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Local Law 1 of 2004: How New York City鈥檚 Lead Paint Law Works
Last updated September 15, 2026
Local Law 1 of 2004 requires New York City landlords to find and fix lead paint hazards in older buildings, with added duties in apartments where children under six live. It took effect on August 2, 2004, and the City Council has amended it many times since, including a group of amendments passed in 2023.
The 麻豆传媒官网 has been helping victims of lead poisoning and serious personal injuries for more than 40 years, and we are proud of that legacy. If a child in your home has lead in the blood, you do not have to learn the code before you call. There is no fee to speak to us or for us to evaluate your potential case.
What a parent can use
In older buildings, the law presumes paint is lead-based paint. The presumption covers buildings built before 1960, and buildings built between January 1, 1960, and January 1, 1978, if the owner knows there is lead-based paint. It ends only if testing by an EPA-certified inspector shows the paint is not lead-based and HPD grants the owner an exemption. Since December 1, 2021, paint counts as lead-based at 0.5 milligrams of lead per square centimeter or more; the earlier standard was 1.0.
A child under six who routinely spends 10 or more hours a week in the apartment is residing under the City鈥檚 materials. Tell the landlord, return the annual notice, let the inspector in, and call 311 if paint is peeling or work is making dust that is not contained. The landlord is supposed to look every year where a child of applicable age resides, and to fix hazardous conditions; when an apartment becomes vacant, the turnover rules add more work, including doors and windows, and since Local Law 123 of 2023, the same work is also due, on its own deadlines, in occupied apartments in pre-1960 apartment buildings where a child under six lives.
Key terms in the law
Lead-based paint hazard: a condition in a home that exposes people to lead through lead-contaminated dust, peeling lead-based paint, or lead-based paint on a chewable surface, friction surface, impact surface, or deteriorated subsurface, in a way that would harm health.
Friction surface: a painted surface that touches another surface so the two can rub, scrape, or bind 鈥� including window frames and jambs, doors, and hinges.
Impact surface: an interior painted surface that shows markings, denting, or chipping from repeated sudden force, such as certain parts of door frames, moldings, or baseboards.
Chewable surface: a protruding interior window sill that a child of applicable age can reach, and other edges such as a rail or stair if there is evidence of chewing or the occupant has notified the owner that a child has mouthed or chewed it.
Child of applicable age: the code let the Board of Health set this age at under six, and City agencies apply the law to children under six. A child resides in an apartment if the child routinely spends 10 or more hours a week there.
Inspections and records
The owner must inquire yearly whether a child resides, using HPD forms. A tenant should tell the landlord if a child begins to reside after the notice is answered. The notice goes out between January 1 and January 16, and HPD鈥檚 owner guidance sets February 15 as the return date. If it isn鈥檛 returned and the owner doesn鈥檛 otherwise know whether a young child lives there, the owner must try to inspect. If reasonable attempts between February 16 and March 1 don鈥檛 get the owner inside, the owner must notify the Health Department in writing.
Owners must keep records of notices, inspections, and remediation for at least 10 years. Turnover work records are to be kept for 10 years from completion and transferred to a new owner. Local Law 31 of 2020, as later amended, required a one-time XRF test of painted surfaces by an EPA-certified inspector or risk assessor independent of the owner and its contractors. The deadline was the earliest of August 9, 2025, one year after a child under six comes to reside, or a Health Department order, and Local Law 111 of 2023 added common areas. It covers pre-1960 buildings and 1960鈥�1978 rentals where the owner knows of lead-based paint. The August 2025 deadline has passed.
Lead dust numbers
On and after June 1, 2021, 鈥渓ead contaminated dust鈥� means dust containing lead at 5 or more micrograms per square foot on a floor, 40 or more on window sills, and 100 or more on window wells, or such more stringent standards as may be adopted by the board of health. Those figures remain the City鈥檚 standards for clearance and hazard testing on samples collected on or after June 1, 2021.
