Does Virginia have its own lead-based paint disclosure law?

No. Virginia imposes no state lead-based paint disclosure duty on landlords. The disclosure 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 Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act does not mention lead at all, even though it separately mandates disclosures for mold, defective drywall, methamphetamine manufacture, and proximity to a military air installation. What Virginia does add is different in kind: Va. Code 8.01-226.7 gives an owner or agent who complied with the federal Act a conditional immunity from civil damages in a lead-poisoning personal injury or wrongful death action.

What is Va. Code 8.01-226.7 and does it create a duty?

It is a safe harbour, not a duty. Va. Code 8.01-226.7 provides that an owner or agent who has complied with the federal Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992 shall not be liable for civil damages in a personal injury or wrongful death action for lead poisoning arising from the condition of the dwelling, provided certain conditions were met before the tenant signed the lease. Failing a condition does not create a new cause of action against you; it forfeits the immunity and leaves you where ordinary Virginia negligence law puts you. Many summaries miscast its subsection (5) as a standing statutory requirement. Read against the text, it is a condition of the immunity.

What must a Virginia landlord do to qualify for the 8.01-226.7 immunity?

Under subsection C, before the tenant signs any lease for an initial term: an EPA-approved lead hazard information pamphlet was provided; the owner disclosed any known lead-based paint and hazards and any additional information within their own actual knowledge; the tenant signed a written statement acknowledging the disclosure and receipt of the literature; and the painted surfaces were maintained in compliance with the International Property Maintenance Code of the Uniform Statewide Building Code. Subsection C(5) then continues the disclosure obligation during the tenancy for any new information in the owner's actual knowledge; the statute spells out the written-disclosure-and-summary mechanic for agents, and an owner relying on the shield should follow it to evidence the condition. The maintenance condition is the one that goes beyond federal compliance.

Do I have to give Virginia 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) says 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 lessor requirements at 40 CFR 745.113(b) contain no inspection-opportunity item at all, and the EPA lessor form does not include one. AI-generated answers and form vendors routinely state that tenants get 10 days. They are wrong. You may offer an inspection window voluntarily, but no federal rule and no Virginia statute compels it for a lease.

Is a Virginia studio apartment exempt from the lead disclosure?

Only if no child under six lives or is expected to live there. Under 40 CFR 745.103, as amended effective January 13, 2025 (89 FR 89416), target housing means 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 sits at the end and attaches to both limbs, so a studio with a child under six in it is target housing. A 0-bedroom dwelling is one 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. That exclusion was unconditional only before the 2025 amendment.

Which Virginia rentals require a lead-based paint disclosure?

Any residential rental built before 1 January 1978, which the rule calls target housing. Units built in 1978 or later are outside the rule. Narrow exemptions cover 0-bedroom dwellings, leases of 100 days or less with no renewal, certified lead-free housing, qualifying lease renewals, and housing for the elderly or persons with disabilities. Under 40 CFR 745.103 as amended effective January 13, 2025 (89 FR 89416), both the 0-bedroom limb and the elderly or disabled limb carry the same child-under-six condition, so a studio with a young child in it is target housing. Virginia's pre-1978 stock is heavily concentrated in Richmond, Norfolk, Petersburg, Lynchburg, Roanoke, and the older parts of Alexandria and Arlington, so mixed-vintage portfolios need a unit-by-unit answer.

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

No. The rule requires disclosure of what you actually know, not investigation. EPA states plainly that the rule does not require sellers or landlords to test or remove lead-based paint or lead-based paint hazards. If the unit has never been tested and you hold no reports, no knowledge is the honest answer. What you may not do is check no knowledge while sitting on a report, a prior abatement record, or knowledge of a child's elevated blood-lead result in the unit. Note the Virginia wrinkle: 8.01-226.7 keys its immunity to your own actual knowledge too, so a landlord who avoids testing does not lose the safe harbour by not knowing.

