Lead Paint
I've seen lots of forclosures with lead paint disclosure. What do you do to fix this, and how much does it affect the bargaining for the property?
I've seen lots of forclosures with lead paint disclosure. What do you do to fix this, and how much does it affect the bargaining for the property?
Hi Sourcefinance,
Houses that are sold (and were built before 1978) must complete a Led-Based Paint disclosure. The chances are highly likely that the house have led paint in them, but if they have never been tested (which most haven't), the seller simply has to state that they have no knowledge or reports of led paint in the house. It has become more of a formality than anything.
Generally foreclosures dont come with these docs at a sherrif sale, and the homeowner wont simply have one laying around in prefore, so I am assuming that either this is a preforeclosure listed by a realtor, or it is an REO? Which one?
If you have a report that shows that there is indeed lead in a house, it can be costly to remove.
BAMZ
The FHA guidelines state that, Paint that is flaking, chipping, peeling, cracking, or chaulking. If any of these signs are present, the problem area must be fixed before any documents or funds are released. Most often the problem can be solved by scraping, sanding and collecting old paint in a safe manner and then covering the problem area with new paint.
Properties built before 1978 must have a lead base paint disclosure form and pamphlet (16 pages put out by FHA) distributed to the purchaser or lessee before they take prossession.
This is an EPA requirement. The law was actually enacted in 1974, but the paint industry had enough political clout to delay the effective date to 1978 so that they could work off their inventory over the next 4 year. I always make a statement that the house was built prior to 1978 and thus has a high probabliltiy of having been painted with lead based paint. That I don't have any personal knowledge of its existance or non-existance. That no testing has been done by me. I then have them sign a form which acknowledges the receipt of both documents.
Here are some links to EPA info on lead paint.
http://www.epa.gov/lead/interiorfinal2.pdf
http://www.epa.gov/lead/leadsafetybk.pdf
http://www.epa.gov/lead/leadinfo.htm#remodeling
As said above If not chipping or flaking EPA actually recomends leaving it alone.