built before the current laws. Homeowners must disclose whether lead-based paint is present in their homes and instead need to remove it.

In 1996, regulations came into effect governing lead-based paint disclosures. Lead-based paint must be disclosed when renting or buying a home built before 1978. As well as allowing buyers to inspect the home for lead-based paint, the seller handles disclosure.

What other lead-based paint disclosure laws exist?

In addition to paint disclosures, other items may need disclosure as well, including

• Toys for kids
• Furnishings of certain types
• Objects of jewelry

Retailers can be held liable for selling defective or non-compliant toys. For example, children’s toys cannot have paint levels greater than .009 parts per million.

Lead-Based Paint Disclosure Exemptions

As a general rule, owners and landlords of homes constructed before 1978 must provide lead-based paint disclosures. However, some exemptions do apply. In addition to houses built after 1978, the following also qualify for an exemption:

• A studio apartment, for example, is a dwelling unit without a bedroom.
• Short-term rentals consist of dwelling units leased for less than 100 days.
• A house designed specifically for the elderly, if children don’t also live there.
• Certified inspectors found no lead-based paint in rental units.

Unless you fall within one of the exemptions when selling or renting your property, you may have to provide a lead-based paint disclosure form.

Requirements for Lead-Based Paint Disclosures

Homeowners must follow the disclosure requirements when selling or renting their property by:

• Provide a copy of the EPA pamphlet Protect Your Family from Lead in Your Home to prospective buyers or tenants
• Make sure you disclose all lead-based paint hazards in your home, including any reports you have obtained before.
• As part of the contract for the sale or rental of the home, including a complete lead-based paint disclosure form or lead warning statement and confirmation that you have complied with all requirements.

In addition, the homeowner must give the buyer ten days—or another mutually agreed-upon period to inspect the property for lead-based paint.

When a tenant renews their lease, a homeowner only has to provide another disclosure if the information has changed. If you are renting or selling, ensure you hold onto your signed statements for three years as proof of compliance.

Understand Lead-Based Paint Requirement

It’s important to understand that lead-based paint requirement is only about disclosure. Before selling or renting your home out, you do not have to have it inspected. It is optional for you to remove lead-based paint from your home if a prospective buyer opts to conduct a lead-based paint inspection that reveals it.

Disclosure serves as an alert to potential lead-based paint hazards in the future residence of the buyer or tenant. Once the disclosure occurs, any necessary lead reduction or removal can be negotiated.

If you want to sell or lease your home if its construction was complete before 1978. You must follow federal lead-based paint disclosure requirements. The compliance process is simple. But it is crucial to avoid penalties and a lawsuit resulting from noncompliance.

What Lead-based Paint Pamphlet should we Provide?

A lead-based paint pamphlet called the “EPA pamphlet” should be provided to new tenants. Also, to their lead disclosure form by the Environmental Protection Agency.

It is available in many languages and details the risks associated with residential lead exposure.

What if the Tenant wants More Information?

The law only requires you to inspect your property for lead-based paint hazards if you are aware of any on your property (assuming it existed before 1978). However, you need to disclose any known contamination on your property.

It may be necessary for a new tenant to ask you for a lead hazard inspection before signing a lease if you are still determining the presence of lead-based paint. A tenant may also submit paint samples to a testing facility to determine lead levels, but you are not required to follow the request.

You may choose to comply with the request to fill the unit. As a landlord or property manager, you have legal obligations. Consult a lawyer.

Lead-Based Paint Disclosure Laws: What Are the Penalties?

When someone suffers harm from lead paint, they may file a civil action against the homeowner or retailer. Fines and jail sentences may be imposed for violations of lead-based disclosure laws. A seller may incur liability for damages if a tenant gets lead poisoning because a homeowner failed to disclose the presence of lead-based paint in the home.

How Do We Recover Monetary Damages For Lead Poisoning?

There is a wide range of severity of injuries, as well as the knowledge of the person who caused them. Compensation usually goes to cover medical bills and associated costs.

The plaintiff’s right is to seek compensation if they prove that the defendant intentionally or negligently caused the injury. Compensation includes compensation for the injury and compensation for the consequences of it. In addition to general damages, specific damages exist under the law as compensatory damages.

An expert witness, such as a physician or psychiatrist, must testify to determine the monetary value of general damages. These damages include pain, suffering, mental anguish, and trauma.

Special damages typically result if the plaintiff’s injuries result in specific damages, such as medical expenses or lost wages. These damages can define in terms of their monetary value.

What is the Best way to Build a Strong Lead-based Contamination Lawsuit?

It may be necessary to do the following to develop a successful lead contamination case:

• We should get medical records and photographs of the building’s lead-based paint.
• To determine whether lead-based paint chips are present, a mold specialist, city inspector, or another professional must conduct an assessment.
• You should negotiate with responsible parties, such as the landlord or seller, and document your efforts.
• If you cannot resolve your issue without suing, consult an attorney as soon as possible.
• Hire a paint expert who can demonstrate that the paint caused injuries in this case and is generally harmful.

Who Else may be Liable for Lead-based Paint Contamination?

The following parties may also be responsible for lead paint contamination besides landlords and property owners:

• Providing and manufacturing lead-based paints
• In the case of defective work, contractors who contaminated the work site with lead chips or dropped lead chips

What Else Should We Know About Lead Poisoning And Toxic Exposure?

Estimates indicate that 3.6 million American homes have at least one child at risk of getting poisoned by lead paint. Lead poisoning usually occurs over several months or years from a buildup of lead in the body.

If a toxic substance impacts a large group of people, we can file a class action lawsuit instead of an individual lawsuit. A class action lawsuit is a legal claim brought by a group of people who all suffered the same or similar injuries due to the same defendant’s actions.

As a result of statutes of limitations, a specific claim can only submit within a certain period against a defendant. In cases of personal injuries such as lead poisoning, claims for damages must be filed within a set period; this usually takes two or three years. This timeframe, however, varies from state to state.

As a result of toxic exposure, the situation can be especially complex since the injury may not become apparent for several years after the exposure. As a result, many states have enacted the “discovery rule,” which ensures that the statute of limitations does not start until an injury has been known for a reasonable amount of time.

What is the recommended period to keep a signed lead-based paint disclosure?

Typically, you must keep these records for three years after signing the lease. A signed lead-based paint disclosure will serve as a legal defense if a tenant becomes ill from lead poisoning while living in your rental property and claims they did not receive one.

Is disclosing lead paint to a tenant necessary?

There are occasional audits and on-site inspections conducted by the EPA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). It is not just property owners and landlords responsible for this disclosure requirement; agents and property managers are also subject to sanctions if they fail to comply.

If you do not comply with the disclosure requirements, you may face a civil fine of up to $10,000 per violation and a criminal fine of up to $10,000 (and one year in jail) per violation. In the case of minor, more technical violations, you might get a letter outlining what needs to happen to comply. If you find yourself in this situation, a landlord-tenant lawyer can assist.

Can a Tenant Sue You If You Fail to Disclose the Hazards?

A tenant harmed by lead-based paint exposure in your rental property may sue you if you fail to disclose the hazards. If you claim to have willfully violated the disclosure need, the court can award triple the damages to the harmed tenant, along with attorney and legal fees.

A landlord’s or property manager’s efforts will be more successful if they fully understand their rights, responsibilities, and potential liabilities.

Bottom Line

Especially when it comes to the age of a home, it can be challenging to understand lead-based paint disclosure laws. If you need legal advice and defense, your defective products lawyer can provide legal advice and defend you in court. If you need to appear in court, your attorney can provide legal advice and protect your interests.