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A fellow board member on the Apartment Association of SE Wisconsin forwarded the email below to me and other landlord-tenant attorneys and others in the industry. It concerns the recent audits of landlords and management companies in the city of Miwlaukee with regard to complying with the federal lead-based paint disclosure laws.
I spoke with a potential client yesterday who was also being audited and had failed to give out the required disclosure forms and pamphlet.
The feds seem to have turned up the heat on this issue.
Please read the email below and also view my blog post on this topic at
Subject: Lead based paint warnings
Ladies and gents
Our benevolent government is comprised of multitudes of faceless bureaucrats with nothing to do so they dredge up projects to justify their cushy jobs, benefits and pensions.
The latest of these to affect our real estate residential industry is that the Dept of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is auditing landlords to be SURE that they give the required Lead warnings to each incoming tenant. Thie would include the pamphlets and forms you received from us and are instructed to use.
As our buildings were constructed before 1978 (when lead paint was officially banned – even tho nobody used it for years previous), ALL tenants MUST sign the form and get the pamphlet.
For EACH failure to provide the form and pamphlet, the fine can reach $11,000. You can see this could add up to real money real fast.
I urge you to check your files and be SURE the lead form is there for each tenant. Those of you who send your leases to the office usually do not send the Lead form which is usually not necessary for tenant management, but it is vital that the forms are available for one of these audits.
Today the audits are in the City of Milwaukee. A friend of mine was just audited and the HUD guy was there 3 hours and made many copies of stuff. My friend has about 300 units in Milwaukee. They could audit anywhere next.
We will be checking with each of you in the near future to check on this.
This is serious. Do not fail.
Please take heed of this and make sure you are in compliance — the penalties are huge and can easily put a landlord out of business.
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Archive for category Lead-Based Paint
Latest EPA Proposed Changes to “Renovate Right” Rules — Deadline to Provide Feedback July 6th
Jun 22
ALERT! The latest EPA proposal will require dust sampling and lab testing clearance on many small jobs. The EPA estimates $160 per room in testing cost. In WI testing can only be done by state certified risk assessors and the cost is about $240 per room. So a repair to a damaged door jamb could cost ten times as much as it does today, and many times more than that if you were a do it yourselfer.
From the Federal Register (Link Below) #2 and #4 are the “gotchas.”
Dust wipe testing must be performed after all renovations involving:
- Use of a heat gun at temperatures below 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit
- Removal or replacement of window or door frames
- Scraping 60 ft [2] or more of painted surfaces
- Removing more than 40 ft [2] of trim, molding, cabinets, or other fixtures.
Link to the proposed rule in the Federal Register
The 60 day comment period ends July 6th, 2010
Read the comments submitted by the Apartment Association of Southeastern WI and links to the EPA comment page at:
http://www.renovatorrules.com/
Make sure you post some feedback. This is one of the biggest changes to affect our industry and these changes are huge and will put many contractors (and landlords) out of business. Fines for violating these new laws can be as much as $32,500 per each violation.
From a March 1, 2010 post by Tim Ballering on the AASEW Advisors listserv:
Beginning April 22nd you will be required to be trained and have WI
DHFS or EPA certification even to work on your own pre 1978 rental
housing.
Yes the rule will be very expensive to comply with (See the articles
below). Yes it is another — to put it in terms the government uses –
unfunded mandate. But it is now the law and it will eventually be
painfully expensive not to comply. (Big fines, lawsuits etc.)
The good news, if there is such a thing in this context, is the AASEW has a
tentative agreement with another state certified trainer to provide
this training for less than $200 per person.
We need a head count of how many owners and their crew members would
be interested in taking advantage of this. That number will set the
final pricing. If we hustle the training would be prior to 4/22/10 so
that no one is out of compliance.
This rule will affect you if you replace windows, disturb 6 square feet of paint on the interior or 20 square feet of paint on the exterior of any pre-1978 rental housing. Essentailly this will affect all of us that own rentals.
If you would be interested in attendng — please post a comment below along with the number of people you would be sending and I will pass the info on to Tim.
Thanks
T
————-Recent News on EPA Rules —————–
“The price for homeowners could be hiked by $500 to $1,000 per room,
McComas said.”
———-
“It’s going to price a lot of these jobs right out of the market,” he
said.”I think it’s going to put me out of business.”
———–
The new federal lead safety rules that take effect this spring are
coming just as work gears up on federal stimulus projects that may be
affected by the new regulations.
