Applicant for my SFH rental is looking to move immediately, as his three-year-old son tested with extremely high lead levels in his blood, which they traced back to his rental. All the houses in that area were built in the early 1900s, so it's not totally surprising.

I'm a little nervous about renting to him. My house was built in the same era. The windows have been replaced and the walls painted, but most of the woodwork is original. We've never tested for the presence of lead. If his son continued to test positive for lead, would I be in trouble? Is this worth the risk?

I'd ask the potential tenant for the phone number of the previous landlord and talk to him or her. If he doesn't give it to you then goodbye, checking with previous landlords is part of your application process that must be followed :-)

I have it in my lease that it has never been tested(it hasn't). You have to disclose the possibility of anything before 1978.

That's a good point. If it's not attached to your lease already, you can go online and get a "lead based paint disclosure (rental)". It's attached to all my leases and on there, I initial that I have no knowledge of lead based paint and I have no reports or records of lead based paint.

I had a family, husband, wife and two kids. One on of the kids didn't look like the parents. So I had to give any one who asks an application with my requirements.

As it turned out they did not list all of their rentals in their application. When I did a legal background check I found they are claiming a child got lead poisoning from two rentals. A HUD government owned property and one from private landlords. I requested more info, animals, renters insurance, auto insurance, etc. By the time the had everything I requested, the rental was taken by someone else.

These were scammers. HUD demanded I give them the rental because they saw it first. I said "So what"! IF someone drags their feet, they snooze and loose. I was dragged into Housing Court. I told the Judge that Hud paid this family a six digit figure to settle their lead poisoning case and HUD is helping them and their attorney secure more suckers.

Robin,

Absolutely NO.

Lawyers, love, love, love this stuff and can easily make your life miserable. The fact the child was tested before living in your rental will not excuse you from prosecution.

Lead Is like mold, or discrimination. Guilt is determined by the eye of the Government agency who wants to crush a landlord. Or receive lots of money from big fines.

Stay far away from this family. Sounds like their Journey towards justice is just beginning And you don’t want to be in their journey.

I had a Child test positive for lead while living in my rental. It’s set into motion whole chain of events that were automatic.

The teacher noticed little Billy having trouble at school. The pediatrician did a lead test and found him to be one notch over the limit. That automatically triggered an in-depth inspection of my rental. They dug a hole in my window trim to test all the layers of paint. They cut a hole in my vinyl siding to test all the layers on the outside of the house. They scooped up dirt from the yard to test it for lead.

So, of course, they found lead, deep in the layers of this older home.

Stay far away.

Robin,

Absolutely NO.

Lawyers, love, love, love this stuff and can easily make your life miserable. The fact the child was tested before living in your rental will not excuse you from prosecution.

Lead Is like mold, or discrimination. Guilt is determined by the eye of the Government agency who wants to crush a landlord. Or receive lots of money from big fines.

Stay far away from this family. Sounds like their Journey towards justice is just beginning And you don’t want to be in their journey.

I had a Child test positive for lead while living in my rental. It’s set into motion whole chain of events that were automatic.

The teacher noticed little Billy having trouble at school. The pediatrician did a lead test and found him to be one notch over the limit. That automatically triggered an in-depth inspection of my rental. They dug a hole in my window trim to test all the layers of paint. They cut a hole in my vinyl siding to test all the layers on the outside of the house. They scooped up dirt from the yard to test it for lead.

So, of course, they found lead, deep in the layers of this older home.

Stay far away.

Just remembered, some places in Ohio and others have STRICT lead remediation laws once a speck of lead is found, incurring large repair costs.

I don't know but would not be surprised if part of those laws state something like "If a child in the home test high...Owner must remediate."

It might be worth wild to do a 15 minute site visit if you believe what that story. If the windows are wooden, paint is peeling, and plumbing lines are original - perhaps they do need to escape that place.

Another vote for NO! Somehow us oldsters survived without mental damage being surrounded by lead toys, lead paint, etc. I for one distinctly remember chewing on my lead based varnish crib rungs (back in the day when you graduated from a dresser drawer to a crib, it was a while before they graduated you from a crib to an actual bed)

This seems very off. If my kid tested positive for lead and I had to move I would for sure move to something newer where there was no chance of lead paint. I wouldn't move from one old house to another old house.

So MA has the strictist lead laws in the country ... they were the first state to force lead remediation for kids under 7.

Just because you follow the law doesn't exempt you from being sued. I had a kid with elevated levels in a DELEADED unit. Showed my certificate to the judge. Public attorney explained that the existing law does not remove ALL lead from the unit.

It was determined the kid got poisoned in the babysitters lead ridden house. Suit was settled.

Tough one for sure... I would certainly hesitate to say yes. Find something or someone that is a better qualified candidate for a tenant.

