Does Arkansas have its own lead paint disclosure law?

No. Arkansas has no state lead paint disclosure statute for landlords. The duty is entirely federal, under 42 U.S.C. 4852d with implementing rules at 40 CFR Part 745 Subpart F and 24 CFR Part 35 Subpart A. The Arkansas Residential Landlord-Tenant Act of 2007, A.C.A. 18-17-101 et seq., contains no lead disclosure duty. Arkansas does have a lead statute, the Arkansas Lead-Based Paint-Hazard Act of 2011 at A.C.A. 20-27-2501 et seq., but its own legislative-intent section (20-27-2502) says it exists to license lead-based paint activities, training programs, and the firms and individuals who perform them. It is a contractor certification regime, not a landlord disclosure duty. Treating it as a landlord rule is the most common mistake in Arkansas lead content.

Which Arkansas rentals require a lead paint disclosure?

Any residential rental constructed before 1978, which the rule calls target housing. Units built in 1978 or later are outside the rule. Four narrow exemptions appear at 40 CFR 745.101: sales at foreclosure, leases of housing certified lead-based paint free, short-term leases of 100 days or less where no renewal or extension can occur, and qualifying renewals of existing leases. Separately, the definition of target housing at 40 CFR 745.103 excludes housing for the elderly or persons with disabilities and any 0-bedroom dwelling unless a child under six resides or is expected to reside there. As amended effective January 13, 2025 (89 FR 89416), the 0-bedroom exclusion now carries the same child-under-six condition that has always governed the elderly and disabled limb; it was unconditional before the 2025 amendment.

Do I have to give Arkansas tenants 10 days to inspect for lead?

No. The 10-day inspection opportunity is a sales rule, not a rental rule. 40 CFR 745.110(a) states that before a purchaser is obligated under any contract to purchase target housing, the seller shall permit the purchaser a 10-day period to conduct a risk assessment or inspection. The statute is the same at 42 U.S.C. 4852d(a)(1)(C). The lessor requirements at 40 CFR 745.113(b) contain no inspection-opportunity item at all. Many form sites and AI answers copy this item onto rental disclosures from the sales version, and some even reverse it and say the seller gets the 10 days. An Arkansas landlord may offer an inspection window voluntarily as a best practice, but no federal rule compels one for a lease.

Is a studio apartment exempt from the lead paint disclosure?

Not automatically, and no longer unconditionally. 40 CFR 745.103 as amended effective January 13, 2025 (89 FR 89416) defines target housing as housing constructed prior to 1978, except housing for the elderly or persons with disabilities or any 0-bedroom dwelling (unless any child who is less than 6 years of age resides or is expected to reside in such housing). The child parenthetical now governs both the elderly-or-disabled limb and the 0-bedroom limb, so a studio, efficiency, dormitory unit, or individually rented room is target housing when a child under six resides or is expected to reside there; a studio rented to a family with a young child needs the disclosure. A 0-bedroom dwelling is any residential dwelling in which the living area is not separated from the sleeping area, and the term includes efficiencies, studio apartments, dormitory housing, military barracks, and rentals of individual rooms. Before the 2025 amendment the parenthetical attached only to the elderly-or-disabled limb, and many older charts still show studios as categorically exempt.

Does the Arkansas Lead-Based Paint-Hazard Act apply to landlords?

Not as landlords. The Arkansas Lead-Based Paint-Hazard Act of 2011, A.C.A. 20-27-2501 et seq. (Acts 2011, No. 1011), is a certification regime administered by the Arkansas Department of Health. The implementing rules, the ADH Rules Pertaining to Lead-Based Paint Activities (20 CAR Part 130), state their purpose is to license lead-based paint activities training programs, contractors and consultants, to certify the individuals who perform the work, and to set work-practice standards, and they require that all lead-based paint activities performed in target housing or a child-occupied facility be performed by a licensed consultant or contractor and certified individuals. The rules apply to lead-based paint activities, meaning inspection, lead-hazard screen, risk assessment, and abatement, and they carry a homeowner exemption for people working in their own residence. Nothing in the Act or the rules imposes a disclosure duty on a landlord. A landlord is reached only if the landlord personally performs regulated lead-based paint activities; a landlord who simply rents out a pre-1978 unit is not.

