Disclosure

PA 95-210, HB 1425, Illinois Radon Awareness Act, Effective Date: January 1, 2008, Statutes Amended: New Act

Illinois Public Act 95-210 is meant to help reduce the rate of lung cancer due to radon exposure, which is the second leading cause of such cancer. It serves as an extension of the Residential Real Property Disclosure Act, which requires a seller to inform a potential buyer if the seller is aware of "unsafe concentrations of radon on the premises." 765 ILCS 77/35.

Specifically, the act requires sellers of residential real property, or real property containing one-to-four residential dwelling units, to provide potential buyers with the IEMA pamphlet Radon Testing Guidelines for Real Estate Transactions (IEMA pamphlet) or an equivalent pamphlet that the IEMA has approved, and the Illinois Disclosure of Information on Radon Hazards (disclosure form). The IEMA pamphlet warns potential buyers that "the property may present exposure to dangerous levels of indoor radon gas that may place the occupants at risk of developing radon-induced lung cancer." In addition, it provides that the IEMA recommends that potential buyers test for and mitigate elevated levels of radon before purchasing or occupying property. The disclosure form contains information from the seller about known elevated radon concentrations within the dwelling and reports or records involving such concentrations.

It should be noted that the act does not require a seller to test for or to mitigate elevated levels of radon on the seller's property. In addition, it does not apply to transfers required by court order "by a collateral assignment of a beneficial interest of a land trust," by a fiduciary administering a "decedent's estate, guardianship, conservatorship, or trust," between co-owners "pursuant to testate or intestate succession," "made to a spouse or a person . . . in the lineal line of consanguinity of one or more of the sellers," "from an entity that has taken title to residential real property from a seller for the purpose of assisting in the relocation of the seller," or "to or from any governmental entity." Finally, the act does not apply to certain transfers in lieu of or pursuant to a foreclosure.

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