Lead paint disclosure in Georgia

The federal lead disclosure rule covers both sales and rentals. Before you sign anything, the seller or landlord must:

• Speak up about any lead paint or lead dangers in the home that they're aware of.
• Share any records or reports about lead in the home that they have on hand.
• Give you the EPA's lead pamphlet.
• Put a Lead Warning Statement into the contract or lease. It's a brief, standard paragraph that lets you know older homes can carry lead risks.

Buyers get 10 days to have the home tested for lead. The rule says the seller must pass along what they already know. It doesn't make them go looking for lead.

The state has a lot of older housing. Census figures put Georgia's housing stock at 4,668,796 homes, and 1,415,857 of those went up before 1980. That works out to 30%.

Rentals skew slightly older. Of 1,422,323 rentals, 463,381 went up before 1980, or 33%.

No. Georgia's own lead rule, Rule 391-3-24, doesn't order anyone to abate lead paint. Abatement is work meant to remove lead paint hazards for good.

What the rule does govern is who can do the work. If someone is paid to renovate or handle lead paint in a pre-1978 home or a child care setting, that person and their firm must be certified by the state.

If you rent a home built before 1978, Georgia EPD says your landlord or property manager must hire certified contractors for any renovation, repair or painting. These contractors are trained to keep lead dust from spreading through your home. If you have questions, you can reach EPD's duty officer.

An owner fixing up their own place usually doesn't need certification. That changes when someone outside the owner's immediate family lives in the home, or when a child in the home tests high for lead. For that reason, landlords who work on occupied rentals fall under the state's certification requirements.

Georgia requires anyone performing lead inspections, risk assessments, or abatement to hold their own Georgia EPD certification. On top of that, they must be employed by a Georgia-Certified Lead Services Firm and send EPD a notice for each project.

The Lead-Based Paint Program at Georgia EPD keeps lists of certified lead firms and individuals. Look up a name there before you hire.

Georgia's Department of Public Health asks doctors to screen:

• every child on Medicaid at 12 and 24 months
• kids between 3 and 6 who haven't had a test yet
• any child whose family says yes, or isn't sure, to a risk question, for example whether the child lives in or visits a home or child care center built before 1978

A blood lead level shows how much lead turns up in a blood test. It's measured in micrograms per deciliter, written as ug/dL.

Governor Kemp signed a 2022 Georgia law that dropped the bar for confirmed poisoning from 20 down to 3.5 ug/dL. The Department of Public Health plans to bring on 18 more lead inspectors to handle those cases.

If a child tests high, the health department sets up a risk assessment. That's when a certified assessor comes to the home and checks it over for lead. The case management guidelines lay out these deadlines:

When a child is between 10 and 44 ug/dL, a summary of the findings and the recommendations goes to the caregiver, whoever owns the property, and the child's doctor.