Does a landlord have to test for lead-based paint?

No. The rule requires disclosure of what you actually know, not investigation. 40 CFR 745.107(a) says plainly that nothing in the section implies a positive obligation on the seller or lessor to conduct any evaluation or reduction activities. If the unit has never been tested and you hold no reports, no knowledge is the honest and lawful answer. What you may not do is mark no knowledge while holding a report, a prior abatement record, or knowledge of a child's elevated blood-lead result in the unit.

How long must an Arkansas landlord keep the signed disclosure?

At least three years from the commencement of the leasing period, under 40 CFR 745.113(c)(1). The rule adds at (c)(2) that this recordkeeping requirement is not intended to place any limitations on civil suits under the Act, or to otherwise affect a lessee's or purchaser's rights under the civil penalty provisions of 42 U.S.C. 4852d(b)(3). Keep the signed disclosure, a note of which pamphlet edition was delivered, and copies of every record you handed over. The signed disclosure is the landlord's primary evidence in an EPA or HUD inquiry, so retaining it for as long as you own the property is the safer practice.

What is the Lead Warning Statement?

It is the fixed federal paragraph required by 40 CFR 745.113(b)(1) that must be included as an attachment to or within the lease. The lease version begins: Housing built before 1978 may contain lead-based paint. It goes on to state that lead exposure is especially harmful to young children and pregnant women, that lessors must disclose the presence of known lead-based paint and/or lead-based paint hazards in the dwelling before renting pre-1978 housing, and that lessees must also receive a federally approved pamphlet on lead poisoning prevention. It is prescribed wording, so rewriting or improving it can defeat the disclosure. Note that the sales version at 745.113(a)(1) is a different, longer paragraph; using the sales text on a lease is a common error. The generator on this page reproduces the lease version.

What are the penalties for skipping the disclosure in Arkansas?

Two separate exposures, and Arkansas adds nothing to either. First, a private action: 42 U.S.C. 4852d(b)(3) makes a knowing violator jointly and severally liable to the lessee for three times the amount of damages incurred, and 4852d(b)(4) lets the court award court costs, reasonable attorney fees, and expert witness fees. 40 CFR 745.118(c) restates the treble-damages exposure. Second, government civil money penalties, which are adjusted for inflation every year under 40 CFR 19.4. We deliberately print no dollar figure for the federal civil penalty, because the per-violation amounts quoted on most form sites are stale the year after they are written. Check the current 40 CFR 19.4 table instead of trusting a number on any page, including this one.

Does failing to disclose void the lease in Arkansas?

No. EPA states that the disclosure rule does not cancel leasing or sales contracts. A missing lead paint disclosure does not make the lease void or unenforceable, and it does not by itself give the tenant a right to walk away. What it does is expose the landlord to government civil penalties and to a private treble-damages action under 42 U.S.C. 4852d(b)(3). Separately, 40 CFR 745.119 confirms that nothing in the federal subpart relieves a lessor from complying with state or local notice or disclosure laws. In Arkansas there is no such state lead law to comply with, so the federal rule is the whole of it.

Do I have to disclose records for other units in the building?

Yes, where they exist. 40 CFR 745.107(a)(4) requires the lessor to provide the lessee with any records or reports available pertaining to lead-based paint and/or lead-based paint hazards in the target housing, and states expressly that this requirement includes records or reports regarding common areas. The disclosure duty is not limited to the four walls of the leased unit. If a building-wide risk assessment identified hazards in a stairwell, a laundry room, or a neighbouring unit of a pre-1978 building, that report is within scope. The paragraph also reaches records regarding other residential dwellings in multifamily target housing, but only where that information is part of an evaluation or reduction of lead-based paint in the target housing as a whole. Available is defined at 40 CFR 745.103 as in the possession of or reasonably obtainable by the seller or lessor at the time of the disclosure.

