Lead paint disclosure in Montana

A federal rule applies to nearly all homes that predate 1978, whether a sale or a rental is involved.

Before you sign, this rule requires sellers and landlords to do 4 things:

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

A lead hazard means paint, dust, or soil with lead levels high enough to cause harm, and it often comes from paint that peels or wears down. If you're the buyer, you get a 10-day window to check the home for lead before the sale becomes binding.

Montana law says the seller's agent has to tell you about any serious problem with the home that they know about, such as something that could change whether you buy or what you'd pay. The law calls these "adverse material facts."

The same law states that the agent need not inspect the property or confirm what the seller has said. So the agent's duty reaches only the facts the agent already has. Testing during your 10 days is how you learn anything more.

Roughly one Montana home in two predates 1980, per US Census figures, and rentals are a little older still, so lead paint is a real possibility in many homes.

343 Montana kids under 6 showed blood lead of 3.5 ug/dL or higher, per DPHHS findings across 2023 and 2024. In 59% of these cases, lead paint or dust in a pre-1978 building may have been the source.

Montana treats 3.5 ug/dL as the level that triggers follow-up care and public health case management for a child. Case management means the health department and your family work together to follow the child's lead level and hunt for the source.

Montana DPHHS recommends that every child from 6 months through 6 years old get a lead check at well-child visits. The doctor goes through Montana's Childhood Lead Risk Questionnaire unless a blood lead draw happens at that visit.

Some children need blood drawn for lead at their 12- and 24-month visits, or once during ages 2 through 6 if no test was ever done. Children in this group:

• Have Medicaid or Healthy Montana Kids.
• Take part in WIC, Head Start, or foster care.
• Came to the family through adoption abroad.
• Live in the targeted zip codes.

Lead results from blood tests go to your local or Tribal health department. Per ARM 37.114.203, every blood test drawn from a vein gets reported. A finger-prick result counts too when a child under 16 hits 3.5 ug/dL or more.

For help with lead questions, Montana DPHHS steers Montanans to local health departments or to the state office that handles toxicology and environmental public health. The agency also points to an EPA locator for certified firms that handle lead inspections, risk assessments, and abatement, that is, removing lead or sealing it away.

Butte-Silver Bow residents can use the Residential Metals Abatement Program, which samples yard soil along with dust from attics and living spaces, testing for lead, arsenic, and mercury. Sampling and blood lead tests are free, and if your home's levels come back too high, the program will clean it up. Call the program to get started.