Mass. AG Pinches Landlord For Filing Phony Cerification After Being Nabbed For Failure To Comply w/ Lead Paint Law When Renting To Family w/ Young Kid

From the Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General:

• A Worcester area property owner has been arraigned for fraudulently claiming his property was in compliance with lead laws and endangering children, announced Attorney General Martha Coakley. Jaroslaw Pianka, age 40, of Charlton, was arraigned on charges of Child Endangerment, Larceny by False Pretenses, and Uttering (2 counts).

• Authorities allege that Pianka, the owner of two properties located on Dale Court in Leicester, failed to comply with lead laws by submitting fraudulent certificates of lead compliance and representing that his properties had been properly deleaded. [...] A Worcester County Grand Jury returned indictments against Pianka on December 17, 2010.(1)

For the Massachusetts AG press release, see Property Owner Arraigned on Child Endangerment and Other Charges for Allegedly Failing to Comply with Lead Paint Laws.

(1) In one case according to authorities, a family with two children under the age of six rented one of Pianka'a properties under the verbal assertion that the property had been deleaded in February 2007. Massachusetts Law requires owners of properties containing dangerous levels of lead to abate or contain lead whenever a child under six years of age resides in the property. According to authorities, the family subsequently performed a home lead test which revealed lead in the property, and contacted the Leicester Board of Health to request a lead determination in March 2009.

According to the state AG, Further inspection of the property by the Board of Health found several areas that tested positive for lead and the Board of Health issued an order to Pianka to correct the lead in the property in April 2009. Following the order, in April 2009, Pianka reportedly provided the family with a copy of a letter of full deleading compliance and the Massachusetts Tenant Lead Law Notification and Certification Form, which is required by law to be provided by landlords to tenants prior to renting properties built before 1978, and reportedly also provided the letter of full deleading compliance to the Board of Health. According to authorities, a review of the letter conducted by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Child Lead Poisoning Prevention Program determined the documentation to be fraudulent.

In a second case, Pianka was also cited for lead paint compliance at a second property after the Board of Health learned of additional alleged violations, the state AG said.