Lead paint disclosure in California

Most housing built before 1978 falls under the federal lead disclosure rule. It applies to rentals as well as sales, per the EPA.

Sellers and landlords have 4 duties under this rule:

• Tell you about any lead-based paint or lead hazards they're aware of.
• Pass along whatever lead records exist for the home.
• Provide the EPA's lead pamphlet.
• Put a Lead Warning Statement into the paperwork.

If you're the buyer, the home can be tested for lead during a 10-day window.

California has a form of its own for sellers. Called the Transfer Disclosure Statement, it's filled out by the seller and describes the home's condition. Civil Code 1102 requires it when a single-family home is sold. The same requirement covers exchanges, contracts for land sales, lease-options, and any other purchase options.

This duty isn't something a seller can dodge by asking you to sign it away, a waiver like that carries no weight.

On the form, Section II.C.1 has the seller answer Yes or No about environmental hazards on the property, to their knowledge. Lead-based paint is named there, alongside storage tanks, radon, asbestos, and mold.

Some transfers don't require the Transfer Disclosure Statement. Civil Code 1102.2 lists them:

• sales ordered by a court or handled through probate
• sales after a foreclosure
• most fiduciary-run trust, estate, and guardianship sales, that is, sales where a person manages property for someone else
• transfers between people who already co-own the home
• transfers to a husband, wife, or close blood relation
• transfers required by a divorce decree
• transfers involving a government entity on either end
• plain leases

These exceptions apply only to the California form. The federal pre-1978 housing rule stands on its own.

If the seller's disclosure reaches you after you've signed your offer, California law (Civil Code 1102.3) lets you cancel in writing. Your deadline depends on how the form was delivered.

Buyers often receive the state's booklet on environmental hazards from a seller or broker. Under Civil Code 2079.7, that booklet satisfies the requirement for general information about common hazards.

It doesn't cover what the seller or broker knows, though. Their obligation to reveal known lead hazards on the property doesn't go away.

Health and Safety Code 25359.7 requires an owner to tell any buyer, lessee, or renter when a hazardous substance has been released in a reportable quantity. That means a quantity the law requires to be reported. For lead, the amount is typically 10 pounds or more, per the California Department of Public Health.

Under California law, lead hazards in a building count as a violation of the State Housing Law. That comes from Civil Code 1941.1 plus a number of Health and Safety Code provisions. Agencies that enforce the rules locally can order the hazards abated, that is, removed or made safe. A cease and desist order is another tool they can use.

A California Department of Public Health certificate is required for anyone who inspects homes for lead hazards, plans or performs abatement work, or handles clearance inspections. Certificates come in Inspector/Assessor, Sampling Technician, and Project Monitor varieties.

Homes built before 1978 in Los Angeles County can't be worked on with 5 methods, according to Los Angeles County Public Health:

• burning with an open flame
• machine sanding without containment
• washing with a pressure washer
• abrasive blasting
• scraping dry

The county takes complaints about such unsafe work.

State screening rules updated to take effect July 6, 2026 call for blood lead tests at ages 1 and 2 for almost all California children, per the California Department of Public Health.

Every blood test for lead done in California has to go to the state health department. Any result at or above 3.5 micrograms per deciliter is due within 3 working days. Lower results get 30 calendar days, per Health and Safety Code 124130.

More than half of them were built before 1980, so lead paint is a real possibility in a lot of homes. Data from the US Census Bureau puts 8,153,820 of the state's 14,877,017 homes in the pre-1980 category. Rentals show the same share.