State Looks Into Home Builder’s Radon Disclaimers : Real estate: Officials ask Southland firm to suspend sales until legality of the contract clause is determined.

The state Department of Real Estate has asked a major California developer to stop selling homes and condominiums until state officials review a section of the company’s contract with prospective home buyers that prevents them from inspecting for radon before the close of escrow, the department commissioner said Tuesday.

Commissioner James Edmonds said the department verbally made the request to Pardee Construction Co. officials Tuesday after real estate attorneys discovered that the state did not have a copy of the contract in the company’s public document report, as required by law.

Once the department receives a copy of the contract, Edmonds said, Department of Real Estate attorneys will review it and decide whether the section on radon--which also asks customers not to hold the company responsible if the radioactive gas is found after the sale is completed--is lawful.

According to officials with the Department of Real Estate, Pardee is the first major developer in the state to place such restraints on potential home buyers since the radon gas danger was revealed two years ago.

Pardee officials could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Edmonds said the Real Estate Department has no legal authority to require Pardee--which has developments under way in the Antelope Valley and in Ventura, Riverside and San Diego counties--to stop selling property. But he said he hopes it will do so out of good faith.

If Pardee fails to honor the request, Edmonds said he will ask the state attorney general’s office to investigate the radon disclaimers.

“We have verbally asked them to cease sales until we get (the contract),” Edmonds said. “We want them to disclose what they are doing.”

Edmonds said his department made the request to protect home buyers. He said the department was not aware of the company’s radon disclaimers until contacted by The Times last week.

Meanwhile, Herschel Elkins, a senior assistant attorney general, said attorneys already are seeking more information on the issue but have not yet started a formal investigation.

“This is a potential problem,” Elkins said. “It’s one we’ll have to examine.”

A Pardee official acknowledged last week that the company had begun asking buyers to sign the contracts as an added protection after an East Coast developer was sued by a customer who discovered radon after purchasing a home.

“We may be a little extra cautious,” said Bernie Yantz, Pardee’s assistant vice president of California sales. “It’s an extra step we’re taking to protect ourselves.”

Yantz said the company would not sell a home to any customer who refused to sign the agreement.

Radon, believed to be the second most frequent cause of lung cancer in the United States, is produced by the natural decay of uranium and is present in soil everywhere.

According to the first statewide residential radon study completed recently, levels of the cancer-causing gas in Ventura County were among the highest in the state. Researchers monitored 385 houses in California, including 15 in Ventura County.

Although only 1% of the houses surveyed statewide exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s recommended maximum radon concentration of 4 picocuries per liter, in Ventura County it was estimated that between 10% and 15% of houses could exceed the standard.