Alright we have had a significant update on the Toledo Lead Paint Ordinance and wanted to post the details for those of us who own property in Toledo (or Ohio, we have several municipalities such as Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati/Dayton who are enacting similar versions once they felt licensing and inspecting was a source of income).

Lucas County Docket Filing 3-19-2018 - Dismissal of ABLE from Case

The lawsuit filed by the Property Investor's Network (PIN) here in Toledo challenged the constitutionality of the lawsuit (there are about 300 pages on the docket with each side arguing their case).

http://lcapps.co.lucas.oh.us/onlinedockets/Docket....

Click on the "Public Documents" link at the top left to see the various filings.

Anyway- so today the judge has made her first ruling on the case...removing ABLE and a lead paint affected tenant from the case. (ABLE and the citizen attempted to join the case as an interested and affected party. Thankfully the judge excluded the emotion from a constitutional lawsuit)

Of note- see pg 8: "Moreover, Jenkins' interest in protecting her son from lead-poisoning is inconsistent with the lead-paint ordinance as written, as the ordinance does not apply to all rental properties in Toledo." (A MAJOR basis for our lawsuit, under Toledo's ordinance properties with over 4-units are exempted from inspection and compliance.)

The response concludes "Finally, time is of the essence here because the deadlines for complying with the lead-paint ordinance are fast-approaching."

This infers we should have a final decisive response from the judge soon.

Toledo and communities through out Lucas County and Ohio have to grapple with the hazard of lead-paint. Hopefully with the successful conclusion of the lawsuit we can take the discussion to a cooperative mode with all citizens working toward a resolution: landlords both local and out-of-town, tenants and home owners, private industry experts such as @Adam A. and our local government administrators and leaders.

I see far more work ahead by winning than losing...the next step will be in leading the discussion towards a workable solution.