De-Leading? (Boston, Wellesley: apartments, to rent, credit)

[spacemonkey701]

Hi,
I'm hunting for an apt and am running into a problem with de-leading. I hadn't heard of this before I moved here and have learned that if you have kids, or in our case, a kid on the way, you need to live in a place that has been de-leaded.

Is anyone clear on the risks as well as the laws?

I've read horror stories about lead poisoning, but I've also heard that there is less risk to newborns because in the first year they're not crawling about licking the walls or inhaling dust.

As far as the laws go, some realtors have said that we can take the risk if we want whereas some landlords flat out refuse to show us apartments when they find out my wife is pregnant. (which seems like discrimination to me).

Thoughts?

Thanks

[CaseyB]

I don't think that landlords can refuse to rent to you if your wife is pregnant or you have kids, although a 2 family might be exempt. De-leading is messy though, I don't think you want to live there while it's going on.

[eevee]

I think by law, LLs can't rent leaded apartments to people w/ kids under 6. at the same time, a landlord can't just refuse you either on the sole basis b/c you have kids. if you apply to an apt. and you fully qualify, the LL would have to accept you and delead the apt. for you to live there. like Casey said, the process is messy and the LL would have to put you up in a motel/hotel

given the extreme expense of deleading (both for the actual process and the expense or moving tenants to a motel or not having any tenants at all and not getting that income in), LLs will find excuses not to rent to kids. some will flat out, illegally state no kids are allowed, many will use credit as a reason, and some may just give no reason at all (or just flat out lie). it's hard to know exactly why you were refused the apartment, if it was b/c your wife is pregnant or if your income wasn't high enough, or if your credit wasn't good enough (unless the LL or realtor flat out says "we can't rent to you b/c you have kids").

it will make your work harder, but I suggest just looking at deleaded apartments, or newer constructions that are unlikely to have lead paint. forcing a LL to delead isn't the best way to start the LL-tenant relations

[NH2008]

I don't know anything about the laws, but have lived in lots of old apartments and houses. I did discuss this with the pediatrician and he said that as long as the paint isn't flaking, it really doesn't pose a health risk. A lot of old houses might have a layer of lead paint covered by layers of newer, lead-free paint and that's fine. It only poses a risk when it's flaking and kids eat the paint chips or when there's major construction going on and the walls are knocked down or sanded and the lead dust gets breathed in. (If you're planning a remodeling project and you have lead paint, you'd obviously want to stay elsewhere until it's completed.)

The other issue is lead pipes and if that's an issue you should just let the tap run until the water is as cold as it gets - this just takes a minute or so and lets you know you're getting water from underground, not the water that's been sitting in your pipes absorbing lead. We also have a Brita water pitcher which filters it out just to be 100% safe.

You can buy lead-testing strips at hardware stores or at Amazon to test paint, toys, etc.

I know it sounds scary, but what I've been told is that lead is really only an issue in poorer neighborhoods where the buildings aren't maintained and kids are eating flaking paint, etc. However, you should definitely ask about it when you're interviewing pediatricians in case they say something different.

[CaseyB]

Massachusetts has very old housing stock and unfortunately, since lead paint was used up until the last 30-40 years, it's all over the place, not just in the poorer neighborhoods.
The Globe ran a story a couple of weeks ago about a couple who live in Wellesley in a $1.3 million who were dragged to court over this: Lead problem puts couple in bind - The Boston Globe

[NH2008]

Interesting article, thanks. It doesn't sound like it's clear that the children had elevated lead levels from the paint in the house vs. the toxic charm necklace (if you don't have young kids, you might not know that a bunch of toys and charms were recently exposed as having illegally high levels of lead in the paint, which is dangerous because kids tend to put everything in their mouths.) Whether it's right for the state to require lead abatement in the absence of evidence that the house is the source of the lead poisoning, I don't know. As a parent would obviously prefer as little lead around as possible. If I were shopping for a house, I'd definitely prefer one that had already been de-leaded, and if we were having work done, we'd move out for the interim.

However, I'm just repeating what I was told by our pediatrician, which is that from a health standpoint it doesn't matter whether lead is present in the paint as long as the paint isn't flaking, chipping, or being disturbed by remodeling work. Is he right? I have no idea. But most kids have lead tests as part of their regular check-up at some point, and despite spending lots of time in old houses our kids have always been fine. If he's right, inner-city apartments that are poorly maintained and have lots of flaking paint to be eaten and perhaps eroding pipes leeching lead into the water would be much more dangerous than an upscale house where the 1920 lead paint is buried beneath smooth layers of modern paint/plaster/wallpaper.

I will say that if I were that mom, I would definitely cough up the 95k to do lead abatement on my house and just move out until the work was done. Not worth the lawsuit or any potential risk! Geez!

Oh, another health tip for op: don't reboil water (for example, a tea kettle with water leftover from the morning) as that concentrates any lead that might be in it.