Does the disclosure apply to lease renewals?

A fresh disclosure is required for a new lease with a new lessee. Renewals are addressed by 40 CFR 745.101(d), which exempts renewals of existing leases in target housing in which the lessor has previously disclosed all information required under 40 CFR 745.107 and where no new information described in 745.107 has come into the possession of the lessor. Both conditions must hold, and note the exemption keys to 745.107, not to 745.113. The rule adds that renewal includes both renegotiation of existing lease terms and ratification of a new lease. If you obtained a new lead report or learned of a hazard since the original disclosure, the exemption does not apply. Redisclosing at each renewal is the conservative practice and costs nothing.

Who signs the agent item on the Arkansas disclosure?

Any agent engaged by the lessor. Under 40 CFR 745.113(b)(5), where one or more agents are involved in the transaction to lease target housing on behalf of the lessor, the disclosure must carry a statement that the agent has informed the lessor of the lessor's obligations under 42 U.S.C. 4852d and that the agent is aware of his or her duty to ensure compliance with the requirements of the subpart. The definition of agent at 40 CFR 745.103 excludes a purchaser's representative who receives all compensation from the purchaser. Where no agent is involved, the item is simply left blank or marked not applicable. The agent initials the item personally; the landlord must never initial it for them.

Home › Free Landlord Forms › Arkansas Landlord-Tenant Laws › Lead Paint Disclosure

Free Arkansas Lead Paint Disclosure

The federal disclosure every Arkansas landlord must deliver before leasing housing built before 1978. Authority is 42 U.S.C. 4852d and 40 CFR Part 745 Subpart F. Arkansas adds no lead paint disclosure statute of its own — and the 10-day inspection window you see on other sites is a sales rule, not a rental rule.

Federally Required 42 U.S.C. 4852d 40 CFR Part 745 Arkansas Free PDF

Updated Q3 2026 By Tenant Screening Background Check Editorial Team Reviewed for Arkansas ~18 min read

An Arkansas lead paint disclosure is the federally mandated form a landlord delivers to a prospective tenant before any lease of residential property constructed before 1978. It carries the fixed federal lead warning statement, states the lessor’s actual knowledge of lead-based paint and hazards, lists the records being handed over, documents the tenant’s receipt of the EPA pamphlet Protect Your Family From Lead in Your Home, captures any agent’s acknowledgment, and is signed and dated by every party. Authority is 42 U.S.C. 4852d (Section 1018 of Title X, the Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992), implemented at 40 CFR Part 745 Subpart F (EPA) and 24 CFR Part 35 Subpart A (HUD). Arkansas imposes no lead paint disclosure statute of its own — the duty here is purely federal, and the Arkansas Residential Landlord-Tenant Act of 2007 does not mention lead anywhere. What Arkansas does have is a lead contractor certification regime, which is a different thing entirely and is explained below. For the state-law picture on the condition of a rental, see our Arkansas habitability laws guide. Generate the form below, then read on for exactly what the rule requires.

Key Takeaways

Pre-1978 construction is the only trigger. Original construction before 1978 makes the unit “target housing” and the disclosure mandatory. The build date controls even if the unit was gutted and rebuilt in 1995.
Arkansas has no lead paint disclosure law. The duty is 100% federal. Arkansas’s Lead-Based Paint-Hazard Act of 2011 (A.C.A. 20-27-2501 et seq.) is a contractor certification regime, not a landlord disclosure duty — do not confuse the two.
The 10-day inspection window does not apply to leases. 40 CFR 745.110(a) gives it to purchasers only. The lessor rules at 40 CFR 745.113(b) contain no such item.
A 0-bedroom dwelling is now conditional too. Under 40 CFR 745.103 as amended effective 13 January 2025 (89 FR 89416), a studio, efficiency, or individually rented room is target housing when a child under six resides or is expected — the same child condition that has always governed the elderly and disabled limb. It was unconditional before the 2025 amendment.
You never have to test. The rule compels disclosure of actual knowledge, not investigation. “No knowledge” is honest and lawful when nothing has been tested and you hold no reports.
Deliver before the tenant is obligated, not at move-in and not with the keys. Late delivery is the same violation as no delivery.
Retain the signed disclosure three years from the commencement of the leasing period (40 CFR 745.113(c)(1)). It is your primary evidence in an enforcement inquiry.

