Lead paint disclosure in Kansas

The federal rule on lead disclosure covers most pre-1978 homes, both sales and rentals. Before you sign anything, the seller or landlord must do 4 things:

• Disclose any lead-based paint or lead hazards they know about in the home.
• Share any records or reports on lead in the home that they have.
• Give you the EPA pamphlet on lead safety.
• Put a Lead Warning Statement into the sale or lease paperwork.

Buyers also get a 10-day window to have the home checked for lead.

Yes, as long as the agent knows. An agent representing a seller or landlord in Kansas has a duty under K.S.A. 58-30,106(d) to pass along every big problem with the property the agent is aware of. That covers environmental hazards the law says must be disclosed, plus material defects in the home. That means an agent who knows about a lead hazard or a serious problem with the home can't stay quiet about it, so it's worth asking your agent directly what they know.

A lot of Kansas housing is old enough to contain lead paint. Census figures show how many homes date from earlier than 1980.

The state has its own lead statute, the Residential Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Act, which the state health agency, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, or KDHE, administers. The law covers inspecting for lead, assessing risk, and abatement. Abatement means permanently fixing lead paint hazards.

This kind of work requires a KDHE license for the company and a KDHE certificate for each worker, as spelled out in K.S.A. 65-1,203. An owner living in the home may do the work there without one.

How much a certificate costs is fixed by rule in the KDHE fee schedule:

When KDHE catches a violation of the state lead law, the first step is a written notice to the violator. From there, the violator gets 5 days after the notice arrives to fix what's wrong.

The civil penalty can be up to $1,000 for a first violation and up to $5,000 for each one after that. Every day a violation keeps going after notice counts on its own, so the total can add up fast.

Breaking the law on purpose turns it into a criminal matter. A first offense counts as a class C misdemeanor and a second or later offense as a class B misdemeanor, under K.S.A. 65-1,209. A misdemeanor is a less serious crime than a felony.

Yes. K.A.R. 28-1-2(c) requires physicians, nurses, hospitals, and similar providers to send each blood lead result to KDHE, no matter the level.

KDHE can set blood lead screening advice for children, drawing on CDC guidance, as allowed by K.S.A. 65-1,202. Testing is skipped when a parent objects in writing for religious reasons.