Philadelphia's Universal Lead Certification Law (Bill 180936): The Complete Landlord Guide

Since October 1, 2020, every rental license renewal for a pre-1978 property in Philadelphia has required a current lead-safe or lead-free certification on file. This is not paperwork you can produce if someone asks – it is a live check against what is uploaded to the city's own eCLIPSE licensing system at the moment your renewal is reviewed. Upload timing, not just your inspection date, determines whether the renewal goes through, and leasing activity is expected to pause until the documentation is accepted.

Source: Philadelphia Code Chapter 6-800, 'Lead Paint Disclosure and Certification'

A law that changed twice before becoming universal

Most of what circulates online about Philadelphia's lead law describes an older version. The requirement has gone through three distinct versions:

• Bill No. 100011-A, approved December 21, 2011, effective December 21, 2012 – applied only where a child age six or under would occupy the unit.
• Bill No. 160687-AAA, approved March 7, 2017, effective April 6, 2017 – added lead-service-line disclosure and tied certification into daycare licensing for the first time.
• Bill No. 180936-A, approved October 2, 2019, effective October 1, 2020 – the current, universal version. It removed the child-under-six trigger entirely and tied certification to every rental license and lease for a pre-1978 property, regardless of who lives there.

This guide describes the current, universal version – Bill 180936-A.

Source: Philadelphia Code Chapter 6-800, amendment history

The phase-in, by zip code

Bill 180936-A did not take effect everywhere on the same day. The city phased it in over four rollout dates so that landlords in different zip codes had different lead-in times. Every Philadelphia zip code has been in scope since April 2022, but the table below explains why some properties' “you already needed this” status predates others'.

Source: City of Philadelphia, rental property lead certification law summary (2020)

Lead-safe vs. lead-free, in the code's own words

The ordinance defines two distinct outcomes, and they carry different renewal cycles:

“Lead Free. The circumstance in which the interior and exterior surfaces of a property do not contain any lead-based paint and the property contains no lead-contaminated soil or lead-contaminated dust.”

“Lead Safe. The circumstance in which a property is free of a condition that causes or may cause exposure to lead from lead-contaminated dust, lead-contaminated soil, deteriorated lead-based paint, deteriorated presumed lead-based paint, or other similar threat of lead exposure due to the condition of the property itself.”

In plain terms: lead-safe means the property currently poses no lead hazard, and that certification is valid for 48 months (four years) from the inspection date that supported it. Lead-free is the stronger finding – no lead-based paint present at all – and a lead-free certificate does not expire. For the full breakdown across every town we serve, see our lead-safe vs. lead-free guide.

Source: Philadelphia Code §6-801(8), (9), (15)

What it actually costs

Chapter 6-800 itself charges no city inspection or certification fee. The two costs a landlord actually pays are the private lead inspection and the ordinary rental license fee (roughly $60–$69 per unit, plus a 1.5%-per-month surcharge if the license renewal is late) – neither of which is lead-specific. We publish our own inspection pricing in full on our pricing page – no call for a quote.

Source: Philadelphia Code Chapter 6-800; City of Philadelphia rental license fee schedule

Source: Philadelphia Code §6-809, §6-811

Daycare operators: a second, independent trigger

Rental licensing is not the only door this law walks through. Since January 1, 2020, §6-814 has required the same lead-safe or lead-free certification (or proof the building was constructed after February 1978) before the city will issue or renew a Family Child Day Care license – a completely separate trigger from rental licensing. A daycare operator in a pre-1978 building needs this certification even if the property is never rented.

Source: Philadelphia Code §6-814

The real numbers, from our own dataset

Every claim above is about the law. This one is about what is actually on file today. We track certification status for all 86,156 rental properties in Philadelphia's Lead and Healthy Homes Program dataset, refreshed weekly against the city's own public records:

Currently certified

59,830

Certification expired

10,008

Expiring within 6 months

7,063

Status unknown / pending / exempt

7,423

Certified lead-free (never expires)

1,465

No certification on file

367

That is nearly 1 in 5 tracked properties (17,071 of 86,156, about 19.8%) with an expired certification or one expiring within six months – a real, current-as-of snapshot no secondary source can reproduce, because it comes from aggregating the city's own certification records ourselves rather than summarizing the law.

Source: Keystone Lead Certified tracking database, built from the City of Philadelphia's public Lead and Healthy Homes Program certification records (August 2026)