Child Care, a State Program, and a Landlord's 'Abatement'
A licensed home-based child care operates in a 1974 building. The operator cares for seven children, four of whom are under age 6, five days a week, nine hours a day. The landlord plans to replace three windows in the child care room and repaint the radiators. The landlord says repainting is 'abatement,' so the RRP Rule does not apply. The property is managed by a real estate agent who tells the operator to 'just hire a certified firm.' The landlord's handyman is not certified. The state has an EPA-authorized RRP program with its own certification, work-practice, and recordkeeping rules. The operator's lease says the landlord is responsible for repairs. The agent also wants to know whether the agent must provide the Renovate Right pamphlet to parents. The children attend daily.
1. Is the child care room a 'child-occupied facility' under the RRP Rule? Does the Rule apply to the window replacement and radiator repainting?
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Yes, the child care room is a child-occupied facility. The building is pre-1978, and the room is visited regularly by the same children under age 6. The operator cares for four children under 6, five days per week, nine hours per day. That exceeds the definition's requirements: at least two different days per week, at least three hours per day, at least six hours per week, and at least 60 hours per year.
The RRP Rule applies to renovations in pre-1978 child-occupied facilities. Replacing three windows is a renovation, and window replacement is not covered by the minor repair and maintenance exemption. Repainting radiators is not automatically outside the Rule: if the job involves sanding, scraping, or otherwise disturbing painted surfaces, it is a renovation. If the radiators are merely painted over with no paint disturbance, the analysis may differ, but the landlord's blanket claim that repainting is abatement is wrong. The handyman is not certified and cannot perform the work as an RRP renovation.
2. Distinguish repainting the radiators from abatement. What certification and work practices would each require?
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Abatement is a set of activities designed to permanently eliminate lead-based paint or lead-based paint hazards. It requires a certified abatement contractor and certified abatement workers and supervisors, uses abatement-specific work practices, and ends with clearance. RRP renovation is a repair, modification, or painting activity that disturbs painted surfaces but is not abatement; it requires a certified renovation firm using a certified renovator and RRP work practices, ending with cleaning verification.
Repainting radiators is ordinarily an interim control, not abatement, unless the project is designed to permanently eliminate a lead-based paint hazard. If the landlord hires an abatement contractor to remove or permanently encapsulate the lead-based paint hazard, the RRP Rule does not apply because abatement is excluded. But the landlord cannot relabel ordinary repainting as abatement to escape RRP. Surface preparation that disturbs paint triggers RRP unless the firm is actually performing abatement under the abatement program.
3. What are the obligations of the landlord, property manager/agent, and child care operator? How does the authorized state program change the compliance steps?
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The landlord must ensure that the work is done by a properly certified firm. The handyman cannot perform the renovation. If the property manager or real estate agent arranges or performs the renovation as part of the management business, that entity may itself be acting as the renovation firm and must be certified; merely telling the operator to 'hire a certified firm' does not transfer the landlord's responsibility. The agent may also have separate Lead Disclosure Rule obligations for leases or sales, but those are not a substitute for RRP compliance.
The child care operator must keep children out of the work area, coordinate with the firm, and ensure parents or guardians receive the required lead hazard information. The firm must provide the pamphlet to the facility owner/operator and to parents or guardians under the Rule. Because the state has an EPA-authorized program, the firm must follow state certification, work-practice, and recordkeeping requirements; an EPA certificate alone may not be accepted. The firm should verify the state's credential and records before work begins.