Older reports used higher cutoffs: 10, 50, and 100 for samples taken from June 11, 2019, until June 1, 2021, and 40, 250, and 400 before June 11, 2019. Federal standards changed in January 2026: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency now treats any reportable level of lead in floor or windowsill dust as a hazard when a home is evaluated, and its clearance levels after abatement match the City鈥檚 5, 40, and 100. In May 2026, the City Health Department proposed a stricter City standard of 4 on floors, 32 on windowsills, and 80 on window wells. That proposal was still pending when this page was last updated.
2023 amendments now in effect
Local Law 1 of 2004 is still the City鈥檚 main housing lead law. HPD lists four 2023 amendments to it: Local Laws 111, 122, 123, and 127.
Local Law 111 of 2023 added building common areas to the one-time XRF paint testing due no later than August 9, 2025, made it a Class C violation when lead-based paint in the common area of an apartment building where a young child lives is peeling or on a deteriorated subsurface, and has HPD inspectors check common areas on their way to the apartment during lead inspections.
Local Law 122 of 2023 (effective September 1, 2024): when HPD issues a lead-based paint hazard violation under 搂 27-2056.6 in a unit where a child of applicable age resides, the owner must produce the annual notice and investigation records within 45 days of HPD鈥檚 notice, covering the previous year. On and after August 1, 2025, that demand includes XRF analysis records. Failing to produce them is a separate violation. For a family, that means the landlord鈥檚 paperwork for the prior year has to go to HPD.
Local Law 123 of 2023 (effective September 1, 2024) extends turnover work to occupied apartments with young children in pre-1960 apartment buildings. The owner must fix lead-based paint hazards and their causes, make bare floors, windowsills, and window wells smooth and cleanable, and remove or permanently cover lead-based paint on the friction surfaces of doors, door frames, and windows, or install replacement window channels or slides. The work is due at the earliest of: the apartment鈥檚 next turnover; July 1, 2027, if a child under six resided there as of January 1, 2025; or three years after a child under six begins residing there. HPD says door and window friction surfaces must be abated even when the paint is intact, unless they were abated before. Missing these requirements can bring an immediately hazardous Class C violation.
Local Law 127 of 2023 (in effect since September 2024) changed how HPD picks the 200 or more buildings whose lead records it must audit each fiscal year, on top of its other audits, and requires those buildings to be inspected for lead violations. HPD selects them with the Health Department using criteria that include lead paint violations, mold and leak violations, and turnover violations, considered alongside local rates of elevated blood lead levels.
More on landlord responsibility.
How Local Law 1 connects to injury claims
City agencies enforce Local Law 1, but the duties it sets out also matter when a lead-poisoned child鈥檚 family brings a negligence case against a landlord. In Juarez v. Wavecrest Management Team, 88 N.Y.2d 628 (1996), decided under the City鈥檚 earlier 1982 lead law, New York鈥檚 highest court held that a landlord who knew or should have known that a young child lived in an apartment is charged with notice of lead hazards inside it. The court rejected automatic liability: a landlord can still try to prove it acted reasonably. The 麻豆传媒官网 was counsel of record for the plaintiffs. Whether these principles help a particular family depends on facts this page cannot assess. Read more about landlord responsibility and landmark lead poisoning cases.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Limits of this guide
This guide explains the framework; it does not decide whether your landlord broke the law or what damages may be available. Coverage differs by building type. HPD applies the law to tenant-occupied units in pre-1960 one- and two-family homes and to co-op and condo units occupied by someone other than the owner or the owner鈥檚 family, but not to co-op or condo units the owner lives in. Don鈥檛 assume an exception applies to your home.
Local Law 1 of 2004 鈥� Article 14 of Title 27 of the New York City Administrative Code 鈥� became effective August 2, 2004. The CDC blood-lead reference value used in our materials is 3.5 碌g/dL; that figure is a reference value, not a toxicity threshold.
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Official sources
- Local Laws , , , and of 2023
Lead poisoning guides
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