▶ Watch overview

Arkansas lead paint disclosure overview

Arkansas Lead Paint Disclosure at a Glance

Trigger

Built before 1978

Authority

42 U.S.C. 4852d

Arkansas Statute

None — federal only

Retention

3 years

Timing

Before lease obligation

Pamphlet

EPA, mandatory

Duty to test

10-day inspection

Sales only

The one-line answer: if your Arkansas rental was constructed before 1978, is not a 0-bedroom or designated elderly/disabled unit with no child under six residing or expected, and the lease runs longer than 100 days, you must hand the tenant this signed disclosure plus the EPA pamphlet before they are obligated under the lease, and keep the signed copy for three years. Nothing in Arkansas law changes that; nothing in Arkansas law adds to it.

What the Arkansas lead paint disclosure does

The lead paint disclosure — often called the Section 1018 disclosure, after the 1992 statute that created it — is the formal federal notice an Arkansas landlord delivers to a prospective tenant for any residential property constructed before 1978. It does four things in one document.

First, it puts the tenant on notice of potential lead exposure through the federally mandated lead warning statement, the fixed language at 40 CFR 745.113(b)(1) that must be included as an attachment to or within the lease.

Second, it transmits the lessor’s actual knowledge of lead-based paint or hazards in the dwelling. The lessor picks one of exactly two positions: known lead-based paint or hazards are present, with a description of what is known; or the lessor has no knowledge of lead-based paint or hazards in the housing. There is no third box, and there is no “maybe”.

Third, it transmits any reports the lessor holds from prior inspections, risk assessments, or hazard-reduction work. The lessor either provides copies of all available records and lists them, or affirmatively states that no reports or records exist.

Fourth, it documents the tenant’s receipt of the disclosure and of the EPA pamphlet. The signed acknowledgment is the landlord’s primary evidence in any later EPA or HUD inquiry or private civil action.

The disclosure is not optional and the duty is not waivable by agreement. A pre-1978 Arkansas rental leased without one exposes the landlord to government civil penalties and to a tenant’s private action for triple damages plus fees. Compliance takes fifteen minutes; non-compliance is the most expensive paperwork failure in pre-1978 rental practice. If you are also screening the applicant, the disclosure belongs in the same pre-lease packet as your tenant screening paperwork, because both have to be finished before the tenant signs.

Does Arkansas have its own lead paint law?

No — Arkansas has no lead paint disclosure statute for landlords. This is the single most important thing to understand about lead compliance in Arkansas, and it is the opposite of what a lot of “Arkansas lead paint disclosure” pages imply. We verified it against primary text rather than assumed it, and here is exactly how.

The chapter that governs the landlord-tenant relationship in this state is the Arkansas Residential Landlord-Tenant Act of 2007, A.C.A. 18-17-101 et seq. We read its provisions, and there is no lead, lead-based paint, lead hazard, or lead poisoning duty anywhere in it. There is no state disclosure form, no state lead registry, no state tenant-notice duty, and no state abatement mandate aimed at ordinary landlords. If you go looking for an Arkansas statute number for a landlord’s lead disclosure, there is not one to find. Every substantive requirement on this page comes from federal law: 42 U.S.C. 4852d, 40 CFR Part 745 Subpart F, and 24 CFR Part 35 Subpart A.

