West Hartford, CT Building Safety: Lead Paint (2026)

Section 105-19 of the Town's Housing and Property Maintenance Code, adopted by the Town Council in 1985 as Chapter 105, folds lead paint into the chapter's general toxic-substances duty. Subsection A puts an affirmative obligation on every owner to keep a premises free from health hazards from toxic substances, as the Director of Health determines. Subsection B is an outright prohibition: no owner or occupant may apply lead-based paint to any surface of a dwelling or dwelling unit, covering both landlords doing their own touch-up work and any painting contractor they hire.

Subsection C reaches paint already on the building: any interior or exterior painted surface testing above 0.06% lead must be abated or protected in a manner the Director of Health approves, rather than left in place. The code does not specify a test method or a numeric fee for compliance, leaving those details to the Director of Health's rules and regulations under § 105-51, but it does tie a finding of hazardous lead-based paint directly into the unfit-dwelling process: § 105-56A(1) lists a premises that contains hazardous levels of lead-based paint among the conditions that let the Director of Health declare it unfit for human habitation, placard it, and order it vacated.

Enforcement runs through the same Chapter 105 machinery as every other housing violation: the Director of Health inspects on a systematic plan or on complaint, issues a written notice of violation under § 105-53 specifying the corrective deadline, and can escalate to fines, repair orders or an unfit-dwelling declaration if the lead hazard is not corrected.