apartment renting in Newton (Boston: real estate, apartments, renters)

[Danyi]

[SIZE=3]We rent an apartment and lived in Newton for more than 2 years. [/SIZE][SIZE=3]My husband and I recently bought a house in other town and plan to move out of the current apartment on the end of Feb. But our current lease terminate day is in the end of June. So we talked with our landlord and she agreed us to find the next tenant to replace us. Someone are very interested in the apartment. But our landlord does not allow us to find any family who has kids under 6-years-old for the next tenant. Because she said she did not know whether there is potential lead paint issue in this 3-family house. It is very hard for us. Because most of people come to see the apartment has kids and some less than 6. They said they don’t care about it. (example email: While the lead paint is not an issue for us, I understand your Landlords concerns. Thank you for keeping me updated. if anything should change, please let me know, we are still interested in the apartment.)[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3][/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]So my question is whether it is legal to refuse a family with kids less than 6yrs to rent an apartment which does not know the lead painting. If the tenant does not care about the lead paint, is it legal to rent an apartment to them by landlord? Is there any rule we could follow?[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Thanks[/SIZE]

[holden125]

The answer to both your questions, as I understand the law, is no.

The landlord can't reject tenants because they have small children, and the tenants can't just move in even if there might be lead paint in the apartment.

Under the lead paint law in Massachusetts, a landlord is responsible for making sure that there is no lead paint in the apartment if any child under six lives there. If there is lead paint, the apartment would have to be de-leaded before a child under six can move in. That process can be expensive, but it has gotten cheaper and the state will sometimes help pay the cost.

The landlord cannot, though, discriminate against potential renters with children. The law states that refusing to rent to families with children is not good enough for compliance with the lead paint law.

Lead paint regs and landlords - Boston Real Estate - Boston.com

Even if you have a lease with the landlady, if you are presenting her with a tenant who can pay the rent, but has children under six, the landlady cannot reject that tenant just because she doesn't feel like complying with the lead paint law. If she is going to rent apartments in Mass., she must comply with the lead paint law. If there is lead in the apt (which she's not even sure of), the apartment should be deleaded.

If you moved out and didn't pay any more, and she went to court to get the rest, I don't think she'd be successful if you say you presented her with new tenants and she rejected them because they have a young child. You might have to go after her to get back any deposit you put down.

But it's also not OK for the new prospective tenant to say they don't care about the lead paint issue. There are risks to the child from the lead, if it's in the apartment.

[Danyi]

Thank you very much for these helpful information.