Do You Have Radon in Your Home?

No, A General Home Inspection Doesn't Test for Radon

Can you recall if there were any radon test results either in the air or water when you purchased your home? The previous owner(s) may not have known or had those tests done themselves, so they may not have had anything to disclose. So did you do any tests?

Many home owners assume that this test happened even if they only got a general building inspection or a general water test. This is a common misconception. In order to test for radon in either the air or water, it must be arranged for separately.

If you didn’t test for radon, you’re not alone. Up until the mid 1980s, not a lot of people were even aware of the potential for radon in their homes. And it didn’t really become common to test for those things during the home inspection period until sometime later.

So what do you do now if you didn’t get a test at the time of purchase? Well, you have options. If you are living in the home, you could either hire a professional or get a home test kit at a local hardware store and test yourself. However, if you own a rental property or multi family home, you should hire a professional to do the test.

Know the facts about radon:

• Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking.

• Nearly one in 15 homes in the United States has elevated levels of indoor radon.*

• The EPA recommends that all homes be tested for radon.

• Once radon has been identified, even very high levels can be reduced to acceptable levels.

*According to EPA, an elevated level of radon is considered to be a level of 4pCi/L or more.

Is Your Home Safe From Radon?

Any home can have a radon problem. And while radon is potentially dangerous, it is also controllable. The only way to know if your home has a radon problem is to have it tested. For more information on radon testing please check out the resource links below. Also below, I’ve listed some of the home inspectors I’ve used in the past in case you’d like to hire a professional.

Required Radon Testing for Multi-Family Homes

A state law first passed in 2009 requires the air, and the water if from private wells, in all residential rental buildings to be tested for radon – the colorless, odorless gas that is the second-leading cause of lung cancer after smoking. The law originally required the testing to be completed by 2012, but a change in 2011 pushed the deadline back to March 1, 2014.

Landlords or their representatives are required to notify current tenants within 30 days of receiving the test results and new tenants before signing a lease. If high levels of radon are found, the landlord or tenant can terminate the lease with a minimum of 30 days of notice if the landlord can’t or won’t mitigate the problem.

Landlords or property management companies not meeting requirements of the law can be fined not more than $250 per violation, although it’s not yet clear who will enforce the penalties. Falsifying the results or not notifying the tenants, which also could include not doing the test at all, is a breach of the implied warranty of fitness for human habitation, according to the law.

Required Radon Testing for Multi-Family Homes

1. Landlords are to have testing done by March 1, 2014. State office is experiencing very high caller volume and is unable to answer them all as quickly as they would like. If you have any questions we suggest you visit the State Radon Program page on the web:

http://www.maine.gov/dhhs/mecdc/environmental-health/rad/radon/hp-radon.htm

There is a FAQ on that page that will answer many of the most common questions they get. Here is the link to the FAQ page:

http://www.maine.gov/dhhs/mecdc/environmental-health/rad/radon/radonfaq.htm

If you are unable to find the answers to your questions, you can contact the program at 1-800-232-0842 in Maine, or 1-207-287-5698 out of Maine. Again due to the high volume of calls, they will most likely go to voice mail and will be responded to as time permits.

2. If as a tenants you have not received a copy of the report from your landlord, it is not up to the municipality to get into the middle of it. This is a Warranty of Habitability issue. “If a landlord or a person acting on behalf of a landlord does not provide the required radon notification, it is a breach of the implied warranty of fitness for human habitation in accordance with section 6021.” The tenant must bring the landlord to court as a civil infraction (again, not a Code Enforcement issue). The tenant can also hire someone to test the building but the issue of cost is something that has to be worked out between the landlord and tenant. Again this is a civil dispute and the municipality does not get in the middle of it.

3. Test kits are available for purchase at most hardware stores.

There are certain restrictions in the law that would prohibit a landlord from doing his or her own testing such as when buildings have elevator shafts or open pipe chases, if the building being heated with forced hot air or if it has a central air conditioning system. There are other reasons they would not be allowed to do their own testing and a landlord would be best served if he checks the law before proceeding to do his or her own testing.

4. Here is a link to the list of registered laboratories that are licensed to perform testing when landlords cannot do their own testing or would rather hire this work out to a professional:

http://www.maine.gov/dhhs/mecdc/environmental-health/rad/radon/ALMS%20search%20instructions.htm