Lead Paint Throughout Recently-Bought House - Who's Liable?

Stubod

Leogames said:

I'm not, with the greatest of respect, looking for individual viewpoints, opinions or anecdotes here - I'm looking to get it sorted and need to understand how to accommodate the costs involved.  Lead paint is an issue with pets and young children, particularly when we want to undertake works on the house, and I can tick all of the above in my case.

..then a public forum is not the place to get the answers you seek...

....and my opinion is that point no 3 in the OP would be the correct one...

Leogames

Section62 said:

Leogames said:

I'm not, with the greatest of respect, looking for individual viewpoints, opinions or anecdotes here -

Asking on a public forum where anonymous people give help free of charge is probably the wrong starting point then. None of us can advise in anything approaching a professional capacity.

Maybe a 'free' half-hour consultation with a solicitor firm?

For context, the problem is that when I first started posting on the forums (on a much older username) I was asking for advice on a landlord situation. Those who helped may or may not have been professionals, but knew what they were talking about and managed to steer me towards exiting a really unpleasant situation which also saved me thousands of pounds.

You could say I got lucky with the forum in that case, probably.  I can't understand why anyone who didn't know what they were actually talk about would weigh in.  But just because I wouldn't do it - yes, other people do have the right to make an account and offer up something entirely unusable.

(Please note, Section62, that I'm not aiming this at you - and I also equally know that this post will almost certainly result in a knee-jerk reaction from those who I am talking about, and only further proving my point above)

pinkshoes

Leogames said:

I've bought lead paint test strips and have tested the walls since taking ownership and before beginning decorating.

I'm not, with the greatest of respect, looking for individual viewpoints, opinions or anecdotes here - I'm looking to get it sorted and need to understand how to accommodate the costs involved.  Lead paint is an issue with pets and young children, particularly when we want to undertake works on the house, and I can tick all of the above in my case.

The lead paint is fine unless in poor condition and flaking, and it was usually dealt with by painting over it and sealing it in with a couple of coats of modern paint. 

What condition is it in? 

If you're going to be doing work on the house and decorating, and this will involve disturbing the paint, then you will need to make sure you do it safely. As above, if the paintwork is not flaking and in good condition, you can paint or wallpaper over it.

You'll need to remove it using a chemical stripper which then binds to it and doesn't create dust. Wear dust mask (chemical one) and protective clothing and ventilate the room. Seal the room off until it is done. Or pay professionals to do it.

Unless the survey you had specifically checked for lead paint then there is no legal come back. It's quite a common thing in older houses and not dangerous unless flaking.

jimbog

Leogames said:

I've just bought an old house and discovered that the walls in virtually every room has lead paint under the top layer.

The sellers didn't tell me, but lived here for 20 years.  I had a level 3 survey, which didn't mention it.  Who's liable for any remedial works?

• The sellers, because they should have informed me?
• The surveyor, because they didn't pick it up (and yes I know they can't test, but could've alerted it as a potential issue from seeing thick layers of paint and/or being aware it's an old house)?
• Me as the buyer, because buyer beware and I didn't test for it?

(Please note this question is not about how to remove or live with the paint itself, which I'm investigating separately)

All constructive input greatly appreciated in advance.

You, as you didn't check before you bought it

Ath_Wat

Any house could have acres of lead paint underneath wallpaper, which would give you exactly the same problems when you came to strip walls.  There's no way any survey could warn about this except in the most general way, essentially to say they had no idea whether there was lead paint.
It's just up to you to deal with.  Don't spend money on solicitors.

macman

An old house has lead paint in it. Shock horror.! So do millions of houses in the UK, unless they've been completely gutted out and rebuilt internally since the Victorian/Edwardian eras. Lead was a permitted additive in paint as recently as 1992, and in petrol until 1999.
This really is compo culture gone to the extreme. 'Who is liable?' No-one, except the owner.
I expect the property also has lead water piping in it too, so the OP should maybe add that to their intended litigation list.

user1977

macman said:

I expect the property also has lead water piping in it too, so the OP should maybe add that to their intended litigation list.

To be fair, I would at least expect a survey to mention lead piping (or the possibility of it) when looking at a sufficiently old property.

Martico

user1977 said:

macman said:

I expect the property also has lead water piping in it too, so the OP should maybe add that to their intended litigation list.

To be fair, I would at least expect a survey to mention lead piping (or the possibility of it) when looking at a sufficiently old property.

Yes, my survey highlighted probable lead piping, as well as "possible asbestos" in then-covered vinyl flooring. Nothing about lead in paint, though I assumed this was probably the case given the state of the place. 

FWIW, to the OP: as I imagine this may be an issue you want to tackle if you're doing a fairly full refurb: the water board replaced the lead pipe for free from mains to front door - I paid for replacement inside the property. And made sure I kept the old lead from inside to sell for scrap at a very good price.

Mutton_Geoff

If it's got an old stainless steel sink, then check the sound absorption pad on the bottom of it. They were usually made from asbestos too.

sidneyvic

Where there is blame there is a claim.....
No one wants to take responsibility even for their own property.
Why not just paint over the existing paint like 99% of the country has done or if you do want to go OTT and get it all professionally removed accept the fact, your house, your burden to bear.