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Sep 26, 2023 More than a quarter of Las Cruces-area homes are subject to EPA renovation rules

Gary Sandler

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Published 26 September 2023

According to the good people at the Dona Ana County Assessor’s Office, there were 63,828 residential homes, condos, multi-family properties, townhomes and mobile home-land combinations taxed as real estate in 2023. Of that number, 18,027, or 28.24 percent, were built prior to 1978 and therefore subject to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Lead-based Paint and Renovation regulations.

If you are an owner of a pre-1978 property and intend to personally do renovations, knock yourself out. The agency wisely exempted property owners who do their own renovations. However, if you hire a renovator to do all or part of the work, it’s advisable to make sure the renovator you hire is properly certified. The EPA defines renovators as “home improvement contractors, maintenance workers, painters and other specialty trades”. The rule is triggered when a renovator hired by an owner “disrupts over 6 square feet of painted surface per room in an interior, or over 20 square feet of painted surface on an exterior or involves window replacement or demolition of painted surfaces”.

Lead is extremely toxic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website, CDC.gov, warns that “lead has no useful purpose in the human body” and “can affect every organ system”. While lead is deleterious to every human being, it’s especially harmful to children. “More than half a million U.S. children are now believed to have lead poisoning”.

In 1994, the EPA put in place regulations mandating that owners and managers of properties built prior to 1978 not only disclose to prospective purchasers or renters whether they possess any knowledge or reports pertaining to lead paint (attention landlords!), they must also provide their prospects with a 10-day opportunity to assess whether lead paint is present. The Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act applies to all owners, property managers and Realtors involved in the sale or lease of pre-1978 properties, where children are typically present.

In 2010, the EPA expanded their regulations to include contractors who make repairs to properties built prior to 1978. According to the new Lead Renovation Repair and Painting Program, “Firms performing renovation, repair and painting projects that disturb lead-based paint in homes, childcare facilities, and kindergartens built before 1978 must be EPA or state-certified and must use certified renovators who follow specific work practices to prevent lead contamination”.

The percentage of U.S. homes that may contain lead paint has diminished steadily over the years. It is estimated that lead paint was used in around 9-of-10 homes built before 1940 and dropped to around two-thirds of homes built between 1940 and 1960. Currently, one-in-four homes built between 1960 and 1978 may very well contain lead paint. While just over 28 percent of Las Cruces-area residences may currently contain lead paint, the percentage was just over 32 percent 5-years ago. What drove down the percentage? It was the addition of 6,494 new residential homes, condos, multi-family properties, townhomes and mobile home-land combinations built since then, coupled with the demise of an unknown number of pre-1978 relics.

While homeowners seldom find themselves behind the 8-Ball, some celebrities certainly did. Chip and Joanna Gains, stars of HGTV TV’s Fixer Upper and other popular TV shows, were found to have violated EPA’s safe handling rules when renovating 33 properties dating back to 2015 and were assessed a civil penalty of $40,000. In addition, they were required to spend $160,000 to abate lead hazards in the affected homes and produce a video on the subject.

For information on how to avoid finding yourself behind the 8-Ball, log on to www.epa.gov/lead. You may be glad you did.

See you at closing.

Gary Sandler is a full-time Realtor and president of Gary Sandler Inc., Realtors in Las Cruces, New Mexico. He loves to answer questions and can be reached at 575-642-2292 or Gary@GarySandler.com.

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