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Free Idaho Lead Paint Disclosure

The federal disclosure every Idaho landlord must deliver before leasing housing built before 1978. Authority is 42 U.S.C. 4852d and 40 CFR Part 745 Subpart F. Idaho adds no lead paint 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 Idaho Free PDF
Updated Q3 2026 By Tenant Screening Background Check Editorial Team Reviewed for Idaho ~18 min read

A Idaho lead paint disclosure is the federally mandated form a landlord delivers to a prospective tenant before any lease of residential property built 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). Idaho imposes no separate lead paint disclosure statute — the duty here is purely federal. What Idaho does add is an independent habitability duty under Idaho Code 6-320 for deteriorated paint, covered in our Idaho habitability laws guide. Generate the form below, then read on for exactly what the rule requires.

Key Takeaways
  • Pre-1978 is the only trigger. Original construction before 1 January 1978 makes the unit “target housing” and the disclosure mandatory. The build date controls even if the unit was gutted and rebuilt in 1995.
  • Idaho has no lead paint statute. The lease duty is 100% federal. Idaho’s only property-condition disclosure (Idaho Code Title 55, Chapter 25) is a seller’s duty on a sale and does not reach a lease. Idaho’s real contribution is habitability (Idaho Code 6-320) and EPA-administered lead-work certification.
  • The 10-day inspection window does not apply to leases. 40 CFR 745.110 gives it to purchasers only. The lessor rules at 40 CFR 745.113(b) contain no such item.
  • 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 start of the leasing period (40 CFR 745.113(c)). It is your only real defence in an enforcement inquiry.
  • Renovation is a second, separate duty. Disturbing paint in an occupied pre-1978 unit triggers the RRP rule and a 60-day lead-hazard-information notice.
Idaho lead paint disclosure overview
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Idaho lead paint disclosure overview

Idaho Lead Paint Disclosure at a Glance

Trigger

Built before 1978

Authority

42 U.S.C. 4852d

Idaho Statute

None — federal only

Retention

3 years

Timing

Before lease obligation

Pamphlet

EPA, mandatory

Duty to test

No

10-day inspection

Sales only

The one-line answer: if your Idaho rental was built before 1978 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 Idaho law changes that; nothing in Idaho law adds to it.

What the Idaho 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 Idaho landlord delivers to a prospective tenant for any residential property built 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 attached to or included 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 defence 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 Idaho 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.

Does Idaho have its own lead paint law?

No. Idaho has no state-specific lead paint disclosure statute, and this page will not invent one. The lease lead-paint disclosure duty for an Idaho landlord is entirely federal: 42 U.S.C. 4852d, 40 CFR Part 745 Subpart F, and 24 CFR Part 35 Subpart A. Idaho keeps no lead registry, publishes no state lead-paint disclosure form, and layers no rental lead-certification statute on top. If you are searching for the Idaho lead statute number, there isn’t one to find.

The one Idaho statute people confuse with this is the Idaho Property Condition Disclosure Act, Idaho Code Title 55, Chapter 25 (sections 55-2501 through 55-2518) — and it does not apply to you as a landlord. It is a seller’s duty on the sale of one-to-four-unit residential real property: the seller delivers a property-condition disclosure form to the buyer, and Idaho Code 55-2505 carves out sixteen exempt transactions. It does not single out lead, and it does not reach a lease. A landlord renting an Idaho unit owes no Idaho statutory property-condition or lead disclosure — only the federal one on this page. What Idaho does contribute sits alongside the disclosure, not inside it:

  • Habitability — Idaho Code 6-320. Idaho Code 6-320 gives a tenant a statutory action when the landlord fails to keep the premises safe and sanitary. Deteriorated lead paint — peeling, chipping, or chalking — can be that failure on its own, independently of whether you disclosed it. Disclosure does not cure a hazard; it only discloses one. Our Idaho habitability guide covers the condition-based duty in full.
  • Who may disturb the paint — EPA-administered, not state-run. Idaho is not an EPA-authorized state for the Renovation, Repair and Painting program, and the abatement and evaluation program in Idaho is EPA-administered as well. The practical consequence: an Idaho landlord who disturbs pre-1978 paint must use an EPA-certified firm and renovator, not a state-certified one — and EPA has itself brought RRP enforcement against Idaho renovators.
  • The Silver Valley soil-lead overlay. In the Coeur d’Alene Basin and Bunker Hill Superfund area of northern Idaho — the Silver Valley, in Shoshone County and parts of Kootenai County (Kellogg, Smelterville, Pinehurst, Wallace) — mining-legacy soil lead, not paint, drives a real-estate disclosure and an Institutional Controls Program administered through the state. It is an environmental and property-transfer concern, not a statewide landlord lease mandate, and it is distinct from the paint disclosure on this page.

Because the leasing obligation is federal rather than Idaho-specific, the same disclosure applies to a rental in any state — our federal lead-based paint disclosure form is the generic version of the Idaho form on this page, and our Idaho landlord-tenant laws overview puts it in context.

What the rule actually requires: the six elements of 40 CFR 745.113(b)

Most guides list “three things” a landlord must do. The regulation is more precise than that. 40 CFR 745.113(b) requires six distinct elements in the lease or an attachment to it. A disclosure missing any one of them is defective, regardless of how professional the form looks. This is the checklist to audit your own paperwork against.

