Lead-Based Paint Disclosure (Sales & Leases) — Alabama Edition Template

Federal law — Section 1018 of the Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992, codified at 42 U.S.C. § 4852d, with implementing regulations at 24 C.F.R. Part 35 and 40 C.F.R. Part 745 — requires sellers and lessors of most housing built before 1978 to disclose known lead-based paint and lead-based paint hazards before the buyer or tenant is obligated under the contract. Noncompliance carries real teeth: civil penalties, potential treble damages to injured purchasers, and joint enforcement by EPA and HUD. Agents have independent duties under the rule to ensure compliance.

This template package covers both the sales and lease versions of the disclosure. It includes the seller's/lessor's disclosure of known lead-based paint and hazards (or affirmation of no knowledge), the records and reports acknowledgment, the buyer's acknowledgment of receipt of the EPA "Protect Your Family From Lead in Your Home" pamphlet, the buyer's 10-day risk assessment/inspection opportunity (which may be waived in writing in sales transactions), and the agent's acknowledgment of compliance duties — all with the certification-of-accuracy signature block the regulation requires each party to execute.

The 4-page package also includes a one-page compliance checklist for agents: which transactions are covered (pre-1978 "target housing"), the exemptions (0-bedroom dwellings, housing for the elderly, foreclosure sales, short-term leases of 100 days or less, and others), timing requirements, and the record-retention rule (keep executed disclosures for at least 3 years). Because this is a federal requirement the core language is uniform nationwide, but the included notes flag states that layer additional lead disclosure or inspection requirements on top of the federal floor.

About this Alabama Edition: Every template was redrafted around the Alabama Real Estate License Law (Ala. Code § 34-27-1 et seq.) and the Real Estate Consumers Agency and Disclosure Act (RECAD, Ala. Code § 34-27-80 et seq.), under which a licensee is a transaction broker unless a written agreement creates an agency relationship, the Commission's Real Estate Brokerage Services Disclosure must be presented at first substantive contact (§ 34-27-82), and limited consensual dual agency is permitted only with written informed consent — so the dual-agency document is drafted as a Limited Consensual Dual Agency Agreement with a transaction-brokerage alternative. The seller disclosure is drafted as a voluntary disclosure for Alabama's caveat emptor market, explaining the judicially recognized exceptions (health/safety defects, direct questions, fiduciary relationships) and Alabama-specific items such as wood-infestation reports and termite bonds. The forms also apply the Alabama statute of frauds (Ala. Code § 8-9-2) and the Alabama Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (Ala. Code § 8-1A-1 et seq.), and note that Alabama has no broker lien statute.