Attention Multi Family Apartment Owners And Investors:Is the Freddie Mac Radon Testing Procedure Putting You At Risk? We have recently been involved in what has become a serious legal and financial issue for the owners of a South Florida Apartment Complex. Our client recently purchased an apartment complex and as part of the Phase one environmental requirement initial radon screening was performed. Of the 12 apartments tested 8 came back showing elevated radon levels. The consulting firm recommended to the client to just fix the 8 apartments. One resident of an apartment that was NOT tested decided to perform his own radon testing when he heard from his neighbor that a radon reduction system was installed in his apartment. The result of his test was 28.0 pCi / L. The resident asked the management company why his apartment was not tested? The resident hired a lawyer and since his mother is a lung cancer survivor the lawyers are now asking why was this resident was not guaranteed and provided the same "Safe Environment" as the other residents. The owner has now had the remaining units tested and the ones that tested at 4.0 pCi/L or higher were fixed. 85% of the ground floor apartments tested well above 4.0 pCi / L. This is at a total cost of over $100,000 to the client. Many environmental consulting firms and lenders are using the Freddie Mac standard for radon testing in multi-family apartment deals. However, the standard is being interpreted in many ways. The procedure of a phase 1 is to test 10% or one apartment per building whichever is greater. If any samples result in levels at or above the EPA guideline of 4.0 pCi / L it states proceed to long term testing ( period ). No further guidance is provided. The procedure should state to perform long term testing in 100% of the ground floor apartments. The current recommendation of many environmental consulting firms has been to just fix the apartments that are elevated and perform no further testing. If an apartment complex has 100 ground floor apartments and 10 apartments are tested and repaired that leaves 90 apartments that could possibly have a radon problem. The State Of Florida law states that a "landlord" must provide the tenant a "safe Environment" to live. Once you perform radon testing and are aware of a problem selective correction is not recommended by RMS. All radon tests performed in Florida are sent to the Florida Department Of Health / Indoor Air & Radon Office and they are put in a data base. All records are considered "Public Information" and are accessible to anyone. If one resident in your community gets lung cancer and decides to research and finds out that the owner has performed limited radon testing and correction the question will be "Why Didn't My Home Get Tested". This could lead to law suits against property owners for failing to provide the tenant a safe environment. Especially after a problem has been acknowledged. We recommend consulting your attorney before proceeding with any radon testing or repairs unless 100% of the apartments are going to be tested and if elevated radon levels are detected the problems are corrected in ALL apartments.


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