Lawsuit Changes Home Sales Silver Valley Real Estate Agents Grapple With Contamination Notification

FOR THE RECORD: 3-7-2000 Story wrong: A lawsuit over lead in a Wallace home was filed in U.S. District Court in Coeur d’Alene. A story in Friday’s paper incorrectly reported where the lawsuit was filed.

Tina and Harve Paddock felt such an attraction to Wallace, Idaho, that they made an offer on a house there during a summer vacation.

The Oregon couple liked the historic architecture of the old mining town, its mountain setting and affordable houses. They weren’t aware that their new home, a 1915 craftsman bungalow, had high levels of lead.

Tests done in 1996 - a year before the sale - showed high levels of lead contamination in the soil and paint.

The Paddocks since have moved back to McMinnville, Ore., and filed a suit against the previous homeowners.

The 1997 sale of the Wallace home has raised questions about lead disclosure in Silver Valley real estate sales, and prompted agents there to take additional actions.

“We learned we have to be particularly careful with out-of-the-area buyers,” said Karen Hulstrom, past president of the Shoshone County Board of Realtors.

Because of the Paddocks, Silver Valley real estate agents also developed a form that buyers and sellers sign when an offer is made on a house. The form is sent to the Panhandle Health District, asking for results of any lead testing done on the property.

“It’s created a whole extra leg of the business for us,” said Marty Sleezer, the Wallace agent who represented the couple who sold the house at 160 King St. to the Paddocks.

Federal law requires sellers, landlords and real estate agents to disclose lead hazards in properties for sale or rent.

The law took effect in 1996. It was written primarily to address lead-based paint in older homes and educate families on reducing risks of lead poisoning.

However, the Environmental Protection Agency interprets the law to include lead from sources besides paint.

“It doesn’t matter if it came from a smelter, lead-based paint or any other source. If it’s in the house, then it must be disclosed,” said John Melone, an EPA official in Washington, D.C.

The Silver Valley has lead contamination from a century of mining and smelting activity. Some of the houses and yards have been tested for lead. Others haven’t.

In the Paddocks’ lawsuit, the issue of contention is disclosure of sampling done by the Panhandle Health District in 1996.

Paul Huning and Sara-Beth DulHuning, the home’s previous owners, gave the health district permission to test their home and yard.

The results showed lead levels of 1,104 parts per million in the soil. The federal level for cleanup at residential yards is 1,000 parts per million. The lead in the paint was also at levels posing a health concern, Tina Paddock said.

The Hunings received the test results in July 1997 and should have revealed them, she said.

“We never imagined that we weren’t being told everything we needed to know,” Tina Paddock said. “It appears to us, they didn’t want to be talking about lead. Period.”

Paddock said she and her husband didn’t learn about the health district test until six months later, after they had started remodeling the house. When additional testing turned up high levels of lead dust in the attic, the couple and their three school-aged children moved back to McMinnville.

The Paddocks have sued the Hunings in U.S. District Court in Boise. The suit, which is pending, asks the judge to void the sale, reimburse the Paddocks for the cost of moving their family and lawn irrigation company to Wallace, and seeks triple damages.

The Hunings have denied the allegations in court documents. Their attorney, Samuel Eismann of Coeur d’Alene, declined to comment.

Sleezer, who represented the Hunings, takes issue with some parts of the Paddocks’ story.

“To me, this wasn’t an unaware home buyer coming in and being hoodwinked by the real estate community,” he said.

Sleezer showed the Paddocks the house, and said he spent at least a half hour talking to Harve Paddock about job opportunities in the area.

Sleezer said he specifically mentioned the 21-square-mile Superfund site and contract work replacing lead-contaminated yards in the valley.

Tina Paddock said that’s not true.

Sleezer said he wasn’t aware of the health district’s testing results at the time of the sale. However, the Paddocks were told that the 85-year-old home had lead-based paint, and waived their right to have a lead inspection done, he said.

“In my opinion, the only thing they weren’t aware of was the contaminated soil in the yard, and the lead dust in the attic,” Sleezer said. “They got a fair deal, and the yard has (since) been remediated.”

Sleezer and Anne Anderson, the agent representing the Paddocks in the sale, received warning letters from the EPA for failing to comply with the lead disclosure rule. Since the violations occurred during a period when the government was trying to bring agents into compliance with the new rules, no fines were issued, said Michael Le, an environmental protection specialist with the EPA in Seattle.

Anderson declined comment. Sleezer said Tina Paddock also tried to get the city of Wallace to file fraud charges against him and contacted the FBI.

Paddock doesn’t deny it. She’s also written to Idaho’s congressional delegation, the Better Business Bureau, the Idaho Real Estate Commission, the EPA and others.

“I’m not by any means an activist,” Paddock said. “I’m a mother, and we’re business owners.”

The Paddocks believe they are the first family to raise the issue of disclosing lead from mining activity in Silver Valley real estate transactions. The law wasn’t followed, and there was no one to enforce it, Tina Paddock said.

Real estate agents said the lawsuit has raised their awareness of the law.

The Panhandle Health District received about 200 requests last year for lead tests done on homes within the basin, said Jerry Cobb, environmental specialist in Kellogg. Most of the requests came from real estate offices, he said.

The district has test results on homes in the Superfund site dating to 1994. It also has the results for 800 homes tested in the Coeur d’Alene River basin, starting in 1996.

However, contacting the health district isn’t a guarantee for buyers, Paddock said.

The EPA has done some residential testing as well. Its intent is to eventually have its studies available through the health district, although there may be a time lag, said Marc Stifelman, an EPA toxicologist in Seattle.

Sleezer agrees the system isn’t foolproof. When properties haven’t been tested, real estate agents face an ethical dilemma, he said.

Agents, by law, must disclose all known defects of the property.

“Should I recommend to the buyer that they get the sampling done? I have a contract to represent the seller. They’ve lived there for 30 years, and they’re happy with the property,” Sleezer said.

“It’s a really complex issue.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: AT A GLANCE Disclosure laws

Federal lead disclosure laws for housing built before 1978 include the following:

Sellers and landlords must disclose known lead-based paint and lead hazards, and provide available reports to buyers and renters.

Sellers and landlords must give buyers and renters the pamphlet, “Protect Your Family From Lead in Your Home.”

Home buyers will get a 10-day period to conduct a lead-based paint inspection or risk assessment at their own expense.

Sales contracts and leasing agreements must include notification and disclosure language.

Sellers, lessors and real estate agents share responsibility for ensuring compliance.

The rule does not require any testing or removal of lead-based paint by sellers or landlords.

For more information, call the National Lead Information Clearing House, (800) 424-LEAD, or visit the Web site, http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/lead/index.html.