Do I have to give a New Hampshire tenant 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) provides 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. Every operative noun is a sales noun. The lessor's element list at 40 CFR 745.113(b) contains no inspection item at all, and 40 CFR 745.113(a)(5) carries the received-or-waived statement on the sales disclosure only. A New Hampshire landlord may offer a tenant an inspection window voluntarily as a matter of good practice, but it is not a federal right and it must never be printed on the disclosure as one.

Must known lead-based paint be removed before renting in New Hampshire?

No, and this is a live error on a ranking New Hampshire law firm page. 40 CFR 745.107(a) states verbatim: “Nothing in this section implies a positive obligation on the seller or lessor to conduct any evaluation or reduction activities.” The federal rule transfers information; it does not compel abatement. Under New Hampshire law, removal is compelled only by a DHHS order issued after an RSA 130-A:5 investigation and RSA 130-A:6 inspection. RSA 130-A:18 reinforces the point: the mere presence of a lead base substance is not negligence and does not by itself violate any warranty of habitability. Known lead-based paint must be disclosed. It does not have to be removed before renting.

Do I need a lead-safe certificate for my New Hampshire rental?

Almost certainly not, unless you are converting. RSA 130-A:5-d provides that after July 1, 2024, certification of lead safety is required before a property is used as a residential rental unit or day care facility in two situations: newly-constructed rental units within buildings erected prior to January 1, 1978, and newly-licensed day care facilities within such buildings. The statute defines its own key term: “newly-constructed rental units” means “rental units being converted from a use other than residential rental housing.” So it reaches conversions - a mill building, a former office, an owner-occupied house first offered as a rental - not existing rental stock. Aggregators paraphrase this as “new construction,” which is misleading.

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

No. The federal standard is actual knowledge, not constructive knowledge, and there is no duty to investigate. 40 CFR 745.107(a) says nothing in the rule implies a positive obligation to conduct any evaluation. If the unit has never been tested and you hold no reports, “no knowledge” is the honest and lawful answer. The trap runs the other way: “no knowledge” becomes a knowing violation when you hold a risk assessment, an abatement record, a code notice, or knowledge that a prior child in the unit had an elevated blood lead level. In New Hampshire that exposure is sharper than average, because RSA 130-A:18 makes your compliance or non-compliance with public-health lead law admissible evidence of reasonable care or negligence.

How long must a New Hampshire landlord keep the signed disclosure?

Three years. 40 CFR 745.113(c)(1) requires the lessor, and any agent, to retain a copy of the completed attachment or the lease containing the required information for no less than three years from the commencement of the leasing period. That is a records floor, not a liability sunset: 40 CFR 745.113(c)(2) states 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).” Do not confuse this with the three-year compliance period attached to New Hampshire Housing lead grant funding - that is a grant covenant, a different thing that happens to share the number.

Does the disclosure apply to lease renewals?

Conditionally. 40 CFR 745.101(d) exempts “renewals of existing leases in target housing in which the lessor has previously disclosed all information required under § 745.107 and where no new information described in § 745.107 has come into the possession of the lessor,” and renewal there includes both renegotiation of existing terms and ratification of a new lease. Both conditions must hold. If anything new reached you - a test result, a report, an elevated blood lead finding - the exemption is gone and you disclose again. Note the cross-reference points at § 745.107, not § 745.113. AI answers commonly flatten this into “you must disclose before signing or renewing,” which overstates the rule.

What happens if a child in my New Hampshire rental has an elevated blood lead level?

The state regime activates. Under RSA 130-A:5, I the commissioner shall investigate cases of lead poisoning in children reported under RSA 141-A whose blood lead level meets or exceeds 5 micrograms per deciliter of whole venous blood. The commissioner may also investigate where there is reason to believe a lead exposure hazard exists for a child - but that discretionary limb is limited by the statute to the hazards "defined in RSA 130-A:1, XVI(b) and (d)", meaning deteriorated paint likely to become accessible to a child and bare soil over the lead limits. RSA 130-A:6 authorises inspection of the leased dwelling and, where a hazard is found in a multi-unit building, of other units occupied by a child or pregnant woman. Where a hazard exists under RSA 130-A:1, XVI(a), (b) or (c), the commissioner shall issue an order under RSA 130-A:7 requiring lead hazard reduction; for the bare-soil hazard at XVI(d) the order is discretionary. For an occupied unit the compliance period shall not exceed 90 days, extendable at the commissioner's discretion.

