The Senate Health, Education and Welfare Committee was expected to vote last Wednesday on a bill that would, among other things, phase out the state’s “innocent owner” provision, which protects landlords from liability when a child is lead poisoned on their property.
If the bill wins a majority of votes from the 16 committee members, it would then be passed on to the full state Senate for consideration. The bill needs only a simple majority to pass in the Senate as well. From there it would be passed on to the state House of Representatives for consideration.
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Members of the HEW committee heard about five hours of testimony on the bill on June 2, according to state Sen. Thomas Izzo, D-Cranston, who chairs the HEW committee and headed up the commission that developed the bill. Testimony included opposition from the Rhode Island Association of Realtors, which fears the bill may drive up rental costs and even discourage some people from buying homes by forcing landlords into expensive lead mitigation projects.
Estimates show it can cost anywhere from $7,000 to $15,000 to conduct a lead hazard mitigation project, which can include installing new windows, sealing chipping paint, and replacing old plumbing parts. For landlords who own more than one rental unit or triple decker apartment buildings, the cost could be prohibitive, RIAR’s executive director Susan Arnold has said in a past interview. Arnold was not on the Lead Hazard Commission, but an RIAR representative did serve on the panel.
Members of the Rhode Island Trial Lawyers Association also testified against components of the bill, including placing caps on how much money a lead poisoning victim could collect from his landlord’s insurance company. The bill proposes limiting insurance company liability to $25,000 for each person poisoned, if the landlord had taken steps to clean up and secure possible lead hazards. The Trial Lawyers Association has argued this is unfair to victims and their families.
As state law now stands “there’s nothing to prohibit” a landlord from renting lead contaminated property to people with young children, Izzo said. The law does mandate that “when a home is being sold, the Realtor or the seller has to disclose the potential presence of lead,” he added.
In an interview last Tuesday, Izzo said he expected the committee to vote the following afternoon.
”I think the trial lawyers will continue to raise concerns. This is just a really tough issue, we’ve got to keep in mind that it’s an environmental health issue that’s affecting about 10 percent of our kids entering kindergarten,” Izzo said.
Testifying on behalf of the bill were state health officials, environmental advocates, insurance industry members, and others.
Donald Griffin, director of personal and business lines insurance with the National Association of Independent Insurers, was one of those who spoke on behalf of the bill. In a copy of his statement, Griffin contended: “The bill provides incentives (via limits on liability) for property owners to have rental properties inspected and certified as ‘lead-safe’ by the January 1, 2003 deadline. It also takes a tough stand with those property owners who do not comply with these standards and allows legal action against the property owner, up to and including property seizure.”
Griffin further stated: ” We believe that the limits imposed by the bill will preserve and protect the state’s insurance and real estate markets and assure that all insurance consumers are not assessed a ‘hidden tax’ to subsidize the costs of a few rental property owners who do not comply with the bill’s provisions.”
Chipping lead paint is perhaps the most commonly recognized source of lead poisoning, since lead was banned as an ingredient in residential paint in 1974, but soldering once used to install plumbing fixtures contained lead as well and can also be a source of lead poisoning.
Rhode Island has among the highest lead poisoning rates in the country, according to officials from the state Department of Health. A large stock of homes built before the 1970s is partially to blame for lead poisoning rates here.
Lead poisoning can cause a variety of neurological problems, including learning disabilities, hyperactivity, antisocial behavior and hearing and speech impediments. In extreme cases, children can suffer from convulsions and even die.
The 1999 Rhode Island KIDS COUNT report, which is an annual report by an independent policy and advocacy organization, indicated just over 16 percent of the 14,497 children tested for lead poisoning in November 1998 screened positive. That means 2,327 children, under the age of 6, had high blood-lead levels.
The 32-page Lead Hazard Mitigation Act was formally introduced to the Senate on May 20, months after the General Assembly’s usual filing deadline. But since this was a high interest bill, on which a committee had been working since early fall, the General Assembly leadership agreed to let the bill be filed late.
