Information for Property Owners of Rental Housing, Child-Occupied Facilities
Property owners who renovate, repair, or prepare surfaces for painting in pre-1978 rental housing or space rented by child-care facilities must, before beginning work, provide tenants with a copy of EPA’s lead hazard information pamphlet Renovate Right: Important Lead Hazard Information for Families, Child Care Providers, and Schools. Owners of these rental properties must document compliance with this requirement – EPA’s sample pre-renovation disclosure form may be used for this purpose.
After April 22, 2010, property owners who perform these projects in pre-1978 rental housing or space rented by child-care facilities must be certified and follow the lead-safe work practices required by EPA’s Renovation, Repair and Remodeling rule. To become certified, property owners must submit an application for firm certification and fee payment to EPA. EPA will begin processing applications on October 22, 2009. The Agency has up to 90 days after receiving a complete request for certification to approve or disapprove the application.
Property owners who perform renovation, repairs, and painting jobs in rental property should also:
- Take training to learn how to perform lead-safe work practices.
- Learn the lead laws that apply to you regarding certification and lead-safe work practices beginning in April 2010.
- Keep records to demonstrate that you and your workers have been trained in lead-safe work practices and that you followed lead-safe work practices on the job. To make recordkeeping easier, you may use the ample record-keeping checklist that EPA has developed to help contractors comply with the renovation recordkeeping requirements that will take effect in April 2010.
Information for Homeowners Working at Home
If you are a homeowner performing renovation, repair, or painting work in your own home, EPA’s RRP rule does not cover your project. However, you have the ultimate responsibility for the safety of your family or children in your care. If you are living in a pre-1978 home and planning to do painting or epairs, please read a copy of EPA’s Renovate Right: Important Lead Hazard Information for Families, Child Care Providers, and Schools. You may also want to call the National Lead Information Center at 1-800-424-
LEAD (5323) and ask for more information on how to work safely in a home with lead-based paint.
EPA Requirements for Contractors
Common renovation activities like sanding, cutting, and demolition can create hazardous lead dust and chips by disturbing lead-based paint, which can be harmful to adults and children.
To protect against this risk, on April 22, 2008, EPA issued a rule requiring the use of lead-safe practices and other actions aimed at preventing lead poisoning. Under the rule, beginning in April 2010, contractors performing renovation, repair and painting projects that disturb lead-based paint in homes, child care facilities, and schools built before 1978 must be certified and must follow specific work practices to prevent lead contamination.
Until that time, EPA recommends that anyone performing renovation, repair, and painting projects that disturb lead-based paint in pre-1978 homes, child care facilities and schools follow lead-safe work practices.
All contractors should follow these three simple procedures:
- Contain the work area.
- Minimize dust.
- Clean up thoroughly.
Beginning in December 2008, the rule will require that contractors performing renovation, repair and
painting projects that disturb lead-based paint provide to owners and occupants of child care facilities
and to parents and guardians of children under age six that attend child care facilities built prior to
1978 the lead hazard information pamphlet Renovate Right: Important Lead Hazard Information for
Families, Child Care Providers, and Schools (PDF) (20 pp, 3.3MB). | en español (PDF) (20 pp, 3.2MB)
The rule will affect paid renovators who work in pre-1978 housing and child-occupied facilities,
including:
- Renovation contractors
- Maintenance workers in multi-family housing
- Painters and other specialty trades.
Under the rule, child-occupied facilities are defined as residential, public or commercial buildings where children under age six are present on a regular basis. The requirements apply to renovation, repair or painting activities. The rule does not apply to minor maintenance or repair activities where less than six square feet of lead-based paint is disturbed in a room or where less then 20 square feet of lead-based paint is disturbed on the exterior. Window replacement is not minor maintenance or repair.
Read EPA’s Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting rule.
View the implementation deadlines associated with the Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting rule. October 21, 2009 — EPA proposed expanding coverage of its 2008 Renovation, Repair and Painting rule as part of its ongoing commitment to eliminate lead poisoning. The proposed rule would eliminate an exemption from the RRP rule. Read about EPA’s action.
EPA Authorized State Programs
EPA has the authority to authorize states, tribes and territories to administer their own RRP program that would operate in lieu of the EPA regulations. When a state, tribe or territory becomes authorized, contractors and training providers working in these areas and consumers living there should contact the appropriate state, tribal or territorial program office. Currently the following states have been authorized by EPA: Wisconsin, Iowa, North Carolina, Mississippi, Kansas, Rhode Island and Utah.
Peace of Mind Property Management is an EPA Lead-Safe Certified Firm and is fully credentialed to work on your properties that we manage.
*Please visit the EPA’s website at http://www.epa.gov/lead/pubs/renovation.htm for access to any of the links shown above.
