Lead paint disclosure in Rhode Island

Homes in the state are mostly old enough to contain lead paint. The US Census puts 69% of the state's 488,011 homes, 337,192 in all, in the pre-1980 group. Rentals skew even older. Of 163,639 rental homes, 117,933, or 72%, were built before 1980.

Most housing built before 1978 falls under the federal lead disclosure rule. Sales and rentals are both included. It requires sellers and landlords to:

• disclose any lead-based paint or lead hazard they know about
• share whatever records they hold
• provide the EPA's lead pamphlet
• put a Lead Warning Statement in the documents

Buyers get an extra benefit: the federal rule sets aside 10 days to have the home tested for lead.

Rhode Island layers a written disclosure of its own on top of the federal one when a home is sold. Before you sign anything to transfer the home, the seller has to give you a written list of every defect they actually know about, as R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-20.8-2 requires. Your agent can't deliver your offer to the seller unless you've signed a receipt showing you got the disclosure.

There's a Lead Paint section on the form. It cautions buyers of pre-1978 homes about lead poisoning risk. It also obligates the seller to share any lead inspection report on hand and to disclose any known lead poisoning issue.

The state's disclosure statute doesn't reach every sale. There are 10 kinds of transfers it leaves out, listed in R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-20.8-3. Among them:

• sales a court orders
• foreclosure sales
• sales handled by the fiduciary in charge of an estate or trust
• handoffs between people who jointly own the place, or between relatives
• never-lived-in houses straight from a builder
• transfers with no money involved

If you're buying a home with 1 to 4 units that was built before 2011, your contract must give you 10 days to have it inspected for lead. A 2023 change to R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-20.8-11 made this a requirement. A seller or agent who skips it can be hit with a fine of $100 to $500 each time they leave it out.

What if the inspection turns up a lead hazard? You can back out of the purchase before closing.

Yes, provided the rental was built before 1978 and hasn't been made lead safe already. R.I. Gen. Laws § 42-128.1-8 makes an owner attend a lead hazard awareness seminar, get the unit evaluated, and satisfy the state's standard for mitigating lead hazards. Mitigation means repairing the hazards until the unit meets that standard, even if some lead stays in place.

Tenants are owed a copy of the independent clearance inspection. That's a check by an outside inspector confirming the work met the standard. When a tenant with an at-risk household member reports a lead hazard, the landlord gets 30 days to repair it.

Under R.I. Gen. Laws § 42-128.1-10, women who are expecting and households with kids under 6 have a right to housing where lead hazards have been repaired. They may sue a landlord who breaks the law and ask a judge to order the repairs, with attorney fees paid. Under 42-128.1-11, a judge can double or triple the damages in these private suits.

People who break the state's lead rules can be fined by Rhode Island's health department, under R.I. Gen. Laws § 23-24.6-27:

If a fine goes unpaid, it can become a lien, which is a legal claim against the property.

Before they turn 3, Rhode Island kids must have a lead test at least twice, no less than a year apart, under the state's health regulations at 216-RICR-50-15-3. Once a child's blood lead level is confirmed at 5 ug/dL or above, the child is considered lead poisoned.

Licensed child care providers, plus nursery schools and kindergartens, must see proof of testing before your child can enroll. A religious objection a parent signs is the one exception allowed, per R.I. Gen. Laws § 23-24.6-8.

On October 25, 2024, Providence unveiled a $6.5 million federal grant to fund its Lead Safe Providence Program. Free lead paint inspections and forgivable loans are available to eligible properties through the program. Owner-occupied homes and investor-owned buildings can both qualify.