Does a New Hampshire lead order follow the property if I sell it?

Yes - this is the consequence no competing page mentions. RSA 130-A:7, IV provides that an order requiring lead hazard reduction “shall be binding upon and enforceable against the person to whom the order was issued and any other individual or entity that may acquire ownership of, or an interest in, the property that is subject to the order.” RSA 130-A:7, VI goes further: the order “shall be recorded in the registry of deeds for the county in which the property is situated and, upon recordation, the order shall run with the property.” A New Hampshire lead order is a title-level encumbrance, not merely a correspondence problem, and a buyer inherits it.

Does lead paint violate the warranty of habitability in New Hampshire?

Not by itself. RSA 130-A:18 is explicit: “the mere presence of a lead base substance in a dwelling shall not by itself violate any warranty of habitability,” and “the mere presence of a lead base substance shall not constitute negligence on the part of an owner of any dwelling.” To establish negligence a plaintiff must demonstrate actual injury caused by the lead base substance. That is a meaningful protection for New Hampshire owners. It is not immunity: the same section opens by requiring that owners of pre-1978 rental housing “shall take reasonable care to prevent exposure to, and the creation of, lead hazards,” and deteriorated paint that actually makes a unit unfit remains a habitability problem on ordinary principles.

What are the penalties for skipping the New Hampshire lead paint disclosure?

Two separate tracks. Federally, 42 U.S.C. 4852d(b)(1) authorises civil money penalties for each violation, and 42 U.S.C. 4852d(b)(3) gives a tenant a private action for treble damages plus costs and reasonable attorney fees; the government penalty amount is inflation-adjusted every year through the table at 40 CFR 19.4, so any fixed dollar figure quoted on a competing page is stale by definition and this page prints none. EPA enforces the rule in New Hampshire - it has publicly fined a New Hampshire property owner for disclosure-rule violations. Separately, under state law RSA 130-A:14 the commissioner may impose a statutory administrative fine not to exceed $5,000 for each offense for violating RSA 130-A or its rules, scaled by rule to the scope and severity of the violation. That state penalty attaches to the RSA 130-A regime, not to the federal disclosure.

Does the New Hampshire lead paint disclosure have to be notarized?

No. 40 CFR 745.113(b)(6) requires the signatures of the lessors, agents, and lessees certifying to the accuracy of their statements, along with the dates of signature. It requires nothing more. There is no notarisation requirement, no witness requirement, and no filing requirement - the disclosure is not lodged with EPA, HUD, DHHS, or any registry. It lives in your tenant file, which is exactly why the three-year retention rule matters so much: the signed document is the only artefact that proves you complied.

Can the New Hampshire lead paint disclosure be signed electronically?

Yes. The Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, 15 U.S.C. 7001, gives an electronic signature the same legal effect as ink, and EPA has recognised electronic delivery and signature for the lead disclosure. The practical conditions are the ordinary E-SIGN ones: the tenant consents to transact electronically, receives the disclosure and the EPA pamphlet as complete documents rather than a link, and can retain a copy. Posting the pamphlet on a website is not delivery. Keep the consent record and the delivery log with the signed disclosure for the full three years.

What is RSA 477:4-a, and does it apply to my rental?

RSA 477:4-a is New Hampshire's notification statute for radon, arsenic, lead, PFAS and flood - and it does not apply to your lease. It is triggered “[p]rior to the execution of any contract for the purchase and sale of any interest in real property which includes a building,” and the duty runs from the seller or the seller's agent to the buyer. Leases are outside it. Paragraph II adds that nothing in the section creates or places any liability on the seller or seller's agent for failing to provide the notification. Note the citation too: some New Hampshire pages point at “RSA 477:4,” which is Acknowledgments - a provision about notaries and consular officers that has nothing to do with lead. The lead notification is RSA 477:4-a.

