The Anatomy of a Public Health Failure in South Carolina’s Rental Market

Federal law mandates that families renting homes built before 1978 be explicitly warned about the potential dangers of lead-based paint, a neurotoxin especially harmful to children and pregnant women. Yet this critically important safeguard failed for tenants in at least two South Carolina properties.

An investigation by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that a property management firm, PSPA, LLC, operating as Palmetto State Properties & Associates, repeatedly failed to provide these legally required disclosures, leaving renters in the dark about potential health hazards before they signed their leases.

Anatomy of the Failure

The case against Palmetto State Properties & Associates reveals a breakdown in the basic, federally mandated communications designed to protect public health. The immoral actions were that of a repeated failure to comply with fundamental safety regulations across multiple properties which were designed to protect the wellbeing of commonfolk.

• The Law: The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and associated regulations require lessors and their agents to provide tenants in pre-1978 housing with a “Lead Warning Statement” , disclose any known lead-based paint hazards , and receive a signed statement from the lessee confirming they have received the required information and a federally approved safety pamphlet.
• The Properties: The EPA identified two specific “target housing” units managed by the firm where these rules were violated: a home in Mount Pleasant built in 1967 and another in Charleston built in 1954.
• The Violations: In contracts executed in April and June of 2024, the company failed to include the mandatory Lead Warning Statement. Furthermore, they failed to obtain a statement from the tenants affirming they had received the critical information about lead hazards in their new homes.
• The Discovery: The violations were uncovered following a June 25, 2024, inspection of the company’s records by an EPA official.

The Macro Consequences

The Public Health Crisis

Lead exposure poses a severe and irreversible health risk, particularly to the neurological development of young children. The federal disclosure law exists specifically to prevent this harm by empowering tenants with information. When a property management firm fails to provide these disclosures, it denies families the right to make an informed choice about their living environment. The system’s failure introduces an unknown level of risk into the homes of renters who trust that property managers are operating in compliance with basic safety laws.

The Erosion of Trust

The regulations place a direct responsibility on agents, like Palmetto State Properties & Associates, to ensure that landlords comply with disclosure obligations. By failing to do so, the company not only violated federal law but also breached its professional duty.

This type of non-compliance undermines public trust in the rental market and the regulatory bodies meant to oversee it, suggesting that profits can be prioritized over tenant safety with minimal consequence.

A Settlement That Sidesteps Accountability

The official response to these violations was a Consent Agreement and Final Order (CAFO) filed on September 23, 2025. Palmetto State Properties & Associates agreed to pay a civil penalty of $5,718.

However, the settlement allows the company to sidestep any admission of guilt. The agreement explicitly states that the Respondent “neither admits nor denies the factual allegations”. This is the core of the systemic failure: accountability is reduced to a financial transaction.

PSPA pays a relatively small fine, certifies it is now in compliance, and avoids a public admission of the facts that put its tenants at risk.

The penalty here (as is often the case) gets framed as the cost of doing business for the evil corporation rather than a punishment for repeatedly endangering public health.

True accountability would require a transparent acknowledgment of the failure and systemic changes to ensure no future tenant is denied their right to know about the hazards lurking within their own home.

Please visit this following link on the EPA’s website for the above consent agreement: https://yosemite.epa.gov/OA/RHC/EPAAdmin.nsf/Filings/B2A89432EA1F08A085258D0F001721AB/$File/PSPA,%20LLC%20dba%20Palmetto%20State%20Properties%20CAFO%209-23-25%20TSCA-04-2025-6112(b).pdf