Lead paint disclosure in Wyoming

Section 1018 of Title X is where this rule comes from. It covers most housing built before 1978, both when a home is sold and when it's rented. Sellers and landlords have to do 4 things under it:

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

If you're the buyer, the rule gives you 10 days to have the home checked for lead.

Plenty of Wyoming homes fall into this group. The Census counts homes built before 1980, which sits close to the 1978 cut-off without matching it exactly. By that measure, 133,940 out of 281,789 Wyoming homes went up before 1980. That works out to 48%. For rentals, 34,752 out of 72,606 date from before 1980, 48% there as well.

In Wyoming, a seller's agent has to tell every would-be buyer about any adverse material facts the agent actually knows. A material fact is anything important enough to sway whether you buy, or what price you'd offer. Defects and environmental hazards that the law says must be disclosed both count here.

The agent doesn't have to inspect the property for you. Checking whether statements from the seller or an inspector are true isn't the agent's job either. That's why it pays to book your own lead inspection within that 10-day window.

Think a Wyoming real estate licensee violated the licensing law? You can file a complaint with the Wyoming Real Estate Commission. It goes in on their Verified Complaint Form. The form has to be written, signed, and notarized, which just means you sign it in front of a notary who checks that you are who you say you are. Anonymous complaints aren't accepted.

Landlords in Wyoming have to keep a rental safe, clean, and fit to live in. Working electrical, heating, and plumbing systems are required too, along with hot and cold running water. The water requirement holds unless you and the landlord put something different in writing. A unit must be reasonably safe and clean and livable before an owner can rent it out at all.

You can only use this process if your rent is paid up. These steps come from Wyoming law:

1. Put your request to the owner in writing. Certified mail works, or any other method allowed by W.S. 1-21-1003. Say what's unsafe and what repair you're asking for. A written request leaves a record of what you wanted and when.
2. Allow the owner a reasonable amount of time. Repairs must begin, or the owner must dispute your claim in writing.
3. Still nothing? Ask again in writing that the problem be fixed. That second notice gives the owner 3 days.
4. If the owner keeps stalling, circuit court is open to you. A judge there can award costs and damages, order the repairs, or cancel the lease.

Yes, but only in one case. The repairs would have to cost more than makes sense for the rent being charged. When that's true, the owner can say no and terminate the lease. You then get 10 to 20 days from the owner to line up another place to live. Any prorated rent and any deposit coming back to you must be refunded too. Prorated rent means the part of your payment that covers days you won't be there.

Renters in Wyoming should never hold back or take money off their rent to cover repairs without the landlord saying it's okay, according to the Wyoming Judicial Branch. Do it anyway and eviction can follow. Your rent also has to be current before you can force the landlord to make repairs.