Do I need an RRP-certified contractor to renovate my pre-1978 New Hampshire rental?

Probably, and it is a separate duty from disclosure. 40 CFR 745.82(a) applies the Renovation, Repair and Painting rule to all renovations performed for compensation in target housing, subject to narrow lead-free-determination exceptions. 40 CFR 745.84(a) requires that “no more than 60 days before beginning renovation activities” the firm performing the renovation provide the owner - and, where the owner does not occupy the unit, an adult occupant - with the pamphlet and obtain an acknowledgment or a certificate of mailing. Read that direction carefully: it is a freshness ceiling on the pamphlet, not a 60-day advance-notice floor, and AI answers routinely state it backwards as “at least 60 days before.” Doing RRP correctly does not discharge the disclosure duty, and vice versa.

Home › Free Landlord Forms › New Hampshire Landlord-Tenant Laws › Lead Paint Disclosure

Free New Hampshire Lead Paint Disclosure

The federal disclosure every New Hampshire landlord must deliver before leasing housing built before 1978. Authority is 42 U.S.C. 4852d and 40 CFR Part 745 Subpart F. New Hampshire adds no disclosure statute of its own — but it does add RSA 130-A, and the 10-day inspection window you see quoted elsewhere is a sales rule, not a rental rule.

Federally Required 42 U.S.C. 4852d 40 CFR Part 745 RSA 130-A Free PDF

Updated Q3 2026 By Tenant Screening Background Check Editorial Team Reviewed for New Hampshire ~20 min read

A New Hampshire 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). New Hampshire imposes no separate lead paint disclosure statute — the disclosure duty here is purely federal. What New Hampshire does add is a genuinely consequential parallel regime under RSA 130-A: a statutory duty of reasonable care, a lead-safety certification requirement for conversions, and a hazard-reduction order that is recorded at the registry of deeds and runs with the land. Our New Hampshire landlord-tenant laws overview covers the rest of the tenancy. Generate the form below, then read on for exactly what each rule requires.

Key Takeaways

Pre-1978 is the only disclosure trigger. Original construction before 1 January 1978 makes the unit “target housing” under 40 CFR 745.103 and the disclosure mandatory. The build date controls even if the unit was gutted and rebuilt in 1998.
New Hampshire has no lead paint disclosure statute. The disclosure duty is 100% federal. Any page selling you a “New Hampshire lead disclosure law” has confused it with RSA 130-A, which is a public-health and contractor-licensing chapter, or with RSA 477:4-a, which is a sales notification.
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. A ranking New Hampshire law firm page currently says otherwise; it is wrong.
You never have to test, and you never have to remove. 40 CFR 745.107(a) says nothing in the rule implies a positive obligation to conduct any evaluation or reduction activities. “No knowledge” is honest and lawful when nothing has been tested.
RSA 130-A:18 is the New Hampshire hinge. Owners of pre-1978 rental housing must take reasonable care to prevent lead hazards — and your compliance or non-compliance with public-health lead law is admissible evidence of reasonable care or negligence. The federal paperwork is therefore state-law evidence.
A DHHS lead order runs with the property. Under RSA 130-A:7, VI an order is recorded in the registry of deeds and runs with the land; under RSA 130-A:7, IV it binds anyone who later acquires the property.
Retain the signed disclosure three years from the commencement of the leasing period (40 CFR 745.113(c)(1)). It is your only real defence in an enforcement inquiry — and in New Hampshire, evidence of reasonable care.

▶ Watch overview

New Hampshire lead paint disclosure overview

New Hampshire Lead Paint Disclosure at a Glance

Trigger

Built before 1978

Authority

42 U.S.C. 4852d

NH Disclosure 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 New Hampshire 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. New Hampshire adds nothing to that duty — but RSA 130-A adds a duty of reasonable care, a certification rule for conversions, and an order regime that can attach to your deed.

