Do you own rentals in Massachusetts?

[Derreck Wells]

Do you own rental properties in MA? Single family or multi family, they all fall under the Massachusetts Lead Paint Laws, which are some of the strictest in the country. The state is trying to make all rental units lead safe by enacting laws that will motivate you, the owner, to delead them.

The MA State Lead Laws require that all homes built before 1978 have a Lead Certificate on file with the state if there are children under the age of six living there. There cannot be a child under six living in an apartment with lead paint or with “no knowledge” of lead paint. If there is no Certificate of Compliance on file, it is illegal to rent to a family with a child under six.

Considering that most of the rental properties in the state were built before 1978, the laws affect most of the real estate investors in the state. If a child’s blood test shows a high blood lead level, the owner of the property will be held liable. Even if the child lived there when someone else owned it, the current owner will be held liable unless the current owner deleaded the property within 90 days of closing on the property. If the current owner deleads within 90 days of buying the property, they are no longer liable for past tenants high blood lead levels and can’t be sued.

Owners should NEVER try to find ways to around these laws. There are no shortcuts; the laws are very specific on who can do the work and how it needs to be done. Lead hazards MUST be made safe by a licensed deleader. If an owner attempts to delead the units themselves, it will be flagged as having had Unauthorized Deleading done to it. It will than never be able to get a Certificate of Compliance, the best to hope for would be a Letter of Environmental Protection, which essentially tells everyone that the owner did illegal work on the property, got caught, then had to have a licensed deleader come in and fix the issues correctly. This could increase insurance rates and lower the tenant pool (who wants a landlord that does illegal work?). They could be fined for it as well, and they STILL would have to pay a licensed deleader to do the work.

Violations of the lead laws can include civil liabilities and criminal liabilities and fines can reach $10,000 per violation. Owners and Agents of Owners (Property Managers) can also be subject to penalties under the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act which provides for triple damages.

Owners and property managers should actually make an effort to comply with the laws and take advantage of the incentives and benefits of being lead safe. There is a $1500 per unit tax credit available and low or no interest loans and grants are often available. Having lead safe rental units also increases the tenant pool as families actively seek out lead safe housing, and due to that added demand, owners can actually charge more in rent. Owners will also benefit when they sell the property since buildings with a Certificate of Compliance on file can be sold for more money because they can bring in higher rents then buildings that aren’t lead safe.

The first step for a potential owner is to have us check the state database and see if a lead inspection has ever been done. Occasionally a property was inspected, then not deleaded and this makes it so the property cannot be legally renovated until it is deleaded by a licensed deleader. Ideally this would be done as part of the due diligence when buying the property so the results can be used in the negotiations. If the property has never been deleaded it’s safe to say that it will have to be done, so some or all of the cost of deleading should be negotiated off the purchase price.

The next step is to get a lead inspection done by a licensed deleader. We have one we like to work with, but we can work off of any lead inspection report. Once we have that report, we can put together a ballpark figure for the project. If you like the ballpark number, we then need to do a walk-through of the property before we can firm that number into an estimate.

Shoot me an email if you’re considering buying a property or if you already have a rental property you need deleaded. I’ll be glad to help in any way I can.