Lead paint in Lynn rentals

Massachusetts has the strictest residential lead-paint law in the country, and Lynn is exactly the housing stock it was written for: most of the city's rentals were built before the 1978 federal ban on lead paint in homes, and a large share before 1940, when paint carried the most lead. The state's answer is unusual — the duty to delead is proactive. A landlord doesn't wait for an inspection, a complaint, or a poisoned child: a child under six living in the home is itself the trigger. This page lays out that duty, the notification every tenant of a pre-1978 home must receive, the liability that backs it, and how old each Lynn ZIP's rental stock actually is.

What this page is: the lead-paint rules that apply to a Lynn rental — what must be disclosed, what must be fixed, and who enforces it — each rule linked to its official source, next to Census data on how much of the city's rental stock actually predates the 1978 ban. It is not legal or medical advice — when it matters, read the linked source or use the free legal help on our tenant rights page.

A child under six is the trigger — the owner "shall abate or contain" — c.111 §197

Whenever a child under six years of age resides in any premises where paint, plaster, or other accessible structural material contains dangerous levels of lead, "the owner shall abate or contain" it — the statute's own words, read today. Not on request, and not only after someone gets sick: the child's residence is the trigger. Compliance takes one of two documented forms: full deleading signed off by a licensed inspector in a Letter of Full Compliance, or interim control — hazard-containment work under an emergency lead management plan, certified by a Letter of Interim Control while full compliance is finished. The duty survives a sale: a new owner of a home where a child under six lives has ninety days. The working detail — what counts as a dangerous level, who may inspect, how deleading must be done — lives in the Lead Poisoning Prevention regulations, 105 CMR 460. Source: M.G.L. c.111 §197 — abatement and containment of lead hazards · 105 CMR 460 — Lead Poisoning Prevention and Control

"No kids because of the lead" is discrimination, twice — c.111 §199A

The Lead Law saw its own evasion coming. Under §199A it is an unlawful practice — enforced through the state anti-discrimination chapter, c.151B — to refuse to rent, or to discriminate in the terms of a rental, because a home contains or may contain lead, because renting would trigger the deleading duty, or because a tenant exercised any right the Lead Law gives them. And the section closes the other door in terms: refusing to rent to families with children, itself illegal under c.151B, "shall not constitute compliance with the lead law." A landlord who says the apartment can't go to a family because of lead paint has described two violations, not a policy. Complaints run through the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination under c.151B §5. Source: M.G.L. c.111 §199A — discrimination prohibited

Strict liability for a poisoned child — and treble damages if willful — c.111 §199

An owner who hasn't complied is liable for all damages to a child under six who is lead-poisoned in the unit — strict liability, no negligence to prove — and if the failure was willful, or blew the deadlines in the regulations or an enforcement order, the statute adds punitive damages "which shall be treble the actual damages found." The same section is the incentive to comply: an owner holding a current Letter of Full Compliance or Letter of Interim Control is not strictly liable while it is in effect (an ordinary reasonable-care duty remains). That letter is at once the tenant's safety document and the owner's liability shield — which is why asking whether one exists is a normal question, not a hostile one. Source: M.G.L. c.111 §199 — liability of owners

What every tenant of a pre-1978 home must be handed before signing

For any home built before 1978 — child or no child — a Massachusetts owner must give the prospective tenant, before the rental agreement: two copies of the Tenant Lead Law Notification and certification form, a copy of the most recent lead inspection or risk-assessment report if one exists, and a copy of any Letter of Compliance or Letter of Interim Control (mass.gov, read today; DPH's Lead Safe Homes database shows a unit's inspection history by address). Underneath sits the federal disclosure rule for pre-1978 housing nationwide: the EPA's "Protect Your Family From Lead in Your Home" pamphlet, disclosure of any known lead hazards, copies of available reports, a lead-warning statement in the lease, and signed disclosure records the owner keeps for three years (42 U.S.C. §4852d). If you rented a pre-1978 Lynn apartment and none of this paper appeared, both a state and a federal duty were skipped. Source: Tenant Lead Law Notification — Mass DPH · EPA — real-estate disclosures for lead hazards · 42 U.S.C. §4852d — federal disclosure requirement

Lynn is on the state's high-risk list — which changes screening, and funds deleading

DPH's current high-risk-communities table for childhood lead poisoning (calendar years 2017–2021) names sixteen municipalities, and Lynn is one of them. The designation means children here should get annual blood-lead screening through age four, a year longer than elsewhere. The scoring formula behind the list is worth reading: it multiplies each community's poisoning incidence by its low-income share and by its share of pre-1978 housing as estimated by the American Community Survey — the same housing-age measure our table below renders for each Lynn ZIP. The list also steers money: the Get the Lead Out program (a 1988 Lead Law amendment, run through MassHousing) makes loans and grants for deleading, with half the funding reserved for high-risk communities — so "deleading is too expensive" has a state-funded answer here. Source: DPH — high-risk community lists and screening reports · MassHousing — Get the Lead Out · MassLegalHelp — your right to be protected from lead poisoning

How old Lynn's rental stock actually is, by ZIP

The law above keys on one year: homes built before 1978 may contain lead paint; newer ones may not. The Census doesn't publish a bucket that splits exactly at 1978 — the closest cut is 1980 — so the table counts renter-occupied homes built before 1980, alongside those built before 1940, when paint formulations carried the most lead. Citywide, Lynn's median home was built in 1945, and 78% of its 18,021 renter-occupied homes predate 1980 (2019–2023 ACS 5-year):

The range runs from 67% in ZIP 01901 (Downtown Lynn / Central Square) to 82% in ZIP 01905 (West Lynn) — a building's odds of predating the ban depend meaningfully on where in Lynn it stands.

Read this honestly: these are American Community Survey estimates (2019–2023 ACS 5-year), and in the smaller ZIPs the margins of error are wide. Age is a screening fact, not a diagnosis — a pre-1978 building may have been fully deleaded and certified, and only a lead inspection tells you about the unit you're in. The two legal thresholds don't line up perfectly either: the law keys on 1978, the Census bucket on 1980.

Where this connects on this site

Lead is one corner of habitability law: the general repair rules — what must be fixed, on what clocks, and the money remedies — are on the repairs & habitability page; the tenant rights page lists the free legal help that handles lead cases; and a landlord who answers a lead complaint with an eviction notice should read our eviction page — retaliation for a good-faith health complaint has consequences here. Rent levels for the buildings in question are on each ZIP page (01901, 01902, 01904, 01905).