Why “Arkansas adds nothing” is the useful answer

A page that invents a state duty to look thorough does real damage: it sends landlords chasing a filing that does not exist, and it makes them distrust the federal duty that genuinely does apply. The honest finding is more valuable. In Arkansas your lead disclosure compliance is entirely the federal checklist on this page. Get that right and you are done. There is no second, state-level disclosure list waiting to catch you out.

The Arkansas Lead-Based Paint-Hazard Act is a contractor rule, not a landlord rule

Arkansas does have a lead statute, and this is where nearly every summary goes wrong. The Arkansas Lead-Based Paint-Hazard Act of 2011 lives at A.C.A. 20-27-2501 et seq. (Acts 2011, No. 1011). Its own legislative-intent section, A.C.A. 20-27-2502, states verbatim that the General Assembly enacted the subchapter “to qualify the Department of Health to adopt, administer, and enforce a program for licensing lead-based paint activities, training programs, procedures, and requirements for the licensing and certification of individuals and firms engaged in lead-based paint activities and work practice standards for performing such activities.” Not one word of it is about what a landlord must tell a tenant. Here is what the subchapter actually contains:

Section	What it actually does	Does it touch a landlord?
20-27-2501	Title: the Arkansas Lead-Based Paint-Hazard Act of 2011.	No
20-27-2502	Legislative intent: to qualify the Department of Health to license and certify the firms and individuals who perform lead-based paint activities and to set work-practice standards.	No duty imposed
20-27-2503	Definitions, including “abatement” (any measures resulting in the permanent elimination of lead-based paint hazards).	No
20-27-2505	Powers and duties of the Department of Health to run the licensing and certification program.	No
20-27-2506	Authorizes the State Board of Health to promulgate implementing rules.	No
20-27-2508	License required — exceptions: who must be licensed to perform the regulated activities.	Only if you do the work
20-27-2509	Unlawful acts within the certification regime.	Only if you do the work

The pattern is unmistakable. The Act regulates who may perform lead-based paint activities — inspection, risk assessment, and abatement. It says nothing about what a landlord must tell a tenant. A lead-contractor certification regime and a landlord disclosure duty are two different animals, and conflating them is the most common error in state-by-state lead content.

What the implementing rules actually regulate

The Board of Health rules under this Act are the Rules Pertaining to Lead-Based Paint Activities, codified at 20 CAR Part 130 (the Arkansas Department of Health rendering carries the register numbers 007.04.11 and, as currently published, 007.40.24). Their General Provisions state, in the agency’s own words, that the purpose of the rule is to “establish procedures and requirements for the licensing of lead-based paint activities training programs,” “contractors and consultants,” and “for the certification of individuals engaged in lead-based paint activities,” to set “work practice standards,” and to “require that all lead-based paint activities performed in target housing or child-occupied facilities be performed by a licensed lead-based paint consultant or contractor and certified individuals.”

The applicability clause says the rule “applies to all lead-based paint activities, as defined by this rule, conducted in target housing or child-occupied facilities.” Read the whole thing and the words that would signal a landlord duty — lessor, landlord, lease, tenant, disclosure — simply do not appear as an obligation on an owner who rents. The document regulates the trade, not the tenancy.

The one place Arkansas’s lead regime can reach a landlord

The rules carry a homeowner exemption (Section I(d)): a homeowner is “not required to undertake any particular lead-based paint activity” and is “exempt from the requirements of this rule except as provided in Section I(d).” The practical point for a landlord is the flip side of that exemption. If you hire a licensed Arkansas lead firm to inspect, assess, or abate, the certification burden is theirs. But if you personally perform regulated lead-based paint activities — abatement, a risk assessment, a lead-hazard screen — you can step into the certification regime yourself. This is a work-practice and certification question, not a disclosure question, and it is the only place the state Act genuinely lands on a landlord. If you are planning to disturb paint yourself in a pre-1978 rental, get advice before you start.

The federal records point this state regime creates

Here is wh