Rental Unit Lead Conformance Advice

[Brian Quinn]

I recently purchased a 3 unit house in Providence RI, fully vacant. 

With the newly passed lead laws, the state seems to be getting much more strict about demanding landlords have a Certificate of Conformance for lead based paint issues on both the inside and outside of the house. The house I purchased is in decent shape on the interior as far as lead, nothing I can’t DIY. However, the exterior is loaded with chipping paint on all of the window frames (39 of them) and all the trim on the house. It is decorative trim, on a Victorian style house in a historic district. I’m wondering what other landlords in similar situations are doing about this? Since the new laws say that tenants basically don’t have to pay rent if you don’t have a lead cert, and getting the exterior work done to be fully conformant would cost 10s of thousands to do! I’m wondering if I should let this block me from getting any tenants in the units before I take this project on because it’s tough to come up with the mortgage with no rents.