Builder Stops Using Radon Disclaimers : Real estate: The company will not prohibit buyers from testing for the cancer-causing gas. The state drops a request that it suspend home sales.

Customers who buy homes from a major Ventura County developer, Pardee Construction Co., will no longer be required to sign a controversial radon disclaimer form pending a company review of the issue, an official for the developer said Wednesday.

The radon disclaimer prohibits buyers from testing for the gas before the sale is completed.

“Because of recent interest in the subject, Pardee is undertaking a complete review of its policy,” said Senior Vice President David Lyman, reading from a prepared statement.

Because of Pardee’s announcement, a state Department of Real Estate official said, the state is no longer asking Pardee to stop selling houses and condominiums.

On Tuesday, the department requested that sales be halted until the state could review Pardee’s radon contract, which also asked customers not to hold the company responsible if the cancer-causing gas is found after the sale is completed.

“If they are ceasing the contracts . . . then sales can continue,” said John Liberator, the department’s chief deputy commissioner.

Meanwhile, Pardee will contact the Department of Real Estate and building industry organizations to formulate an industrywide policy on radon contracts, Lyman said. The company is also meeting with environmental and legal experts to discuss the issue.

Hershel Elkins, a senior assistant attorney general, applauded Pardee’s decision.

“It’s very fortunate,” Elkins said. “There were aspects of the contract that were troublesome.”

He said he has never known of any other developer in the state that has not allowed customers to test for radon, the second leading cause of lung cancer in the nation.

Elkins said the attorney general’s office now will be able to meet with Pardee “in a friendly atmosphere” to discuss the contracts.

“It’s a way to solve the problem without having to confront people in lawsuits,” Elkins said.

According to Lyman, the company has been using the contracts for two years as a way to make customers aware of radon, a gas that seeps up from the ground and becomes trapped in buildings. In addition, the forms provided prospective buyers with phone numbers of agencies that could provide more information about radon, he said.

One Pardee official said last week that the disclaimer was also a way of protecting the company from lawsuits in the event that homeowners found radon after the sale. He said the company started using the disclaimers after a developer on the East Coast was sued by a homeowner who discovered the gas.

Lyman said Wednesday that Pardee has never been informed of a radon problem at any of its developments.

The company is building 1,000 houses and condominiums in Oak Park and Camarillo.