Does the Virginia DPOR lead licence apply to landlords?

No, and this is the most common conflation on this topic. Va. Code Title 54.1 Chapter 5 governs asbestos, lead, and home inspection contractors and workers. Section 54.1-500 defines the lead contractor, lead inspector, lead risk assessor, lead supervisor, and lead worker licences, and 54.1-501 directs the Virginia Board for Asbestos, Lead, and Home Inspectors to license individuals and firms to engage in lead-based paint activities. That is an occupational licensing regime binding the professionals you hire. It imposes no disclosure duty on a landlord and creates no landlord registration. Property-manager guides that list DPOR licensing under Virginia landlord lead duties have merged two unrelated regimes.

How long must a Virginia landlord keep the signed disclosure?

At least three years from the commencement of the leasing period, under 40 CFR 745.113(c)(1). Keep the signed disclosure, a note of which pamphlet edition was delivered, and copies of every record you handed over. Three years is a floor, not a target: 40 CFR 745.113(c)(2) states that the 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). In Virginia the signed acknowledgment is doing double duty, because it is also a condition of the 8.01-226.7 immunity.

What are the penalties for skipping the disclosure?

Two separate exposures. First, 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 that person incurred, and 4852d(b)(4) lets the court add court costs, reasonable attorney fees, and expert witness fees. Second, government civil money penalties, which EPA adjusts for inflation each year under 40 CFR 19.4. We do not print a figure because any figure would be stale within a year, and the numbers circulating on competing Virginia pages are drawn from different authorities and different years without saying which. Consult the current table at 40 CFR 19.4.

Can a Virginia tenant void the lease if I skipped the disclosure?

No. EPA states that the disclosure rule does not cancel leasing or sales contracts. A missing disclosure does not void the lease. The tenant's remedies run to damages and penalties, not rescission: treble damages plus fees under 42 U.S.C. 4852d(b)(3) and (b)(4), a report to EPA or HUD, and any independent claim the underlying condition supports. Virginia's own termination remedies are attached to specific disclosures such as defective drywall under Va. Code 55.1-1218, not to lead.

Does the disclosure apply to lease renewals in Virginia?

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 an existing lease where 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 lessor's possession. Watch the cross-reference: 745.101(d) points at 745.107, not at 745.113. Both conditions must hold. Virginia landlords have a second reason to redisclose: 8.01-226.7(C)(5) continues the immunity's disclosure condition through the tenancy for new information, so a renewal is a natural checkpoint.

What must a Virginia landlord do when renovating an occupied pre-1978 rental?

This is a separate duty from the leasing disclosure. Under 40 CFR 745.82(a) the Renovation, Repair and Painting rule applies to renovations performed for compensation in target housing. Under 40 CFR 745.84(a), no more than 60 days before beginning work in a dwelling unit, the firm performing the renovation must provide the owner with the pamphlet and, where the owner does not occupy the unit, an adult occupant as well, obtaining written acknowledgment or a certificate of mailing at least 7 days prior. The renovation pamphlet is Renovate Right, not Protect Your Family From Lead in Your Home. Minor repair and maintenance activities disturbing 6 square feet or less per room for interior work, or 20 square feet or less for exterior work, sit below the de minimis in 40 CFR 745.83.

Which EPA lessor form is current?

EPA revised the disclosure forms in 2024. The current lessor version is Form No. 9600-041, Disclosure of Information on Lead-Based Paint and/or Lead-Based Paint Hazards; the sales counterpart is Form No. 9600-040. EPA reformatted and reworded the forms to reduce common completion errors, but the substantive information requirements did not change. A disclosure on an older layout that still carries all six required elements of 40 CFR 745.113(b) remains valid — the elements matter, not the letterhead.

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

Yes, where they exist. EPA states that for multi-unit buildings the records you must provide include those for common areas and other units that come from building-wide evaluations. The 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, that report is within scope for a pre-1978 building. Owners commonly disclose the unit file and overlook the building file.

