Realtor Sander Scott explains federal lead-based paint disclosure rules for homes built before 1978. Sellers must complete the disclosure form and provide the EPA pamphlet; buyers get a 10-day window to inspect for lead hazards or waive it. Non-compliance creates legal and health risks.
Lead-based paint. It's a big deal. There's a lot to know and understand as it relates to your responsibilities as a seller to disclose about lead-based paint. And it's also, if you're buying a home that was built prior to 1978, then you also need to know what's going on with lead-based paint. So without further ado, let's get into it. So this is a seller's disclosure form as it relates to the narrow subject of lead-based paint. Okay, lead-based paint is kind of a big deal, and disclosing the presence or your knowledge as a seller of the presence of lead-based paint on your property is very, very important. Let's read this document. Every purchaser of an interest in residential property on which a residential dwelling was built prior to 1978 is notified that such property may present exposure to lead from lead-based paint that may place young children at risk of developing lead poisoning. So after 1978, this is— lead-based paint was banned. There's not the same requirements as, uh, homes that were constructed prior to 1978. Lead poisoning in young children may produce permanent neurological damage, including learning disabilities, reduced intelligence quotient, behavior problems, and impaired memory. Lead poisoning also poses a risk to pregnant women. The seller of any interest in residential real property— in other words, real estate— is required to provide the buyer with any information on lead-based paint hazards from risk assessments or inspections in the seller's possession and notify the buyer of any known lead-based paint hazards. A risk assessment or inspection for possible lead-based paint hazards is recommended prior to purchase. All right. So if you're a seller of a home that was constructed in Michigan prior to 1978— well, I'm saying in Michigan because that's where I have my real estate license to conduct business. This is really not just a law that applies to Michigan. It applies anywhere in the United States. Okay. All right. So here's the seller's disclosure statement. So you need to mark Regarding the presence of lead-based paint and/or lead-based paint hazards, we need to check one of the below. That you know there are known lead-based paint and/or lead-based paint hazards are present in the housing. If you know that, then you have to check here and you have to explain. If you don't know anything about lead-based paint, then you would mark here, seller has no knowledge of lead-based paint and/or lead-based paint hazards in the housing. And we go down to the next one, records and reports available to the seller. So if you've had any records related to the lead-based paint or any reports related to lead-based paint, then you would mark here and you would explain those. And then if we had those reports or records, we would also attach those, include those in this as part of an attachment to this disclosure. And then if you don't have any reports or records, then we would mark here. Okay, then we go down and sign. And by the way, here, facsimile is not really— basically, are you going to communicate via email or internet? You would mark these two. If you're not going to do any electronic delivery, then you click there. Okay. All right, sign, date. And then here's where the agent's acknowledgement comes in right here. So the realtor or real estate agent needs to initial and sign that the agent has informed the sellers of your obligation under this law to ensure compliance, that I as an agent am— and I'm aware of my duty to ensure compliance with the law as it relates to disclosing lead-based paint and its hazards. Okay. Now, so a seller and the seller's agent's responsibility kind of ends there, and we wait for a purchaser to appear. Once we're now at the stage where this document, by the way, would be shared up until this point on the MLS under Associated Docs, a buyer's agent would grab that, would, if they're submitting an offer, would submit a completed lead-based paint seller's disclosure. And that's— the buyer would have to complete what I'm about to show you right now, which is they would have to initial here indicating the purchaser has received copies of all the information listed above. Initiating that— purchasers— by initialing it, the purchaser is saying, I've received this information. Okay, here the purchaser has received the federally approved pamphlet Protect Your Family from Lead in Your Home. You should be receiving that pamphlet, which has a whole bunch of information as it relates to lead-based paint and its hazards.. Then C, purchaser has— you check one of the following: you've received a 10-day opportunity or mutually agreed upon period to conduct risk assessment or inspection of the presence of lead-based paint or lead-based paint hazards, or you've waived that opportunity to conduct a risk assessment or inspection for the presence of lead-based paint and/or lead-based paint hazards. Okay, so The purchaser fills all that, signs it, and then that is usually submitted along with an offer to the seller. And that's what a lead-based paint disclosure is all about. So alternatively, if you are selling a property that was built post-1978, then that's where this form really comes in. And we just fill in the address right here and we say we are certifying that this home was built post-1978 and therefore the federally mandated lead-based paint disclosure regulations do not apply to this property. And we sign that and then that is uploaded to the MLS that it's a recently built home. We don't have to worry about lead-based paint. We fill this up. So this is what the lead-based paint pamphlet that a buyer would be initialing next to saying that they had received. This is what that looks like. Okay. And there's a lot of, a lot of pages here. Okay. But it goes into great detail about lead-based paint and its hazards. So if you really, as a buyer, should only initial that line if in fact you've received this pamphlet. Okay, so there you go. That's lead-based paint. Probably more than what you, uh, wanted to know, but lead-based paint is a big deal, as I mentioned. And so you really ought to be fully informed about everything to do with lead-based paint, whether you are a seller of real property or real estate or a buyer of real property or real estate. Lead-based paint. Be informed. I'm Sander Scott, your full-service realtor.
