Lead paint with inherited tennants

[James Denon]

I have a 3 family under contract in massachusetts. The closing date is end of the month. It is a house built in 1914 and I just received a disclosure from the seller indicating that "seller has no knowledge of lead paint". 

There are 3 tenants living in the property. So, I will inherit them.

Does anyone have investing experience in a property where lead status is unknown?

I guess per MA state law, you cant rent to someone with a child younger than 6yrs of age.

Even if the kid is 8yrs old, I cant stop him from peeling 5 layers of paint and eating the layer with lead paint. 

I also cannot control people reproducing in the house and giving birth to less than 6yr old offspring after they move into the apartment:) Do they have to move out because they just had a kid in a "lead status unknown" property?

I like the deal. It is a quiet area. Cashflow and the condition of the property is decent. I dont want to throw away the contract because of lead but I would like to hear from investors in MA and maybe in Maryland MD.

[Nick Montville]

If your tenant has a child under 6, you would have to test for lead, and if it's present, you would have to have it remediated within a certain time frame. Also by Massachusetts law, while screening tenants you legally cannot discriminate against families by denying them because they have children. In the eyes of the law, if a family with children under 6 wants to move in, you have that same period of time to remediate the lead.

That being said, most tenants would not be willing to wait the amount of time it would take to have the lead issue fixed and they'd move on. If your current tenants had a child on the way, it may be worth letting them out of the lease to find somewhere else If they're open to it.

This is the MA database of lead paint certificates/violations:
https://eohhs.ehs.state.ma.us/leadsafehomes/default.aspx

It's likely that the property you're looking at was never tested. Going by the construction date, It's also possible someone gut renovated the property since 1978 without ever having lead remediation done, and therefore there won't be lead present in the property.