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Free Virginia Lead-Based Paint Disclosure

The federal disclosure every Virginia landlord must deliver before leasing housing built before 1978. Authority is 42 U.S.C. 4852d and 40 CFR Part 745 Subpart F. Virginia adds no disclosure statute of its own — but it does give complying landlords something no other state advertises: a civil immunity under Va. Code 8.01-226.7.

Federally Required 42 U.S.C. 4852d Va. Code 8.01-226.7 Virginia Free PDF

Updated Q3 2026 By Tenant Screening Background Check Editorial Team Reviewed for Virginia ~19 min read

A Virginia lead-based 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). Virginia imposes no separate lead-based paint disclosure duty — but Virginia is not a state with nothing to say. Va. Code 8.01-226.7 converts federal compliance into a conditional shield against civil damages in lead-poisoning suits, and it attaches a maintenance condition the federal rule never imposes. Generate the form below, then read on for what the rule requires and what the Virginia statute adds.

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.
Virginia adds no disclosure duty. The Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act does not mention lead once, though it separately mandates mold, drywall, methamphetamine, and military-air-installation disclosures. The lease disclosure duty here is 100% federal.
Va. Code 8.01-226.7 is a shield, not a duty. Comply with the federal Act, keep the painted surfaces up to the property maintenance code, and you are immune from civil damages in a lead-poisoning personal injury or wrongful death action. Miss a condition and you simply lose the shield.
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 — whatever the AI answers say.
A studio with a toddler in it is now covered. Since 40 CFR 745.103 was amended effective 13 January 2025 (89 FR 89416), the 0-bedroom exclusion carries the same child-under-six condition as the elderly and disabled limb. Older charts still call it unconditional.
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.
Retain the signed disclosure three years from the start of the leasing period (40 CFR 745.113(c)). In Virginia that signature is also a condition of your immunity.
DPOR licensing is not your duty. Virginia licenses lead contractors, inspectors, and risk assessors. That binds the professionals you hire, not you.

▶ Watch overview

Virginia lead-based paint disclosure overview

Virginia Lead-Based Paint Disclosure at a Glance

Trigger

Built before 1978

Authority

42 U.S.C. 4852d

VA Disclosure Statute

None — federal only

VA Immunity

Va. Code 8.01-226.7

Retention

3 years

Timing

Before lease obligation

Duty to test

10-day inspection

Sales only

The one-line answer: if your Virginia 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. No Virginia statute changes that or adds to it — but Va. Code 8.01-226.7 rewards doing it properly with an immunity from civil damages, provided you also keep the painted surfaces up to code.

What the Virginia lead-based paint disclosure does

The lead-based paint disclosure — often called the Section 1018 disclosure, after the 1992 statute that created it — is the formal federal notice a Virginia 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. In Virginia that signed acknowledgment carries a second job that landlords in most other states do not get: it is one of the express conditions of the civil immunity at Va. Code 8.01-226.7, discussed in detail below.

The disclosure is not optional and the duty is not waivable by agreement. A pre-1978 Virginia 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 Virginia have its own lead paint law?

Virginia has no state lead-based paint disclosure statute for landlords, and this page will not invent one. Every disclosure requirement described here comes from federal law: 42 U.S.C. 4852d, 40 CFR Part 745 Subpart F, and 24 CFR Part 35 Subpart A. If you are searching for a Virginia code section that tells you to hand a tenant a lead form, there isn’t one.

That is a checkable claim rather than an assumption, and it is worth showing the work. The Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act — Title 55.1, Chapter 12 of the Virginia Code — is where a landlord disclosure duty would live if Virginia had created one. That chapter is not shy about disclosures. It expressly requires landlords to disclose mold (Va. Code 55.1-1215), the sale of the premises (55.1-1216), proximity to a military air installation (55.1-1217), defective drywall (55.1-1218), and prior use of the property to manufacture methamphetamine (55.1-1219). Read every section of that chapter and the word “lead” does not appear once. The General Assembly knew exactly how to mandate a rental disclosure — it did so five times in the same article — and it did not do so for lead. The federal rule is the whole of the disclosure duty in Virginia.

