| Danger: The Walls and Woodwork Can Be a Hazard |
| Even though lead-based paint is long obsolete, it remains a very genuine issue for sellers and real estate professionals. During the early 1990s, the Housing and Community Development Act established a requirement that a seller was required to make a signed disclosure of potential lead-based paint hazards to the purchaser of a home. Lead was used as a paint additive for over a century before it was associated with health problems in approximately 1978. |
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| That year, The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) implemented a law in the early 1990s which established the legal obligation that if any lead-based paint was used in a home it had to be formally disclosed in writing to the buyer. There is no requirement to test for lead paint, so in that regard the law may seem to be incomplete: one only has to state that lead paint may have been used, and give a warning with some pamphlets. The law applies to all homes built prior to when the use of lead paint was made illegal in 1978. |
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Homes built after that year are not affected by the certification requirement, since that was when the use of lead paint was banned. Criminal penalties for not complying with the law are severe, with substantial fines and imprisonment, not to mention opening the door to civil liability lawsuits. In addition to the Federal disclosure rule, some states actually require abatement -- covering (encapsulation) or elimination -- of paint. In this article we will mention some practical aspects of dealing with the situation, going beyond the notification required by law.
Simply put, the specific danger is lead poisoning. Young children, especially those under the age of six, have the highest risk of developing lead poisoning from lead paint because their young, actively growing bodies take in many of the minerals that they have contact with, whether it is something needed and useful like calcium or very dangerous lead. Continuously high levels of lead can cause brain damage, behavioral problems, hearing problems, and damage to the nervous system. These problems can occur in adults and children, but as an added complication in the case of children, normal growth patterns can be impaired.
Any home built before 1978 that has cracked, flaking, or chipped paint should be treated as a hazard. The damaged paint should be repaired immediately. If paint containing lead was used around the window or door frames in the home, opening and closing these items may be creating a surprisingly large amount of dust that contains lead. This dust is a toxic substance and can be extremely difficult to get rid of. Normal vacuuming and dusting can cause it to reenter the air and it just gets stirred up whenever you touch it.
Finding Out if You Have Lead Paint Risk
To determine whether or not your home has lead paint, if you live in a home built prior to 1978, the safest course of action is to get a paint inspection done by a trained professional. That will let you determine the degree of safety of lead content in every painted surface and will uncover any areas of serious hazard.
Although there are testing kits available that let homeowners to run the testing themselves, an inspection by a licensed professional is highly recommended to find problem areas that may be missed by an untrained person. In some states there are rigorous rules and regulations dealing with repairing of a lead paint problem, and the professional inspectors will be able to advise the homeowner what steps are needed and let them know the required steps in removing lead paint from their home.
This article was presented through the ultimate Castle Rock real estate specialists of Colorado, Automated Homefinder. |
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| Denny Horner |
| 703-629-8455 |
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