Lead paint disclosure in Texas

This federal rule goes by the name Section 1018 of Title X. It covers most housing built before 1978, whether the home is up for sale or for rent.

Sellers and landlords have 4 duties under the rule:

• tell you about any lead paint or lead dangers they're aware of
• share whatever records they hold about lead in the home
• provide the EPA pamphlet on lead
• put a Lead Warning Statement into the paperwork

If you're buying, you get 10 days to have the home tested for lead. That gives you time to find out what's there.

Under Texas Property Code 5.008, the seller of a single-family home has to hand you a written Seller's Disclosure Notice. In this context, a single-family home is a home with just 1 dwelling unit. The seller has to get the notice to you no later than the day you and the seller sign a binding purchase contract.

The law's version of the notice asks, in item 4, for a Yes or No answer: is the seller aware of any lead paint there? TREC, the Texas Real Estate Commission, has its own notice, form OP-H, which includes Lead Based Paint on its checklist of known conditions too.

The notice only covers what the seller knows. Answering No means the seller is saying they don't know of any lead paint. It is not a promise that the home was ever tested.

What if the seller never gave you the notice before you signed? Texas law gives you the right to cancel the contract for any reason at all. You have 7 days from the moment you receive the notice to act.

This state law names 11 kinds of transfers that don't require the Seller's Disclosure Notice. Among them:

• sales ordered by a court and foreclosure sales
• transfers handled by an estate or trust administrator
• transfers to a husband or wife or a close family member like a son, daughter, or parent
• transfers involving a government body
• the sale of a never-lived-in new home

This Texas list and the federal rule for pre-1978 housing are two different rules.

Plenty of Texas homes went up before 1980. That number won't tell you the year your particular house was built, so look up the build year of the home you have your eye on.

Data from the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey.

The state certification program for people who perform lead-based paint work in pre-1978 homes and in child-occupied places is run by the Texas Department of State Health Services, known as DSHS. The program rests on Chapter 1955 of the Texas Occupations Code, and every certification is good for 2 years.

Anyone who breaks the state's lead paint law or rules can be fined by DSHS, as much as $5,000 per day for each day the violation continues.

If you think someone is breaking the lead rules, call the DSHS Environmental Lead Program or fill in its Environmental and Consumer Safety Complaint form.

Every blood lead result for a person under 15 in Texas must be reported to DSHS right away. That holds true even when the result is normal.

When a result comes back high, DSHS may check the child's home, this check is known as an Environmental Lead Investigation. Venous means blood drawn out of a vein rather than a finger prick. A child can get this home check in either situation:

• 1 venous result of 20 µg/dL or higher
• 2 venous results between 10 and 19 µg/dL, at least 12 weeks apart

The request comes from the child's health care provider, and it must go in within 30 days.