I was asked this question recently by a client and it really threw me for a loop! I guess its not safe to assume we are all addicted to the news channels and know what these are all about. Since they are kind of a big deal, and there is certain protocol in place here regarding the sale of former grow ops, I thought I would bring to light what exactly this was!
Grow ops, also known as Grow Operation(s) refers to when a house has been used by individuals to harvest or grow drugs. Mostly used for marijuana, we are now seeing the existence of meth labs (which are not grow ops), which is a scary reality in our world (and perhaps another topic for another day?)
The damage that cultivating marijuana can do to the house is devastating. High humidity levels are needed for the plants, and this grows MOULD. Mould can take over the house, and in extreme cases can mean serious renovating or tear down due to the damage it caused. When I say mould, I am not referring to the small amount that exists in your bathroom because you don't have a fan in there to help get the humidity out.... I am talking about entire sheets of drywall being eaten up with the harmful black stuff... gross huh? Most often you will find the most severe damage in the basement where most of the operations take place. However anyone will tell you that mould will spread out to other areas of the home. To get insurance on a former grow op after you have purchased it is possible, albeit tricky, and there are conditions which you must adhere to as a condition of the insurance. First of all, the affected area will most likely have to be gutted if it hasn't been already. Also an environmental survey will have to be done to make sure the house is safe to live in, and would pose no further threat of the mold continuing to grow and spread. However since I am not the expert on insuring tricky to insure properties, I called in my Insurance contact Kris Moffat from Niverville Insurance to see what he had to say on the subject:
"As for the insurance, not all insurance companies will insure former grow ops, but there are at least three major insurance companies that will. These companies want to be sure that the home is structurally sound. The major item which they want completed is an Environmental Site Assessment, which includes and is not limited to, a report by a structural engineer and a mould investigation (as a side note insurance policies contain mould/fungi exclusions any way, but they still factor this in for structural issues, potential liability defense costs…etc). If the report checks out, they will then look into insuring the property. This will of course still depend on the overall risk which will include items such as: Location of the home, the new clients claims experience, the new client’s former payment history, the coverage being applied for, etc."
"If a report does not pass, the client will not be able to apply for insurance through a standard insurance market. In those cases we would then attempt applying for coverage through a specialty market, which in turn would have extreme ratings, and multiple coverage exclusions ie: collapse. In the end even the specialty markets may still decline the risk all together as these homes should be repaired prior to looking into insurance. "
Not even touching on the health detriments of folks who run these type of operations, there is a very real concern for people who buy these homes that perhaps all the mould was not eradicated. If anyone in the family has any sort of respiratory concerns (especially asthmatic children) you would be safe to stay away all together.
So by this point are you really freaked out? Try not to be! There are safeguards in place to ensure that you are not trapped into buying one. Manitoba law dictates that if the home being listed by a Realtor is/was/has been a grow op.. THEY MUST DISCLOSE THIS, absolutely NO exceptions. So rest easy there. If it is a private sale and was once a grow op they are legally obligated to tell you that as well, however, I would proceed with serious caution with a private sale that was a grow op. Also, mould does have quite a smell to it, and you will be able to tell if you are in one ( I always say that you can "taste" the mould). I suppose the only real catch here is that if the grow op was never busted... do they have to tell you about it? Well, of course they really should, but if the owner of the home is the owner of the grow op.... well.... hmmm.... might not work out that way!
Is it possible to buy a grow op, fix the problems and live in it as a normal, healthy, functioning home? I would bet it would be, and certainly has been done, but of course it entirely depends on the house itself. I saw a grow op once, house was only 25 years old at most, very solid and actually although it was bad, the damage was minimal compared to others that are out there. And imagine if the house was an old decripit house, no way could a house like that handle severe moisture damage.
For those of you in the city of Winnipeg it would be interesting to note that our police department keeps a record of the latest busted grow ops by address. The link for this site is as follows: http://winnipeg.ca/police/drug_awareness/growop_addresses.stm
There is also lots of other info on there for the interested party.
So what is my stance on selling a grow op? Since some are salvageable so I say lets give it a shot, as long as you understand what is involved in the situation. Each home purchase is approached in a unique manner anyway and this is no exception.
This is just some of the basics, if I come across new info I will add it here or in another post. There is a lot more information out there if you are interested in looking, just hit up google, see what they have to say:)
1 comment:
Post a Comment