I had this happen to me a few years ago. Family from CA moved here... all was ok. A room in the front of the house ceiling fell (it was an old staple up square ceiling ... can't think of the actual name of them now) and the furring strips and staples must have come loose or whatever and the squares fell.

That room was basically empty. There was a bedroom above it. I'm thinking (guessing) that someone (kid, whatever) was bouncing on the floor of the bedroom and after a while the ceiling just fell.

We had someone come in and remove that ceiling and then put up a sheetrock ceiling and paint it. All was good.

Fast forward a few more months and I get notified by the Health Department that the kid now has lead poisoning and they did a lead test and provided us with the results (sure enough ... lead found "everywhere").

I then get a phone call (I believe ... it's been a while) from EPA and they need the contractors lead certificate that completed the work on the front room because the tenants are stating "there was a ton of dust from that and that's where it (lead) came from". I then told them what had happened and they said "ok ... just send us the certificate and if that's what it was then you'll be fine".

I forwarded his certificate and they stopped. However, we still had to deal with the lead paint all over the house. So we went through the entire house, replaced ALL windows, scraped and then painted ALL trim. Cleared the lead from the entire house with the exception of one bedroom upstairs. Still an elevated risk of lead found on the floor. I was stunned.

I asked the health inspector what he thought and what do I do now since we've done EVERYTHING that we could do. He said "look at your windows... you have them cracked open in this room. (we had them open because it was the middle of summer and it was really hot) Close them. Most likely the neighboring houses have lead paint and the dust is coming into the windows and landing on your floor. once you do that... come in, mop the floor as you have done before then use a swiffer wetjet mop changing the pads frequently. Call me when you want to do it again and then swiffer jet mop the floors a few hours before I come. You should be fine ... make sure you keep those windows closed and don't walk in here much after you've cleaned the floors and honestly... only when you are cleaning it".

Sure enough... passed the next week. I would have NEVER thought that it would be just coming in the windows.

Stay away. Just disclosing what you know will not save you. If the kid keeps testing hot they are gonna come after you. You will have to take steps for immediate remediation or face massive liability for making the kid brain damaged. Oh, and all insurance policies have lead paint exclusions, so do not expect any help there. You will be looking at putting the tenants up somewhere while the place is remediated, and remediation has to be done by certified remediation contractors. I got sued years ago, fortunately for me back then insurance policies still covered it, and the parents were complete pieces of cr*p (both drug addicts), so the suit was easily settled. Don't even know where the kids got the lead from--could have been school, grandma that minded them every day, etc.

That she is disclosing this to you is what is striking to me. Its as if she's looking for you to take care of her. What other ways will she want you to be her carer?

I strongly agree that if I had a child of mine test positive for lead, I wouldn't be moving into ANYTHING pre-1978.

I don't ask prospects why they are moving. But, they usually offer the info. Very telling, especially when they are looking for me to fix their parenting/ housecleaning issues. My own kids were raised in pre-1978 houses, and one house we were renting was built in early 1900s, like, 1908. House's paint started peeling, I mentioned it to landlord, and I tested it. ( oops! yes, positive ) Had my kids tested, no lead in their blood. I cleaned daily, regularly, made kids wash hands before eating anything. Had the kids tested again, after we moved to a house we built. Still nothing.

AH YES,,,,,,,lead, radon, arsenic, mercury, and the all time favorite,……VOC’s

The reality is that this stuff is EVERYWHERE.

little Jonny’s dog rolls in it in the yard outside.

As mentioned above,….it’s blowing in through the doors and windows,….it’s probably in his school bus

But the paint in a rental property is an easy target to locate and culprit.

I put the standard advisories In my leases AND also add some language about “”””””the stuff outside “””””” which landlords have no control over.

Little Jonny’s dog,…or little Jonny’s himself is chewing on stuff,……then Jonny plays and sleeps with the dog.

When I was a kid,…my parents didn’t let me chew on pieces of the house.

I also rode a bicycle without a helmet and crash pads and in cars without seatbelts,…let alone kid cars seats,…which BY the way HAVE EXPIRATION DATES ON THEM

are the police and insurance companies checking for expired car seats yet ..??

My mother's right arm was my restraint when riding in the front seat of the car. Oh no, might get into a fender bender, right arm snaps out to keep me from going thru the windshield.

Try an— that’s a heck no! Running painted trim through a saw will make a ton of lead dust. What’s more, I want the house to have no lead paint at all, and for the cost of buying new trim I am happy to do it.

As some of you know, MA was one of the first states to pass & more importantly enforce tough lead laws. Back when most insurance policies had coverage for lead paint issues, hundreds of claims were made & lawsuits were filed against LLs with older properties. Once insurance practices changed & lead coverage was not provided unless you had a specific addendum for it, lawyer TV ads for lead issues & the actual lawsuits almost disappeared. I'm sure the reason for it was because all the lead had been taken care of & not that because these lawyers wouldn't get an easy payday.