But “no disclosure statute” is not the same as “nothing to know”, and this is where nearly every competing Virginia page stops early. Virginia contributes three things that matter to a landlord of pre-1978 stock:

A civil immunity — Va. Code 8.01-226.7. The genuinely Virginia-specific provision, and the reason this page exists. It sits in Title 8.01 (Civil Remedies and Procedure), not in the landlord-tenant title, which is why it is missed. Full treatment in the next section.
Habitability — Va. Code 55.1-1220. The landlord’s duty to comply with applicable building and housing codes materially affecting health and safety and to keep the premises fit and habitable applies independently of disclosure. Deteriorated lead paint can be a habitability defect on its own. Our Virginia habitability laws guide covers those condition-based duties. Note what 55.1-1220 does not say: it never mentions lead. It reaches deteriorated paint through the general fit-premises and building-code duties, not through any lead-specific command.
Occupational licensing — Va. Code Title 54.1, Chapter 5. Virginia licenses lead contractors, lead inspectors, and lead risk assessors. This binds the people you hire. It is not a landlord duty, and treating it as one is the single most common error on this topic. Separate section below.

Because the obligation is federal rather than state-specific, the same disclosure applies to a rental in any state — our federal lead-based paint disclosure form is the generic version of the Virginia form on this page. What changes at the Virginia line is not the form. It is what compliance buys you.

Va. Code 8.01-226.7: the Virginia immunity nobody writes about

Search “Virginia lead paint landlord” and read the whole first page of results. Not one of them mentions Va. Code 8.01-226.7, titled “Owner and agent compliance with residential lead-based paint notification; maintenance immunity.” It has been on the books since 2000 and was amended in 2006 and 2007. It is the most consequential Virginia-specific fact on this topic, and it is invisible on the search results page.

What it is: a safe harbour, not a duty. This distinction decides how you read everything that follows. The statute does not command a landlord to do anything. It says that an owner or agent who has done certain things “shall not be liable for civil damages in a personal injury or wrongful death action for lead poisoning arising from the condition of the residential dwelling” — and the statutory sentence does not stop there. It continues “provided that” the conditions below were met, which is exactly why this is a shield you can drop. Fail a condition and no new cause of action springs into existence against you — you simply forfeit the shield and stand where ordinary Virginia negligence law leaves you. Several summaries of this statute describe its subsection (5) as a standing “requirement” that Virginia disclosure “shall continue during the term of the tenancy”. Held against the statutory text, that is a category error: it is a condition of the immunity, not a freestanding mandate.

What an owner must do to hold the shield (subsection C)

Subsection C covers owners, and any agent responsible for lead-based paint maintenance. The owner must have complied with the federal Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992 (42 U.S.C. 4851 et seq.), and, before the tenant signs any lease for an initial term:

An EPA-approved lead hazard information pamphlet was provided to the lessee.
The owner disclosed the presence of any known lead-based paint and/or lead-based paint hazards, and any additional information or reports about which the owner had their own actual knowledge.
The tenant signed a written statement acknowledging the disclosure and receipt of the literature.
The painted surfaces were maintained in compliance with the International Property Maintenance Code of the Uniform Statewide Building Code.
The disclosure obligation continues during the term of the tenancy for any new information in the owner’s possession or actual knowledge. Note the drafting precisely: subsection C(5) continues “the disclosure requirements in subsection C” for the owner, but the sentence spelling out the mechanic — make a written disclosure of the new information and give the tenant a copy of a summary, advising that the full package and any report is available for inspection and copying on request — is addressed to the agent. An owner relying on the shie