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

[Anonymous]

OP, report them and move. It isn't personal, it's business. He is a landlord and is required to comply to laws. Ignorance or laziness isn't an excuse.

[Anonymous]

Report them. They have enough money to go to Florida for the winter? why are you hesitating? They broke the law. You are supporting that behavior and enabling them to continue to do so by even asking this question! If more people stood up for what is right people wouldn't keep trying to get away with things!

[Anonymous]

Find a better place and definitely report them, they engaged in fraud during your leasing transaction, failed to comply with the lead paint disclosure act, etc.

Read up on the Aneckstein prosecution in New Hampshire for fraudulent lead certs in a case that led to a child's death.

These people should/must be reported if they are failing to disclose.

http://articles.boston.com/2003-11-02/news/29195481_1_paint-poisoning-lead-paint-paint-chips-and-dust

http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/newsletters/criminal/cr-lead-based-paint-09-11.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. I would report them. It will affect another family. If your child's lead numbers went up, so will the next one. This "nice" knew you cared about the lead issue, because you asked him repeatedly point blank questions about it. He knowingly lied to you, taking the chance that nothing would come of it. Because he wanted your money.

2. You have already decided that this is a big deal, so you are going to move. Now that he has put a bunch of lead dust in the air, things could get worse.

Yup. I'd report them AND move out early. They made this bed, now they have to lie in it. The burden shouldn't fall to you (or your children).

[Anonymous]

I'm confused about what OP wants, despite OPs numerous postings in the last two pages of comments. OP, do you want to continue to live there? Do you want to continue to live there and have the landlord delead the place while you live there? Do you want to move and are just concerned about ensuring the landlords fix the lead problem for the next renters? In your shoes, I'd move out asap, forget the attempt to make it into a discrimination case, and warn them that the inspector is going to have to report them and let them know the financial consequences that are likely to flow from that. In your shoes I'd be pretty angry that they lied about the lead issue (assuming prior testing showed lead in the home) and jeopardized your children's health. That's not ignorance or naivete, that's willfully misleading you into putting your kids into harm's way. Where in MA are you, exactly?

[Anonymous]

Move out and let it go.

Your actions indicate that you believed that the house did have lead paint so you knew of the risk.

There has to be away for the lead particles to be in the air or ingested so there had to be some disruption prior to the landlord coming over to test for lead. Those home test kits are not going to count as reliable. (checked into that before).

Anyway, at least in MD, it wasn't illegal to have lead paint in the house and you weren't required to de-lead but your did have to provide notice. Although, when you rent an older home you have to expect that at least some paint that was used at some point had lead.

[Anonymous]

you are friends with these people- they are your landlords, it's a business-customer relationship and they are not doing their part, breaking laws in the process. You absolutely have to report them, what if they rent to a new family with more kids? what about their other rental property? terrible..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:you are friends with these people- they are your landlords, it's a business-customer relationship and they are not doing their part, breaking laws in the process. You absolutely have to report them, what if they rent to a new family with more kids? what about their other rental property? terrible..

I mean to say you are NOT friends with these people, it's been a friendly relationship- that's about it.

[Anonymous]

OP here, I must have wrote something wrong but we were unaware there was exposed lead paint all over the house when we moved in. We were told it was deleaded and never received the EPA required lead disclosure forms to sign. If they knew there was lead and hadn't had it taken care of by a certified lead specialist (he painted areas himself) they were required to provide those forms. We live in suburban MA outside of Boston, it's not like I can go find a condo down the street to move into for 6 months. It's very difficult to find a rental. Up till last week our plan was to stay here for another 6 months and buy a place in the area. The earliest we could buy would be the end of February. No way I want to sign another year lease and have to move twice. The lead inspector showed us the effected areas and we can keep those closed off from the children during that time. When confronted with it they just said we should move out, by law they have to give us 60 day in writing, which hasn't happened and during that time if they don't comply they will be reported unleashing so many more problems for them.

I was never going to go after them for discrimination but the thing is they must think we will just move out and they will rent to another tenant and not disclose the problems to them, which once they know is highly illegal. There have been numerous cases in MA in the last year that landlords had failed to have tenants sign the necessary documents and were fined up to $16k per tenant they had no informed. So based on the fact that they have two rental properties and this form has been mandatory since 2000 they are in a load of trouble on that note. I am pretty sure they don't realize how bad this can get for them (again we aren't looking to get money from this those fines go to the EPA) The lead inspector will file a complaint against them if we don't and a housing inspector will have to come out and I am sure there are tons of other small problems he will make them fix.

