MA Lead Paint Laws - Important Info

[Derreck Wells]

Hey all,

I just want to  give you all a little heads up on the Massachusetts lead based paint laws. If you're new to investing, this could be one of the most important posts you read. I'm going to break it down in laymen's terms here for you.

In MA, you cannot rent to a family with a child under the age of 6 unless you have a Lead Certificate on file with the state. You also can't discriminate against families, so if one applies and is the best tenant you can get, it will be on you to delead it before they move in. If you turn them down because you don't have a lead cert on file, you are violating the anti-discrimination laws. It doesn't matter if you don't know if there's lead paint, if you don't have a cert on file, you can't rent to a family with a kid. 

If you have a unit that you're renting to a couple (or single woman) and she gets pregnant, you now have to delead that unit by law. You also legally need to pay for housing for the tenant while the job is going on. If you rent to a guy who doesn't have custody of their kids, you still have to delead if the kid will be staying there on weekends. Those weekends put the kid in residence enough to require a lead cert. Obviously it's best to delead while the units are empty so you don't have to pay for a hotel.

Here's a little known aspect of the law. When you buy a multi unit property you buy all the past tenants. If you start deleading within 90 days, you remove your liability of past tenants. If you don't start within 90 days and a tenant that lived there 10 years ago comes and claims that their kids got lead poisoning when they lived there, you are liable. It's the way MA is trying to get all the rentals deleaded. 

One of the most important things you can do when you're buying a property is find out the lead paint status. If someone is selling the building and trying to do it fast, and you can't figure out why it's below value and they're in a rush to sell, they may have a clue that they're about to be sued. If you buy the property before the suit is filed, you're on the hook. 

Also, if the unit has been inspected in the past, but was never deleaded, you can't renovate the unit until it is deleaded by a licensed deleader. If you do, it will be flagged for unauthorized deleading (UD). While this doesn't mean that you can never rent to families, you will never get a Lead Cert, you would instead get a Letter of Environmental Protection which will let everyone know there was illegal deleading, then the property was properly deleaded by a licensed deleader. This will increase your insurance and decrease your tenant pool (if you did that illegally, what else have you done illegal). If you want to know if a unit has been inspected there is a State database I can check for you for free. It will show if it has been inspected and if there were violations found. If there were vioations, it would also show if a Lead Cert was issued. If it were never inspected, it would mean that you would be on the hook for the deleading as you WILL need to delead. (Smartest move is to do it within 90 days as mentioned above.)

This knowledge is a great negotiation tool when buying a property, I once helped a buyer save $20,000 off the purchase price, then only charged them $12,000 to delead the building. They ended up owning a deleaded building that they could charge more for rents because they were lead safe, and saved an extra $8k on the purchase over what they would have negotiated. 

If you need a lead inspector, I would strongly recommend Anderson Lead Inspections (www.andersonlead.com). No, I do not get paid for referrals, he's just the best inspector I have worked with. He tries to help owners and not fail them so he has to come back and inspect again. If you already have a lead inspection, you do not need to use the same inspector for the reinspection, so after your building is deleaded, I would recommend calling him for the reinspection. If you use him for the initial inspection he can email me the reports and I can give you an estimate that you can use to negotiate the purchase price. 

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.

Derreck Wells