What the New Hampshire 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 a New Hampshire 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. In New Hampshire this item quietly does more work than elsewhere, because a property that has been through the RSA 130-A:5 investigation process may carry an inspection report, a risk assessment, and an RSA 130-A:7 order — all of them records available to the lessor, all of them disclosable.

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 — and, uniquely in New Hampshire, it is admissible evidence of reasonable care under RSA 130-A:18.

The disclosure is not optional and the duty is not waivable by agreement. A pre-1978 New Hampshire rental leased without one exposes the landlord to government civil penalties and to a tenant’s private action for treble damages plus fees. Compliance takes fifteen minutes; non-compliance is the most expensive paperwork failure in pre-1978 rental practice.

Does New Hampshire have its own lead paint disclosure law?

No. New Hampshire has no state-specific lead paint disclosure statute for landlords, and this page will not invent one. Every element of the disclosure 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 hunting for the New Hampshire statute number that makes you hand a tenant a lead form, there is not one to find.

That answer needs a careful qualifier, because New Hampshire is emphatically not one of the states that adds nothing. It has a substantial lead chapter — RSA 130-A, Lead Paint Poisoning Prevention and Control — and a lead notification section in the conveyances title, RSA 477:4-a. Neither creates a landlord disclosure duty at lease-up, and that distinction is the single most useful thing on this page. Here is the whole New Hampshire layer, sorted by what it actually does to you:

A duty of reasonable care — RSA 130-A:18. Owners of pre-1978 rental housing must take reasonable care to prevent exposure to, and the creation of, lead hazards. This is a real statutory standard, and it is the provision that connects your federal paperwork to New Hampshire civil liability. Covered in full below.
Lead-safety certification for conversions — RSA 130-A:5-d. After July 1, 2024, a pre-1978 building being converted to rental use must be certified lead-safe before occupancy. It does not touch existing rentals.
An investigation and order regime — RSA 130-A:5, :6, :7. Triggered by a child’s elevated blood lead level, not by leasing. The resulting order is recorded against your title.
Contractor licensing — RSA 130-A:9 and :12. Lead inspectors, risk assessors, and abatement contractors must be licensed. This is a regime for the people doing the work, not a disclosure duty for you.
A sales notification — RSA 477:4-a. Real, and irrelevant to leasing: it applies before a contract for purchase and sale, and expressly creates no liability.

Notice what is missing from that list: nothing in it tells a landlord to give a prospective tenant a lead form. That job belongs entirely to the federal rule. And 40 CFR 745.119 confirms the two layers coexist rather than compete — nothing in the federal subpart relieves a lessor from compliance with state or local laws governing notice or disclosure of lead. Because the disclosure obligation is federal rather than state-specific, the identical form works in any state; our federal lead-based paint disclosure form is the generic version of the New Hampshire form on this page. For the condition-based duties that disclosure does not address, see our New Hampshire habitability laws guide.

A ranking New Hampshire page gets this wrong in three ways

A New Hampshire law firm page that currently ranks for these queries states that the state lead laws are “found in NH RSA 130-A, and NH RSA 477:4”; that “buyers and tenants” must be given “the opportunity to inspect for those hazards before they are legally bound to the lease or purchase”; and that where lead-based paint is known to be present “there are requirements that it be removed prior to being rented.” Checked against the primary text, all three fail. RSA 477:4 is Acknowledgments — a provision about notaries and consular officers; the lead section is RSA 477:4-a. Tenants get no inspection window: 40 CFR 745.110(a) gives it to purchasers, and 40 CFR 745.113(b) has no inspection item. Known lead-based paint does not have to be removed before renting: 40 CFR 745.107(a) says the rule implies no positive obligation to conduct any evaluation or reduction activities, and RSA 130-A:18 says mere presence is neither negligence nor a habitability breach. We flag this not to score a point but because acting on any of the three costs a New Hampshire landlord real money.