New EPA Lead-Paint Rule: How Co-ops & Condos Can Protect Themselves

The EPA rule, called the "Lead; Renovation, Repair, and Painting Program," applies solely to housing constructed before 1978, and excludes housing for the elderly or persons with disabilities unless any child under age 6 lives there or is expected to. It establishes requirements for training / certifying / accrediting renovators, renovation firms and dust-sampling technicians; for renovation work practices; and for recordkeeping.

"Renovation" in this case can mean acts as simple as scraping paint or even removing carpets if it involves pulling up painted baseboards — but that's only if a professional contractor or handyman is doing the work. The new rule doesn't apply to co-op shareholders or condo unit-owners doing their own renovation, repair or painting in their own home.

However, if a board requires an alteration agreement, then the building could be held liable, notes Don Levy, an attorney and the vice president of the property management firm Brown Harris Stevens.

"We're making sure our buildings' alteration agreements include a revision that anybody doing work in an apartment must have the [new] certification," he says. Levy advises that boards "add a rider that will now indicate that before approval will be given to either decorating or alteration that the people who do the work have to submit their license, if it’s a licensed trade, and submit evidence that the people doing this have achieved certification."

Watch Out for Faux Trainers

A host of organizations and private environmental companies offer the eight-hour, EPA-authorized certification course — though according to the Home Builders Association trade group, based in St. Louis, Mo., some groups who claim to be authorized may not be, either through deliberate fraud or some inadvertent technical issue. Boards and managing agents can find a list of authorized trainers at the EPA's Locate Accredited Renovation Training Programs page.

Lead paint, which is now outlawed, poses a significant health hazard, particularly to children and pregnant women. Lead poisoning is toxic to organs and tissues including the heart, intestines, kidneys and the reproductive and nervous systems — that last of which can leading to permanent learning and behavioral disorders. The New York Times recently reported that an estimated 120,000 children under 6 tested positive for elevated lead levels nationally in 2006, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — which, thankfully, is down from the 890,000 in 1994 and the 434,000 in 2000. In New York City, which already had a Local Law addressing lead paint, there were 1,572 children who tested positively for lead in 2008, down from 20,000 in 1995.

The June issue of Habitat will offer a full, detailed report about the new rule, boards' obligations and EPA enforcement and possible fines — about which there appears to be much misinformation and vaguely sourced claims.