Should I get a lead inspection?

Question

Hello,

I am in the process of purchasing a condo in New Hampshire as an investment. It was built in 1973. I have been asked to sign a lead warning statement where I can choose to waive my rights to an inspection or have an inspection completed within 10 days. The seller has no knowledge of lead in the home. Additionally, the condo was recently renovated from top to bottom. How concerned should I be about lead risk? Should I get a lead inspection done? If the inspection result indicates there is lead in the property, what are the next steps?

Any insight would be appreciated. Thank you!

Ronald Allen Barney · Answer

Get the inspection.  If remediation is required demand a concession of that amount from the seller.  If the escrow fails to close now the inspection results are a permanent taint on the property until remediated and the sellers would have to take a hit for at least that amount anyway.

Same holds true with other types of inspection, e.g. methamphetamine lab, mold, etc.  If I were a large capital group I would get the full battery of all those inspections done, make a generous offer contingent upon those results, and then if bad results come back make the offer incrementally less generous.

Greg Powers · Answer

If you plan to do a lead test and make the purchase contingent on the results, or plan to negotiate any results, make sure you check off that inspection contingency on the Purchase & Sale Agreement.  If you don't, there's no contingency.  That Lead Paint Hazard Disclosure you're checking off and signing has no contractual weight--it's just a disclosure.

A full-blown lead test by a licensed lead inspector will check subsurface layers of paint and it's fairly expensive (I was quoted $700 a few years ago, but it may depend on the size of the property).  Since, generally speaking, lead paint only poses an immediate hazard if it's on the surface, or if there's peeling and chipping paint and subsurface layers are exposed, if you want to go the cheap and easy route you can get a $10 lead paint test kit at Home Depot and check various surfaces (just keep in mind the contractual contingency may only apply if the testing was done by a professional, according to the standard verbiage in the NH P&S).  If it was recently renovated, I would guess that includes new paint so most likely any surfaces would have been painted over (i.e., encapsulated).

If you're already under contract for the condo and you didn't check off the Lead Paint inspection, the Home Depot test might be the way to go.  As someone above mentioned, if you rent to someone with young children and they test positive for lead poisoning, the consequences are complicated and expensive.  Better to know than not know.  But as stated, if you know and you do nothing about it, it will make the condo difficult to sell in the future.

New Hampshire does have several programs to help with the cost of lead abatement.  If you visit https://www.dhhs.nh.gov/dphs/b... and look down and to the right, there are links to several of them there.  You can also find links to lead inspectors and contractors there.

John Mocker · Answer

Meaghan,

Many of our Insurance Carriers for rental dwellings will ask if the property has been certified lead safe.  If not, the ones that ask will either not write it or will exclude liability for Lead Paint.  The requirement for the Lead Safe certification is getting more common with the Insurance carriers.

Account Closed · Answer

Does the buyer pay for the lead and asbestos testing. It is fairy expensive.

Robert Loiselle · Answer

Hey @Meaghan OBrien,

I'm a licensed lead paint inspector in MA and own investment properties up in NH.  I would get the inspection done.  Most houses that I test from the 70's don't have much lead at all, if any.  Its use was being phased out in the early 70's so it's likely there's not much, especially if the property has been renovated.  You might find some lead that needs to be abated on the exterior.

NH is really tightening their laws in regards to lead paint.  It likely won't cost too much to get the initial test done.  Maybe you get lucky and that's all you need.  Worst case there will be a bit of lead that needs to be abated where you have to pay the money that one time to remedy the issue and then it's behind you.

Debbie from Alchemy Lead Management is who I've used for inspections before in NH.  She's super helpful

Matt Herbert · Answer

If you get a lead inspection and there is lead found - then you must disclose that in the future when you sell. It can be off-putting to many buyers to see that there is lead in the home, potentially making the condo harder to sell. Many Real Estate Agents seem to prefer the "ignorance is bliss" mantra when it comes to lead paint. If you've never had it tested you can honestly say you have no knowledge of lead paint later.

However, ignorance is not a shield in this case. If you decide to rent the property to a family with children, and one of those children tests positive for lead, they will test your condo, and if it's positive for lead then you become liable (even if they ingested the lead at their former residence!).

All that being said, I own a few units that are old enough for lead paint. They had all been fully renovated (by previous owners) in the last 2-3 decades. So I went ahead and got a lead paint test, and they all came back clean. A clean lead cert helps me sleep at night (the units are rented to families with small children) and it also gets us a slight reduction in insurance rates.

Should I get a lead inspection?

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