ElementWhat 40 CFR 745.113(b) requiresWho completes it
(b)(1) Lead warning statementThe fixed federal paragraph, reproduced in its prescribed wording, attached to or inserted into the lease.Pre-printed on the form
(b)(2) Lessor’s disclosure of known paint and hazardsA statement disclosing the presence of known lead-based paint and hazards, including any additional information available (for example location and the condition of painted surfaces) — or a statement of no knowledge.Lessor
(b)(3) List of records and reportsA list of any records or reports available to the lessor that were provided to the lessee — or a statement that no such records exist.Lessor
(b)(4) Lessee’s acknowledgmentA statement by the lessee affirming receipt of the information in (b)(2) and (b)(3) and receipt of the lead hazard information pamphlet.Lessee (initials)
(b)(5) Agent’s statementA statement that the agent has informed the lessor of the lessor’s obligations under 42 U.S.C. 4852d and is aware of their own responsibility to ensure compliance.Agent (initials, or N/A)
(b)(6) Signatures certifying accuracyThe signatures of the lessors, agents, and lessees certifying to the accuracy of their statements, with dates.All parties

Note what is not in that list: no inspection window, no testing requirement, no filing with any agency, and no obligation to remediate. The rule is an information-transfer rule. It makes you tell the truth about what you know and hand over what you hold; it does not make you go looking.

The item nobody mentions: the lessee’s agent

Element (b)(5) is often described as “the agent signs”. In practice there can be two agents, and they are treated differently. The lessor’s agent must always complete the item where one is engaged. The lessee’s agent item is conditional — the current EPA lessor form carries a footnote limiting it to a lessee’s agent who receives compensation from the lessor. Where no agent is involved at all, the item is marked not applicable rather than left blank, so the record shows the question was addressed.

Target housing: the pre-1978 trigger

“Target housing” is the federal term for property subject to the rule. The definition at 40 CFR 745.103 is residential dwellings constructed before 1 January 1978, subject to the narrow exclusions in the next section.

Why 1978 — and which 1978 date actually governs. The operative cutoff comes from the definition itself: 40 CFR 745.103 defines target housing as housing constructed prior to 1978, meaning construction before 1 January 1978. The historical reason that year was chosen is the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s ban on lead-containing paint at 16 CFR 1303.1 — but that ban applies to paint manufactured after 27 February 1978, which is not the same date. Competing pages routinely merge the two and report the CPSC ban as effective 1 January 1978. It was not. The distinction has no practical effect on your compliance answer, because the construction cutoff in 745.103 is what decides coverage, but it does tell you which cite to trust: for whether your unit is covered, read 745.103, not the CPSC rule. Housing constructed from 1 January 1978 onward sits outside the disclosure regime entirely.

How to verify the build year in Idaho. The county assessor’s record is the fastest authoritative source, and every Idaho county publishes it online. The original certificate of occupancy, the building permit file, and title records also establish it. The lessor carries the burden of correctly identifying target housing — “I think it was around 1980” is not a defence, and a guess that turns out wrong is a knowing violation waiting to happen.

Renovation does not reset the clock. A 1962 building stripped to the studs and rebuilt in 2001 is still target housing. The original construction date controls, not the date of the most recent renovation. This trips up owners of heavily rehabbed older stock constantly.

Common areas in multi-unit buildings. If the building predates 1978, the disclosure scope reaches the common areas as well as the leased unit — hallways, stairwells, porches, laundry rooms, and shared storage. This has a practical consequence for records, covered below: a building-wide evaluation is disclosable to every tenant in the building, not just the one whose unit it sampled.

Idaho context. Idaho’s pre-1978 stock is concentrated in the older urban cores — substantial parts of Boise, Nampa, Pocatello, Idaho Falls, Lewiston, Coeur d’Alene, and Twin Falls — while most suburban development postdates the trigger. Portfolio landlords with mixed-vintage holdings are the ones who get caught, because the compliance answer differs unit by unit. When in doubt, verify against the appraiser record rather than relying on the exemption.

Which pre-1978 Idaho rentals are exempt

Even pre-1978 property can fall outside the rule. The carve-outs are narrow, and they come from two different places in the regulation — which is why competing lists of “the lead paint exemptions” disagree with one another. Some are exclusions written into the definition of target housing at 40 CFR 745.103: a unit that meets one of those was never target housing in the first place. The others are transaction-level exemptions listed at 40 CFR 745.101: the housing is target housing, but this particular deal is outside the subpart. The compliance answer is often the same either way, but knowing which provision governs tells you which text to read and which facts matter. Verify against the current rule before relying on any of them.

  • Housing built in 1978 or later (40 CFR 745.103). Not target housing at all.
  • Zero-bedroom units (40 CFR 745.103, definitional) — efficiencies, studio apartments, dormitory housing, military barracks, and rentals of individual rooms, in which the living area is not separated from the sleeping area. This exclusion is unconditional. Read the definition itself: it excludes “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-under-six parenthetical attaches only to the elderly-or-disabled limb; “or any 0-bedroom dwelling” is a separate, standalone exclusion. A genuine studio is not target housing even when a child under six lives there. The real error — carried on our own older page and on many competitors — is bolting the child condition onto the studio limb, where the regulation never put it. The trap to watch is the reverse one: a one-bedroom with a sleeping alcove is not a zero-bedroom dwelling once the living area is separated from the sleeping area, so do not over-claim this exclusion.
  • Housing for the elderly or persons with disabilities (40 CFR 745.103, definitional), where the housing is specifically designated as such — unless a child under six resides or is expected to reside there.
  • Short-term leases of 100 days or less (40 CFR 745.101(c)), where no lease renewal or extension can occur. Vacation and short-term rentals typically qualify; a month-to-month tenancy does not, because it renews.
  • Certified lead-free housing (40 CFR 745.101(b)). Property inspected by a certified inspector and found free of lead-based paint. Retain the certification; it is the only proof of the exemption.
  • Qualifying lease renewals (40 CFR 745.101(d)). A renewal of an existing lease where the les