landlord asks us to leave so they don't have to delead property

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12/29/2011 21:40

Subject: landlord asks us to leave so they don't have to delead property

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Anonymous

I posted last week about a lead issue in our MA house rental. Fast forward to today, we have had a wonderful relationship with out landlords to date. Prior to moving in we asked if the house was deleaded because we had children and obviously knew about the dangers of lead paint and the strict lead laws in MA. We were assured the house was lead free and were never given any Lead Disclosure contract to sign (which further assured us the property was safe). Fast forward to 3 weeks ago we find there is lead in our 1 yr old DD system (not high levels but were told to find the source). Landlord assured again the house was taken care of when we approached them to say we were going to treat painted surfaces with TSP. They say it might be the water so we get Poland Spring that day and they have the water tested. Friday we find out it's not the water and I begin testing painted wood surfaces like a crazy woman. Found lead paint immediately and the 77 yr old do it yourself landlord begins tearing down boards (which I no know should never have been done) and when he leaves 2 hrs later I find there is still lead there. We have cordoned off these areas from the children since then and in order to maintain our good relationship with them approached the situation rationally. I called to get estimates for lead inspectors and let them know I would be having someone in to check the house the response was "Well go ahead and do that but I am sure the house will fail and we won't be deleading it so we have decided it's probably best if you move. We have loved having you but it's time for you to go" So inspector comes, they fail the inspection and they have 20 days to comply, which we are sure will not be happening bc they don't want to spend the money

Up until this week our plan was to wait until DH bonus in Feb and stay in the house 6 months till we had a sufficient down payment and savings to move. The levels aren't so high that they are killing us slowly but the inspector has indicated that the landlords have broken many laws and should be reported to the proper people. They failed to provide the EPA lead disclosure therefore renting to us under false pretenses, failing to comply once the inspector told them about the problem, discrimination housing practices trying to evict us bc we have children. The inspector believes that if I open this can of worms and have the state housing inspector in there will be further issues for them beyond the lead, plus they another rental unit on the street and haven't been providing the lead disclosure form since it came about in 2000.

How would you proceed? We are not trying to ruin their lives but we can't roll over on this and let them continue to rent without dealing with it. If we do nothing and move out the inspector says it's his responsibility to report them anyway. We have heard day for close to two years that we are the perfect tenants and were thrilled to have us and now to cut costs they want to kick us out. The inspector (who deals with this daily) said we should not pay next months rent and place the check in a new escro account so if this is taken to court we can easily show, this wasn't about money, if they complied we would have paid on the first as we have done every month since we moved in.