Last week I blogged about the impact of the Massachusetts lead paint laws on landlords and real estate practitioners. This week’s column focuses on what you need to know if you’re planning to renovate, buy or sell a property built before 1978.
Despite the classic image of kids getting sick from lead by actually ingesting chips of paint, most kids who test positive for lead poisoning become ill from the lead dust generated by the friction of lead-painted surfaces rubbing against each other – such as door frames and window frames, and from the dust during and left behind from a renovation project. To minimize lead poisoning from renovations, the EPA has come out with the mandatory Lead-Safe Guide to Renovate Right.
According to this newish law, when a property owner plans to renovate more than 6 – yes, six — square feet of interior painted surfaces or more than 20 s.f. exterior in a building constructed before 1978, she or he must hire a licensed contractor. That contractor is legally obligated to provide to the homeowner, and to any tenants in the property, a copy of the Guide mentioned above. Good to know before you start your spring renovations!
When you’re selling or buying property in Boston, where a huge majority of the housing stock was built prior to 1978, (the year lead paint and other compounds became illegal in home construction and renovation), the situation is, happily, simpler. The key is proper disclosure, and, as we say, there’s an app – actually a form – for that!
For sellers: you are not required to de-lead unless it is a stipulation of the purchase contract – and I’ve never seen a buyer ask a seller to de-lead in 23 years of sales in Rozzie, Jamaica Plain and other parts of Boston. Will de-leading your property before putting it on the market improve your selling price? Maybe by a little, but de-leading is not a money-back proposition. It will increase buyer peace of mind and might in that way lead to a stronger selling price, but in general, it’s not part of the sizzle that most buyers are looking for these days.
Your Boston Realtor® will explain your obligation to disclose the status of the lead situation in your property, and will give you a copy of the regulations and the Transfer Form when you’re completing the Listing Agreement.
For buyers who want a property free of lead paint, be sure to focus on homes built after 1978 or which have been properly de-leaded with up-to-date Certificates of Compliance. When you’re writing an offer on a property built before 1978, your Boston Realtor® will guide you and provide a copy of the Lead Paint Notification and afore-mentioned form which has already been filled out by the seller and the seller’s agent. If you don’t have the form filled out by the seller, insist that you see it before signing on the dotted line.
When I go to extremes in my mind about the Lead Paint Law in Massachusetts, I see kids suing their parents for allowing them to grow up in houses that contained lead paint, but I haven’t heard of such a case…yet!
As I said last week, the points I’m making here are just bare bones. For deeper info, I encourage you to visit sites such as www.mass.gov/dph/clpp and www.hud.gov/offices/lead.
Linda Burnett
Jamaica Plain/Roslindale Real Estate Maven
Keller-Williams Boston-Metro Real Estate
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