Issues with Lead Paint as a Renter

I sound pretty stupid making it sound like day care causes lead exposure. Of course that’s not it, but older buildings and non-licensed day care CAN provide an environment containing higher than normal lead exposure. Sorry.

Stonergut

in Building Code 13 years and 6 months ago

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Somedude | 13 years and 6 months ago

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This morning I notified our landlord that our one year old has an unacceptable amount of lead in her blood.  Oddly enough our landlord refused to have the building tested.  I called 311 and have arranged for the city to test it, but I was wondering what my option are. Can I save time by paying to have it tested and deduct the cost from future rent? If we have to move can I take her to L&T court to recoup the cost? If the building does have lead in it I assume the lease becomes unenforceable under some kind of warrant of habitability argument.  Is that right? Also there are a TON of building code violations in the building.  Will the person who tests for lead bring the other kind of inspector?  Can they expect to be fined by the city?

curiositykilledthecat | 13 years and 6 months ago

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There are a lot of posts on this topic, so I suggest you do a search on this website to get some information. A few things for you to consider: Lead paint in and of itself is not a problem.  Many (even most) apartments and homes in the City have some lead paint.  It becomes a problem when the paint is peeling or chipping, and your child is ingesting it (either eating it or inhaling it).  You will find links from me in earlier posts to things you should do to mitigate the risk, courtesty of NYC’s HPD (such as washing toys frequently, etc). Though a likely cause of elevated lead in your baby is from your apartment, that is not the only possible source.  Is the baby in daycare?  Etc.  By having the City come test, though, you’ll begin to get answers as to the source.  I expect that the city will come quickly–and you can call 311 back to find out a timeline.  I would not recommend testing yourself and witholding rent.  Though I don’t know the terms of your lease or whether you are rent-stablized/controlled, withholding rent will typically inflame the situation.  And, even if you get your results, what will you do with them?  Will the landlord accept your contractor’s conclusions?  And the HPD action will be the one that brings with it enforcement from the City. The rest of your questions are too legally complicated for me to attempt to answer.  I’m sorry that your relationship with your landlord has deteriorated to this point, and I wish you luck with resolution to your situation.

BHS | 13 years and 6 months ago

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If you don’t think the building has lead paint because it was gut renovated then what are you trying to gain from having the building tested? Lead paint hasn’t been sold since the 1970s so it’s very unlikely lead paint was used in the new construction, no matter how cheap your landlord is. Seems like it would be i your child’s best interest to find the source of the lead, perhaps from playing in contaminated ground or from another home the child visits regularly or from day care etc?

Bklnite | 13 years and 6 months ago

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Your landlord should have given you a lead paint pamphlet with your lease http://www.nyc.gov/html/hpd/downloads/pdf/Fix-lead-paint-hazards-english.pdf

“Landlords Must investigate dwelling units where children under 6 reside, and common areas, to find peeling paint, chewable surfaces, deteriorated subsurfaces, friction and impact surfaces.
The investigation must be conducted annually, and more often if the owner knows of a condition that may cause a lead hazard, or the occupant complains about such a condition”
… but I don’t see anything in the website about the City’s Lead Paint Hazard Reduction Law that says you can demand that your landord does a lead paint test. If he inspects and there are no lead paint hazards, that may be sufficient for compliance with the law.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/hpd/html/homeowners/lead_paint.shtml

curiositykilledthecat | 13 years and 6 months ago

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Oh–well, if the building was gut renovated, that explains why “Oddly enough our landlord refused to have the building tested.”  What other source would there be, other than lead paint? As a landlord, I try REALLY hard to give tenants that post here the benefit of the doubt.  I know there are lots of horrible landlords out there; so even when I get hints that the OP may actually be the problem (like, “I told the landlord this morning, she won’t test the building, so I called 311 right away.  Can I get money from her?  Will she get fined?”), I try to expect the best. Knowing now that the building was gut renovated, yet there are “TONS of violations”, I think it’s possible that this tenant may be >50% of the issue here.  And, by the way, as a tax payer whose funds are going to pay for a HPD lead paint inspector on a wild goose chase–I don’t like that much, either. I’ll still wish you luck, though.

BHS | 13 years and 6 months ago

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Lead paint can also come from painted vintage/antique furniture or lead paint dust can be trapped in an old wall-to-wall carpet and spread around when you vacuum if your vacuum doesn’t have a fine heppa filter (most don’t).

curiositykilledthecat | 13 years and 6 months ago

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I just did a quick search, and it looks like lead pipes could, theoretically, contribute to elevated lead in your baby.  With a gut renovation, I assume the plumbing was replaced–but just in case: http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/tips/water.htm

BHS | 13 years and 6 months ago

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Well apparently something is getting lead into her blood and my point was that it might be coming from a source other than directly from the walls. Also if the baby was nursed by her mother recently it’s possible the mother was the one directly exposed though I have no idea how much might be possibly to pass through milk if any. Testing the water is a good idea. Some houses still have a lead pipe prior to the interior pipe. If there’s no obvious source of contamination than it could require some creativity to figure out where the lead exposure is coming from.

rh | 13 years and 6 months ago

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BHS mentioned playgrounds or daycare. What about toys? Lead can be passed to a child at birth if the mother had high levels, but I think after a year, it should get lower if there isn’t further exposure.

Stonergut | 13 years and 6 months ago

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Thumbsuckers and crawling children often have elevated lead because their hands get lead from dust anywhere. Surprisingly, there is still a huge exposure to lead from dust outside, due to lead in gasoline years back and from dust from tires. Sandboxes, gardens and neighboring buildings renovating can all add lead to the environment, as can day care. I’m not surprised your landlord is not responding, because lead abatement can be forced by the city and it can be hugely expensive. Friends were forced to do abatement, and as they suspected, their kid’s lead levels didn’t decrease at all afterwards. It dropped when the kid stopped thumbsucking.