Stuck with Lead affected property
Investor · Youngstown, OH · Member since 2015 · 6 posts · 0 votes
Hi,
I am stuck with Lead affected property for over one year, it is marked lead affected by health department in Youngstown, Ohio.
Without fixing it we can't rent and also no one wants to buy. only thing i want right now to fix this issue in a reasonable price to get this thing rented.
If you have any contacts, please share, who can guide me in this situation,
Thanks
Mannu
Where is the lead? In the paint? In the soil? Some where else? Here in CA if lead is in the paint you mask off the area, remove flaking chips, wet sand where needed, and paint over it. The chips have to be bagged with the top of the bag sealed with duct tape, and everything HEPA vacuumed. Here in CA there is an 8 hire class to become lead certified. If you can find such a class there then at least you'll know what needs done and how to get it done.
@Derreck Wells
... I hear you ... just sharing what my licensed deleader did (of course no cuts are made in the property). Never spent more than 7k to delead a SF. Never had a problem. It's a better "look" than coving with luan.
BTW wasn't aware those Mass Housing Finance loans were still being offered. I am still paying on 2 of them ... what's not to love about 3% fixed for 20 yrs !
@Tim Ryan, I misunderstood, I thought you were doing it yourself, which in some cases is legal.
I don't cover baseboards or trim with luan either, looks too cheap. In my opinion, it hurts rentability, unless the owner is going for low income, I replace them. The owner on the one I just deleaded said "Half the renovation is done! What a bonus!" Then he hired me to finish the reno. since I had already done half.
I'd love to take a look at your next one. I've outbid competitors by several thousand dollars in the past. Maybe we can develop a working relationship beneficial to both of us. I usually come in $1000-$2000 cheaper per unit. I do that by not guaranteeing that the dust wipes will pass. If they fail, I charge to come clean again. From what I've learned talking to inspectors, most deleaders assume they're going to fail and put additional cleaning into their estimates. I assume I'm going to pass, so I don't think it's necessary to pad the bill to allow for recleaning. I haven't failed one yet.
To get my lead free certification, I had to pass a lead test which was handled by a local lead company. They did the test and said "You have lead in these three windows. Have your handyman or contractor replace them and once done, contact me so I can verify that the affected windows have indeed been replaced."
They said nothing about a special type of "de-leader" to do it. Maybe that's because it was just windows.
Anyway, @Account Closed, yes, I got the lead test the same day as the home inspection before buying my last property. It was the first building I purchased that wasn't already lead free certified. Now in Baltimore/Maryland, you can't rent a house out unless it is at least lead-safe. I'm not sure how the guy you're talking about fixes a lead issue if he doesn't know exactly where the lead is.
Yep. This exactly.
FYI - here are the general lead inspection points from HUD itself.
@Bill Struthers - It's not always that exactly. And that's kind of my point. Every situation is different, and there are multiple sets of laws at play with each. You have your Federal Laws (EPA), State Laws, and City Ordinances that all need to be followed. There's different types of inspections, there's different types of hazards, there's different types of deleaders, and there's different types of ways to deal with the hazards. There's a bunch of crazy laws in the mix written by politicians sitting in an office who never rehabbed a property in their life and should not have been writing laws on the subject. They even have laws on how thick the plastic drop-cloths and trash bags have to be. I'd be willing to bet that not many of you know that I'm required to vacuum off the outside of the full trash bags before I bring them out of the work area. All my tools have to be washed before I bring them out of the work area. The plastic drop-cloths have to sprayed down with water before I can fold them up, and they have to be folded a certain way before I throw them out. If I don't have my HEPA certified vacuum on site to vacuum off the bags, I will get a $32,500 fine. Some of the stuff is just absurd and all it does is add considerable time to the job, which in turn adds to the labor costs that the homeowner has to pay.
In MA, if you're getting a Post Compliance Inspection (which means that you already have a letter of compliance, now you're turning over a tenant and getting re-checked to make sure everything is STILL in compliance) the homeowner has 30 days to fix any issues themselves (or by hiring a handyman, etc.) without having to get certified. But that's because the big stuff has been done and the only real issue will probably be peeling paint or missing siding (low or moderate risk hazards). You would still need to follow the EPA RRP rules, but you can do it yourself. However, that's not true for every situation.
The best thing an investor can do if they want to save money on lead paint issues is to get certified to remove it themselves. Then they learn the laws that apply to them and they won't get themselves in trouble. You would only be allowed to work on your own property, and you have to do the work yourself, unless you have your "agent" get certified (son, brother, father, friend you're going to pay to do the work, etc.) but you will save money. If you already do the maintenance on your properties yourself, then that's definitely the way to go. If you don't have the time to rollover the unit, then it's best to hire someone who's already licensed. Otherwise, you're risking breaking one, or several, laws doing the work which could seriously hurt the rent-ability of the property, which is what happened to the house in the original post of this thread.
@Derreck Wells - I agree each inspection will be different. I wanted to provide a basis for common areas which are tested.
Have you contacted the Health department to find out what exactly needs to be done? I don't thinks its as expensive as you think as every contractor has to lead safe certified to work on houses pre 1978. so just get a lot of quotes to find the lowest price. I would say most realtors have no idea what it would cost.
I had an issue with a garage in Milwaukee. I had the state inspector called by the neighbors. I had to hire a lead certified contractor to vacuum up paint chips. I did have a deadline so the prices were all over the place. in the end is cost $450 and I needed to paint the garage. I probably could have found someone for less but I didn't have time to contact more contractors.
@Derreck Wells is right on taking a lead class, I had been signed up for one about a year ago and had to cancel after something else popped up, but have been meaning to do another one. That way you'll not only know how to "safely" remove the lead affected stuff, but you should also have some good insight into the myriad of often insane laws we now have from many levels of gov't. It was a one day class, an 8 to 5 type deal for around $300 I believe.
One thing that really gets me is how ALL of these various new rules and regulations, brought in with the best of intentions by "do gooder" lawmakers or sometimes un-elected people in the EPA, etc hit the areas hardest that need help by far the most. For lack of a better term, they screw themselves and our area with every new "protection".
Here in Milwaukee, we have an entire area of the city with very low property values and that's the area where its usually (or almost always) not worth fixing up many properties due to all of these various costs that are now involved. Am I saying "let them eat lead paint?" HELL NO! Yet, they take what could, with a modicum of common sense, be done for $1000 and make it a $5000 job!
I don't bother with the low priced stuff anymore and I look at these projects and think how on the two I have where one will sell around $220k, the other around $260k (although prices keep going up-woo hoo!) an unexpected $5000 cost isn't fun, but its not the end of the world. On my big current project, so nice I had to move in and would like to stay if I can swing a plan to cover the $30k/yr property tax alone and if I have to sell, should fetch around $1.3 or $1.4M, an unexpected 5 grand is just a small part of the contingency budget. Yet, when you're talking about a $15k property, or even $40k, 5 grand unplanned is the end of the world, or seems like it at the time. All that is often because as was already mentioned, some elected official (of which we have WIDELY varying ones here) got some idea themselves or from whoever in the community or found out what other cities had done (stupidly) and they copy it and guess what, now we have a whole swath of the city where we have a massive number of abandoned homes that make no financial sense but to bulldoze!