Lead Based Paint Enforcement and Remediation

Effective date: March 17, 2025

Proposed Rule Full Text
HPD-Notice-of-Proposed-Rule-Amendment-re-Lead-Based-Paint-12.9.24.pdf

Adopted Rule Full Text
FINAL-Rule-Amendments-Regarding-Lead-Based-Paint-Feb.-2025.pdf

Adopted rule summary:

The Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) is adopting amendments to its rules relating to lead poisoning prevention and control in Chapter 11 of Title 28 as the result of enacted amendments to Administrative Code sections 27-2056.4, 27-2056.8, 27-2056.9, and 27-2056.17, and the addition of new section 27-2056.6.1 by the City Council. The amendments incorporate requirements set forth in Local Laws 111, 122, 123 and 127 of 2023. Local Law 111 amended section 27-2056.4 of the administrative code to require that, no later than August 9, 2025, owners include testing of common areas when they perform X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) lead paint testing of dwelling units in their buildings, as required under subdivision a-1 of such section. XRF is a method of determining the elemental composition of materials. When it comes to housing and environmental safety, XRF analyzers are used to measure the concentration of lead in old paint. The adopted amendments to the rules incorporate that requirement. The law also provides for HPD inspections of common areas, and makes the presence of lead-based paint in a common area of a multiple dwelling where a child of applicable age resides, that is peeling or on a deteriorated subsurface, a class C violation. Local Law 122 amended section 27-2056.7 of the administrative code to provide that when an owner receives a lead hazard violation pursuant to section 27-2056.6, they must provide records of annual notice and investigations for lead-based paint hazards conducted in the previous year. The law and the adopted rules also incorporate a provision for dismissal of record keeping violations where an owner submits all records required to be kept under LL #122 for the last 10 years, or, in cases where the owner does not have all required records for the last 10 years, submits a dismissal request form with records required to be kept for the last 3 years, and a payment of $1,000 for each year of the 10 years that the owner does not submit records. Local Law 123 amended section 27-2056.8 of the administrative code to require that by July 1, 2027, where a child under age 6 resides, or within 3 years of the date that a child under age 6 comes to reside, in a dwelling unit in a pre-1960 multiple dwelling, the owner must comply with the turnover requirements for the dwelling unit, found in section 27-2056.8(a)(1 - 4). These requirements include the remediation of all lead based hazards and any underlying defects; making all bare floors, window sills and window wells in the dwelling unit smooth and cleanable; the removal or permanent covering of all lead-based paint on all friction surfaces on all doors and door frames; and the removal or permanent covering of all lead-based paint on all friction surfaces on all windows, or the installation of replacement window channels or slides on all lead-based painted friction surfaces on all windows. The required “turnover” work must be completed unless the unit is turned over prior to July 1, 2027 or within three years of a child under 6 beginning to reside in the unit. Work that is performed in occupied units must be performed in compliance with all applicable city and federal safe work requirements. If relocation of in-place occupants is necessary, and the occupant refuses to temporarily relocate, the owner may apply to HPD for a temporary exemption from doing such work upon approval by HPD of documentation demonstrating the owner’s good faith effort to perform the required work and to show the occupant’s refusal to relocate, as outlined in the amendments to these rules. Owners who receive a violation of section 27-2056.8 for failing to perform turnover work will be required to submit records of annual notice and lead-based paint investigations conducted, as required to be kept under section 27-2056.7 or section 27-2056.17. The adopted rules incorporate the amendments regarding compliance with the turnover requirements, relocation requirements, and the ability of an owner to be exempt from such turnover requirements when a tenant refuses to temporarily relocate. Local Law 127 amends section 27-2056.17 of the administrative code to modify the criteria that HPD uses for the selection of buildings to be audited for compliance with sections 27-2056.4, 27-2056.6, and 27-2056.8, by including, in addition to lead-based paint hazard violations and turnover violations, data on the prevalence of elevated blood lead levels in certain geographic areas identified by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Turnover violations are issued when lead-based paint conditions are not corrected within a certain time after an apartment is leased to a new tenant if a child of applicable age resides there. The adopted amendments to the rules incorporate the new criteria. The adopted rule also includes minor plain language edits throughout.