———–
“You’re talking about at least a few thousand dollars extra,” said
DiBernardo. Gehrig estimated the extra labor might add 25 percent to
a siding job.
———–
New regulations aimed at protecting homeowners from lead based paint
could make your renovation costs skyrocket.
The Bad News: Those of you who have been following along on this list have heard about the new EPA Law, beginning April 22, 2010, that regulates any renovation work that disturbs 6 sq. ft. or more of paint per room, 20 sq. ft. or more of exterior paint, or involves windows. This law specifically includes rental property owners, management companies and their employees. Your workers and company will need certification as well as changing your work practices.
This law will increase the cost of doing work as well as subject violators to fines of up to $32,500 per day/violation.. You really don’t want to make a mistake here.
The Good News: Steve Antholt of the Wisconsin Department of Health (The people who will enforce this law in WI) has agreed to be at the AASEW’s Monday general meeting to talk about the new EPA Law and the state companion rule Wisconsin Lead-Safe Renovation Rule, DHS 163. He will explain why it is important, and what steps Rental Property Owners and Managers need to take to comply.
The Better News: Steve has agreed to answer any and all questions that we may have on how to comply and keep our butts out of trouble.
The Alternative: If all this makes you want to be rid of your properties… this Monday’s meeting will be the first to feature the new Traders’ Corner! Beginning February every month prior to our General Membership meetings our Traders’ Corner will meet to give members the opportunity to talk about their real estate needs.
Join us Monday, February 15th 6:30 p.m if you wish to participate in the Trader’s Corner and 7:00 p.m. for the general meeting featuring Steve Anholt of DHFS
Where: Best Western, 1005 South Moorland Road, Brookfield, WI 53005.
HT to Tim Ballering
The Apartment Association of Southeastern Wisconsin, Inc. (AASEW) has some very interesting speakers and topics for its upcoming monthly membership meetings in 2010. All meetings are held on the 3rd Monday of the month at 7 pm at the Best Western Midway Hotel which is located at 1005 S. Moorland Road in Brookfield. There is no cost to attend the meetings. If you are not yet a member of AASEW, attending one of our monthly membership meetings is a great way to see what the organization is all about and learn how membership can benefit you as a landlord, property manager or vendor.
Our January 18th meeting will feature Attorney Robert Muten of Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren S.C. Atty. Muten will speak on the issue of employees vs. independent contractors. Whether a person is an employee of your business or an independant contractor will affect all of us at some point in our lives if the issue has not already confronted you. I have done research on this very interesting topic for clients in the past and the determination as to whether you are an employee or an independant contractor is very fact-specific. You will not want to miss this very informative meeting with Atty. Muten.
Steven Antholt of the State of Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services will speak at the February 15th AASEW meeting. He will discuss the new Lead-Based Paint Renovation, Repair and Painting Program. This new program will affect everyone that owns or works on rental property and who “disturbs” more than 6 feet of interior space or 20 feet of exterior space, and/or is replacing any doors or windows in pre-1978 housing. This new law requires individuals to get specific training prior to its enactment date and to comply with a myriad of rules and regulations. The fines for ignoring this new law will be stiff — so it would be in all of our best interests to be in attendence at this meeting.
On March 15th, Stacy Hegg, Property Manager for Wellston Apartments, will discuss best practices in rental property management and provide us with some management tips that we can use when managing our own properties. I have had the pleasure of co-presenting a seminar with Stacy a few months ago and found her to be a dynamic, knowledgeable, and enjoyable speaker. Come learn how to better manage your rentals from an expert in the industry.
I hope to see all of you at these future meetings.
I would like to wish everyone a healthy, safe, and happy holiday season. I apologize for the lack of substantive blog articles this past week but I have been very busy dealing with all of the crowds while trying to finish my last minute holiday shopping : )
Just last week I read yet another article about an owner and its management company in California being threatened with a $330,000 fine for failure to give it’s tenants a lead-based paint and lead-based paint hazard disclosure notice as required under federal law. Yes, that number is correct – $330,000 – I did not mistakenly add an extra 0 or two. That is $11,000 per violation for the 30 alleged violations. Read the rest of this entry »
New rules for remodeling of houses built before 1978 go into effect in April of 2010. As of April 22, 2010 any person or business that disturbs more than 6 square feet of interior surface that may contain lead-based paint or more than 20 square feet of exterior surface that may contain lead-based paint will be subject to the EPA’s 2008 Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule. Read the rest of this entry »