Beginning January 1, 2010 there will be at least five new landlord tenant regulations.
1) Smoking policy:
There will be a new disclosure required of the smoking policy for the premises on which the dwelling is located.
The disclosure must state whether smoking is prohibited on the premises, allowed on the entire premises or only in specific areas.
If allowed on the premises the approved area must be clearly defined.
Owner occupied mobile homes and house boats are exempt from rental agreement requirements.
2) 100 year floodplain disclosure
Landlords will be required to notify tenants that a dwelling is located within the 100 year floodplain.
This law allows the tenant who did not receive notification and experienced a subsequent uninsured flood loss to recover from the landlord the lesser of the actual amount of the loss or two months rent.
3) Utility charges
A landlord can no longer bill or cellect more money from tenants for utilities or services than what the landlord was charged by the utility company or service provider.
4) Renovations involving lead-based paint
This legistlation requires ANYONE who performs renovations of lead-based paint on targe housing or child-occupied facilities to be certified by the Department of Human Services (DHS) and licensed as a certified lead-based pain renovation contractor by the Construction Contractors Board (CCB).
Under the law if you modify all or part of an existing structure that results in the disturbance of paint surfaces this will apply to you.
Modification includes such things as painted doors; sanding, scraping, or other activities that create paint dust; the removal of walls, ceilings, major re-plumbing and window replacement.
Target housing includes most houseing constructed prior to 1978. For a detailed description of what is required you may log on to the DHS website at http://www.epa.gov/lead/pubs/sbcomplianceguide.pdf
A child-occupied facility means a building or a portion of a building that was constructed prior to 1978 and is visited regularly by the same child under 6 years old on at least two different days within any week. This will include day-care centers, preschools and kindergarten classrooms.
If you have a property manager who performs renovations on the properyt on your behalf, they must also be licensed by the CCB and certified by DHS.
5) Testing wells for Arsenic
Sellers will now be required to test the domestic well water for Arsenic along with the nitrates and coliform currently required prior to sale. The receipt of the test must be sent to the Drinking Water Program of DHS and the buyer within 90 days of receipt of the test.
About Jan Garcia
