Two questions. Lead based paint and fuses/wiring
Hello, Found an apartment we like. Have not made an offer. Two concerns. 1\. It’s a prewar building and the owner does not have testing results for lead based paint. we have a small son. Who’s responsibility is it – the current owner, or us the potential buyer to pay to have the apartment tested to see if there is lead based paint? The realtor says it would be on us as the potential buyer. 2\. the wiring still has fuses.. bus fuses my husband called them. My husband felt that this could be a potential problem – as they are not upgraded and may need to be for safety as well as pass inspection. We would need to know both situations to know what work did or did not have to be done prior to commiting to a price. Both issues are related because if there is lead and the apartment does have to be rewired – we would be looking at a considerable cost as the walls would have more damage. But if there is no lead – then it’s not as large of an issue. Any advice as to how to handle? We really like this apartment for a variety of reasons and if we can make it work it may be well worth it. Thanks
sparkly
in Building Code 12 years and 11 months ago
8
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8 replies
Suzanne | 12 years and 11 months ago
The seller is required to disclose KNOWN lead hazards. But he or she is not required to test for lead to see what’s there or not. The testing is very easy — I had it done on my new purchase (I didn’t even think about it until after purchase). There’s a technology that uses a small device to test for sub-surface lead. I used a company called ACS Environmental in Brooklyn, and they were extremely thorough. It cost around $250 plus $25 per room, or something like that. I wouldn’t do that in a prewar building at the bidding stage, because it doesn’t seem worth the expense at that point. Also, you should just bid assuming there IS lead paint in the walls on a prewar building–it’s overwhelmingly likely. The real question is your electrical stuff, and I’ll leave that up to others. But if you planned just to have that done before you moved in, it is not hard for them to clean up any lead dust generated, and thus make the lead issue moot again. (And I have a little kid and worry too!)
Bklnite | 12 years and 11 months ago
You can do whatever you can work out with the seller and your contractors. If you make an offer you’ll want to have an inspection done before you sign a contract, and that will give you more information about what work needs to be done and what’s safe to leave alone. Contractors may do you the favor of looking at the apartment to give you estimates, or may not be interested in spending their time bidding for a job on an apartment you don’t own and may not even make an offer on. Replacing the fuse box with a breaker panel will probably cost $500 to $1000\. Rewiring the apartment and patching the holes is probably on the order of $10,000 – which may be something you want to do right away or may be something that could be put off for a long time.
apollonia | 12 years and 11 months ago
Getting an estimate from a contractor and from a license electric i think is very helpfull for you .You can see maybe some more problems the house have and the landlord is trying to hide
argentina | 12 years and 11 months ago
You will certainly want to update the electrical and it doesn’t hurt to get an estimate now from a licensed electrician.Of course you want to ask about the condition of the wiring.Usually they leave existing wiring unless it is really bad and that is hard to see anyway unless areas are gutted.When they put the box in they will add new lines and that is probably what you will be using for AC units, and anything requiring a lot of power.
sparkly | 12 years and 11 months ago
also I didn’t understand the statement, “uses-what you have will not pass inspection if you do construction and no electrician will touch it. “
sparkly | 12 years and 11 months ago
another question then… so can we have a electrician and/or contractor give us an estimate on renovations and what we do or do not need to do for the wiring before we make an offer? Or do you have to make an offer first… wait for it to be accepted then get the contractor in?
Bklnite | 12 years and 11 months ago
If you want to test for lead paint you’d have to do it. Most pre-war buildings (and anything pre-1978) will have lead paint unless it was completely gut renovated. Replacing a fuse box with a breaker panel is not a big deal. Rewiring the whole apartment is a bigger deal, and does involve creating holes in your walls. But as far as lead paint hazard, it just means you’re better off getting the electrical work done and walls reapired while you’re not living there with small children. As long as there’s not chipping, peeling paint, and if there’s no lead paint dust created from friction surfaces (doors & windows) you should be OK. Also, there’s a Property Condition Disclosure Statement required for 1- to 4- family residences that , but I think not for coops and condos, and many sellers decline to complete it and credit the buyer $500 instead rather than take the risk of getting sued over something on the disclosure.
rodriguezstudio | 12 years and 11 months ago
The law requires the seller to disclose any knowledge of lead paint- there is a govt. from that is part of the bank package usually. Pre-war usually means lead paint (most paint used to have lead, there is no getting around it). However, lead paint is only a problem if it is ingested- which is why landlords have to fix peeling paint for example. That means that if you tear down a wall there will be lead dust, if you sand a window (where lead paint is often found) there will be lead dust. There is a law that requires that contractors have an EPA training certificate specifically related to lead procedures (like wet sweeping, dust reduction) I think you can find the guidelines at the EPA website http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/lead/pubs/toolkits.htm. BUT, if the lead paint is covered by non-lead paint, which is an acceptable mitigation technique, then you should be safe (for the record I have a young child too, and we live and did work in an apartment that almost certainly had lead paint). We were careful and had our contractors be careful too, our child never tested high for lead. Take a look at what the EPA has to say about lead, it may answer your questions. This is a common thing, so it is going to be hard to get a price reduction for lead- it’s everywhere, I would expect the seller to balk at giving a reduction for it.. Fuses-what you have will not pass inspection if you do construction and no electrician will touch it. You are looking at replacing the panel at very least (which isn’t too invasive or expensive) or all the wiring depending on how old it is- which you may want to do anyway for a lot of reasons, like safety. re-wiring could get expensive, it’s potentially a lot of work. You have to look at this in the context of the entire building though- are other units modernized or not?- in order to use it as a succesful negotiating point.