Our goal is to have it taken care of so we don't have to take further action against them. If it comes to it we will report them and see how it proceeds.

[Anonymous]

OP here, they are naive to think this won't happen to them.


http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/6d651d23f5a91b768525735900400c28/b09fb742b761272f8525788b00629c45!OpenDocument

[Anonymous]

The PP is correct that the landlord is not your friend. This is a business relationship. You need to send him a certified letter that what the problem is with the house, what the inspector said and how much time he has to remediate the problem or that you will be moving out and that he will be responsible for any and expenses incurred because of this. Then, you need to do just that. You should then sue him in Small Claims Court for the expenses you incurred. I don't know what the limit in MA is but it's usually between $5K-10K. It's going to be an incredible hassle but sometimes life is just a freakin hassle and bad things happen to good people. I wouldn't worry about reporting him to anyone because that's the housing inspector's job. You've got enough on your plate. You do need to move though.

[Anonymous]

OP, you need to get out of this apartment now. I can't believe you're still living there. I would be freaking out if my child had an elevated lead level at such a young age, and freaking out further if the landlord had made matters worse by releasing lead dust in a misguided attempt to fix the problem. I would also be wary of assuming that the problem is confined to a specific area of the apartment--especially because the lead inspector told you this before the landlord went in and made the problem worse, right?

A close family member of mine went through something similar, with a rented apartment that she discovered had not been lead-abated after her toddler was found to have elevated levels--she was out of there within a week. Having to move twice because of this should really be the least of your concerns. I realize it's a huge pain but your child's health is very much at risk here. The health issues associated with lead in young children have been well-documented and they are not something you want to mess around with.

I would also report the landlord. I understand that they're elderly and you're trying to be nice, and that's thoughtful of you, but they knowingly rented to a family with young children without properly informing them that the apartment had not been abated, and they are clearly poorly educated about how to handle lead paint (or just don't care). Think of the next family that comes along. You don't want them going through this too.

You seem more focused on how to deal with the landlord than how to protect your kids. I can sort of understand that, since the effects of lead are invisible and it's not like your child is visibly sick, but the lead is doing its damage to his/her brain even if you can't see that. Move now. And make sure too that you get your child retested several times to verify that the lead is out of his/her system (the pediatrician should be requesting this but I'm mentioning it just in case they haven't).

[Anonymous]

Just to be clear the inspector said we are not being harmed by staying in the house at this point if we are staying away from these areas. This all went down this week so I was unable to move. The levels in the daughter are at a 4, anything over a 10 they worry.

[Anonymous]

10:45 here. 10 is the number used by health departments to count the number of kids with lead poisoning, but virtually all scientists agree that there is no safe lead level, and you want it as low as possible.

You asked people on this forum what they would do and pretty much everyone is telling you the same thing: Move, and report the landlords.

How you proceed is up to you but I'm not sure there's much more we can say.

[Anonymous]

I agree that you should move (maybe give yourself a week's head start to look for apartments and then report the landlord) and after you're moved and settled take the landlord to small claims court for the expenses incurred in moving. I don't think you're stupid or naive for expecting the landlord to follow the law and disclose the information related to lead paint, and just because you had a suspicion doesn't implicate you in this lie told by the landlord.

You feel angry that the landlord was blatantly dishonest in a way that has potentially affected the health of your child. You also seem to think that in a realistic sense, the easiest thing to do would be to endure the lead paint house for another month or two and then move out, without reporting the landlord.

Even though it will be a big pain, I think you ought to move out and report these people. They were deliberately dishonest and there is nothing stopping them from being deliberately dishonest to future renters, whether about the lead paint or another thing. I think if you consider the value of keeping your family safe plus the value of keeping future prospective tenants safe (plus perhaps the opportunity for retribution if any other family lived in the house under false pretenses and one of their child has developed health issues). If you are still on the fence, perhaps give the landlord an ultimatum, that you will move out, break the lease and report them, or that they need to de-lead the place. Just make sure it is not an empty threat!