Rental home presence of lead paint?

We viewed a rental property today and decided against getting it. It was a very spacious house and would have been great. When we were touring I spoke to the landlord since I have 3 children and asked if there were any testing done for lead paint. He said no. It's old enough that it probably at least had some at one point. So when I said I'd call the health department and see if we could check he said ';there will be no paint removed in this house';. Isn't it his responsibility to make the home safe and remove the lead paint efficiently as a biohazard or something? Isn't that a law? We did decide to not rent it because of his general attitude about not caring for others' safety and he obviously wouldn't fix it if there were a problem but I'm just wondering if that's something he is legally obligated to deal with.Rental home presence of lead paint?
I'm looking at a handout my apartment building gave me when I moved in (as I live in an old building). It has the seals of the EPA, Consumer Product Safety Commission, and Hud on it, so its not a state or local thing. (and you can probably find it online)





This handout says, in part, that the landlord has to disclose any known lead hazard before a lease takes effect and that the lease has to disclose it. It does say that lead based paint is not a hazard if its in good condition. Peeling, chipping, chalking, cracking, or damaged paint is a problem. Sanding or anything else that turns it into dust is bad. Knowing that there's lead based paint in the house doesn't tell you that there's a problem or how bad the problem is. A professional has to evaluate the danger and a professional has to be the one to remove it. They say that if you make sure that any peeling or chipped paint has to be cleaned up and fixed right away and that you should clean often and then thoroughly clean your cleaning implements.





Anyway, it looks like he doesn't have a responsibility to remove it, though he does have to fix any chipped or peeling paint when you report it. The most important thing, though, was his attitude, which I think you're right about. I do think that anybody who is potentially renting to families should know the hazards and be able to answer your questions. If he told you that he'd had it checked out, he knew which areas needed to be watched, and told you exactly what you should do and he would do, you might not have decided to take the house. However, it would have been about the paint rather than feeling like you'd end up with a landlord you couldn't trust.Rental home presence of lead paint?
If there is lead paint then yes he is reasponsible to have it removed because he is the owner. However, it is his house and if he doesn't want things removed that is his decision. Also, if someone did hire another to check the paint and there was lead they could report the owner.
No, it is not a requirement for the landloard to remove the lead paint.


Removing lead paint causes it to become airborne which is 1000 times worse.





Lead paint can be legally encapsulated with new paint.





If you are uncomfortable with this as a solution you have the option to move elsewhere.
Use of lead based paint stopped in the mid 1970's in the US, so there would be 40 years of paint applied over any LBP. Private homes were exempt from being tested for LBP and it was up to the homeowner. If the house is that old, it probably has asbestos insulation also. You can't reasonably expect a retired homeowner to go to the expense of gutting and abating his house for what you were going to spend on rent. You will probably find some exemptions for single family homes in the LBP and asbestos abatement laws. I don't blame the landlord for not giving in to your misinformed requests.
He is only required to remove lead paint if it is peeling or he does renovations. If he leaves the trim in place, he doesn't have to remove it. You can buy a test kit at any hardware store. You scratch a few layers of paint off and wipe on some liquid. If it turns pink, there's lead.





As long as your kids don't chew on the woodwork, there is no harm in lead paint. It's been used for hundreds of years, and we've managed to make it this far without going extinct.





And he doesn't care, because it would be cheaper to leave the house empty than remove it. You'd have to live there for 10 years before he'd break even.
My understanding that when you rent an older property the landlord can use a ';lead paint disclosure'; document to get around stripping all the paint. I bought a lease/rental agreement at office depot and it came with a CD ROM with just this form on it, so this must be pretty common.